“It’d be great if this was a rags-to-riches story,” laughed Bill Allen, former co-owner of On Tap, with a paintbrush in his hand. He and partner Niall Clinton’s latest endeavor, after they sold their popular pub this past weekend, is to open a new live music house in what was formerly the Living Room.
“We’ve always wanted to do live bands and DJs. People were always asking us and we had to say no because of the neighborhood.”
Though the partners wanted to wait before expanding, “this place (the Living Room) came up and it’s perfect for us, though it’s about a year too early … so we jumped on it,” said Allen. “It’s going to allow us to do whatever we want to do all night without a problem.”
PHOTO: ALITA RICKARDS
The new location, which they have decided to name Center Stage, is more than double the size of their previous place.
Allen, who quit smoking six months ago, said that although they are operating on a “very small budget, and doing a lot of the work ourselves, real DIY style, we are buying very expensive ‘smoke eaters’” to clear out what has been a notoriously stuffy room in the past.
They also plan on upgrading: “We want the quality to be good, the sound system to be good, the food, the staff … . We did a pretty good job at On Tap, now we went to add music and have a really cool thing here, not pretentious but not so laid back that the service sucks.”
Allen handles the food and eventually wants to bring in homemade pastas and fresh baked bread, though that will take a month or so. Clinton, who handles the bar (“I’m Irish, what else would I do?” he says) promises that for now they will have a full bar, and that 90 percent of the drink prices will stay the same, meaning draft beer from NT$150 for Taiwan beer to NT$220 for Guiness, with NT$180 highballs.
They aren’t really in it for the money, and will scrap the Living Room’s door charge policy, which entailed buying two drinks as part of the cover. Instead they will operate much like Bliss, with a flat cover that goes straight into the band’s pockets (usually around NT$200) and a reasonably priced bar menu.
Taking center stage tonight are heavy rockers GoldSeal and experimental soundscape artists To a God Unknown. There’s benefit for Animals Taiwan featuring bands and DJs tomorrow.
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