The Lollipop Shoppe Is Half Neighborhood Bar, Half Reside Music Venue

The Lollipop Shoppe will not be a brand new retailer specializing in lickable candies mounted on a stick. The enterprise with a sweet-sounding title is definitely a bar and stay music venue, whose licks come from guitars and highs are the results of laborious rock and psychedelic tunes that depart you buzzing lengthy after a sugar-fueled rush would have worn off.

So if the title isn’t a reference to sweet, nor a nod to Tyler and Devon Treadwell’s different bar, Tulip “Store” Tavern, what’s the inspiration? Seems, it’s a reference to legendary late Portland musician Fred Cole’s early band, The Weeds.

In 1968, the band’s new supervisor unilaterally determined to rename the storage/psychedelic rock group to The Lollipop Shoppe in an try to capitalize on the bubblegum pop explosion of the late ‘60s. It was a short-lived tour for Cole, who went on to discovered the seminal Portland punk teams Lifeless Moon and Pierced Arrows. The brand new music venue is appropriately adorned with an outwardly poppy sensibility, however is devoted to subversive tunes, mixing riffs and spacey imagery that you just wouldn’t anticipate finding within the former Dig A Pony area on Southeast Grand Avenue.

Initially, the Treadwells didn’t even wish to name their second bar something even remotely much like their first, preferring to let it take by itself persona. However fittingly, “All of us determined to call it that after an extended evening of mushrooms and tequila on the coast,” says Tyler Treadwell. “We wished the title to have a psychedelic, late ‘60s, early ‘70′s rock ‘n’ roll vibe, as a result of that’s how we plan on programming many of the stay music. The actual fact the “shoppe” is a part of the title nearly made it a no go, however all of us preferred it and all agreed that it was title, so right here we’re.”

The Lollipop Shoppe is a collaboration first dreamed up by Elizabeth Elder and Bryan Wollen, who based Lose Yr Thoughts Competition eight years in the past after rising bored with the fixed chaos of reserving home reveals and small venues. Elder booked the bands and did manufacturing whereas Wollen dealt with the sound, their love affair with music established in school radio stations and small native bars. They knew Dig A Pony proprietor, Aaron Corridor, and had consulted with him on potential leases for a brand new venue earlier than he provided up his personal.

“I’ve recognized that I wish to function a venue for a very long time,” says Elder. “I labored in them for many of my 20s, plus I like the way in which they convey individuals collectively. Throughout the pandemic shutdowns, I began exploring the thought extra by taking enterprise courses by way of Mercy Corps’ Ladies’s Enterprise Heart.”

Elder and Wollen have been regulars at Tulip Store and had gotten to know the Treadwells earlier than approaching them concerning the concept of collaborating. They proposed splitting the elements of the enterprise to cater to their robust fits: The Treadwells would run the bar and meals service, Elder and Wollen would deal with the whole lot associated to music and occasions reserving.

“Devon and I had been speaking about one other location, however it was very free nonetheless. Simply tossing round concepts and fantasizing,” says Tyler Treadwell. “As for it being a second Tulip Store…Devon and I particularly really feel each location, each area, has its personal persona and we don’t actually wish to do one other Tulip Store. We like going into areas and feeling them out and creating our applications to suit the area.”

Dig A Pony was a really profitable bar that didn’t shut because of lack of profitability, so restarting it as is would have been a straightforward path ahead. As an alternative, the crew determined to maintain what works however let it dance to the beat of a brand new drum.

The area is an element daytime bar, serving a small however well-considered menu of Cajun meals, approachable cocktails and various beer, and half accessible and intimate 200-person venue come dusk. Not like even barely bigger venues like Doug Fir or Mississippi Studios, the efficiency space will not be separated from the remainder of the bar and there aren’t any ropes, coat checks, wristbands, or solo cups. It’s open, lowkey, approachable, and ideal for showcasing new bands. Anybody might stumble into The Lollipop Shoppe and never really feel intimidated by the price of entry or hipness of the group.

“There additionally aren’t a whole lot of rooms of this measurement in Portland for the time being. We’d like rooms like this to domesticate a wholesome music neighborhood. I name one of these room an incubator area,” says Elder, who hopes to draw small touring bands on the rise and different up-and-comers who will finally outgrow the room.

Throughout the pandemic, Tulip Store employed a brand new chef, Nick Seabergh, who began placing Southern-inspired specials on the menu that impressed everybody with their steadiness of flavors and textures. The Tradwells thought the entry of The Lollipop Shoppe could be an ideal alternative to let Seabergh embrace that fashion of down-home cooking and serve it there.

“He’s an actual nostalgia meals nerd like me and we simply geeked out on sandwiches and he launched us to a bunch of Southern-leaning and Gulf Coast-inspired bar meals that I wasn’t aware about,” says Tyler Treadwell.

So Seabergh and the Treadwells traveled to New Orleans to hit all of the basic spots and take a look at all the very best po’boys, whereas additionally discovering inspiration within the metropolis’s basic cocktails and consuming tradition. They introduced that data again to The Lollipop Shoppe, which serves the whole lot from catfish to surf and turf to the less-common Particles Fries—potatoes smothered in shredded roast beef and gravy.

The drinks learn like a prime 10 of New Orleans, with classics just like the Sazerac, French 75, mint julep, hurricane and daiquiri. In addition they dusted off just a few which have fallen out of favor, like brandy crusta, absinthe frappe and an all-day bloody mary.

To tug off the tight-rope act of a comfortable neighborhood bar crossed with a vacation spot stay music venue, The Lollipop Shoppe retooled the kitchen gear and expanded the bar for extra sophisticated preparations. The design of Dig A Pony didn’t want a whole lot of work, however they wished to aesthetically freshen it up with extra energetic artwork and colourful splashes of psychedelia to make it their very own. New work from Samuel Farrell grace the again booth-lined partitions, whereas Nicky Kriara put in customized mosaic tile installations.

Over the approaching weeks, The Lollipop Shoppe will increase operations with a to-go meals menu to serve the neighborhood. It would additionally open for lunch, comfortable hour and reveals seven days per week. Half neighborhood bar, half live performance expertise, The Lollipop Shoppe desires to serve each crowds and carve out its personal neighborhood id, similar to Fred Cole.