There are still hints of this being a proud, LGBTQ+-owned bar, but the goal is to be a neighborhood place where locals can play games, watch music videos on the multiple TV screens, choose songs for the jukebox, and just relax while enjoying good food and drinks. "Or if you’re on your iPad, we’ll leave you be." "If, after work, you like to have a glass of wine, I want you to feel comfortable coming in, and the bartender will chat you up if you want a friendly face," says Hawkins. To fit in with the surrounding neighborhood's vibe, they decided to pivot to a more casual concept. When that location fell through, they settled on 3014 East Colfax Avenue, most recently a Mono Mono Korean Fried Chicken. “We were thinking of the next big LGBTQ+ bar, with go-go boys, nonbinary staff, a lot of technology and lasers,” Hawkins says. Their original plan was to lease The Elm. Along the way, they picked up skills in negotiating with vendors, customer service, inventory management and even dealing with drunk patrons.īillie Hawkins Finally, they decided they were ready to make the leap into bar ownership. He got serious about it when he and Pachelo volunteered to bartend in the VIP section of the Rocky Mountain Airshow (now rebranded as the Rocky Mountain Air & Ground Show), which they did every year from 2013 to 2016. I really wanted something tangible, something I could design and build and interact with people,” he recalls. “I’ve always wanted to own my own business. Hawkins had long thought about opening a bar. In 2009, Hawkins packed up his bags and moved to Colorado to join Pachelo. When the company restructured in 2008 and Hawkins’s entire division was let go, he went into bartending full-time at gay bars, which is where he met Pachelo, in town for training with Midwest Express Airlines (which merged with Frontier in 2010). In 2004, he was working for Time Warner Cable in Milwaukee as the supervisor of its high-speed data division while moonlighting as a DJ and bartender. Ed Sheeran's "Bad Habits" came on, and they instantly knew that was it.īartending started as a side hustle for Hawkins. Finally, they gave up and turned on Spotify. They were lying in bed one night, saying all the options out loud, but none of them sounded right. Congress Park has a new neighborhood bar: Bad Habits, located at 3014 East Colfax Avenue, next to Goombas Pizza Grinder and across from Asuka Ramen. When they decided to open a bar there, married co-owners Billie Hawkins and Tony Pachelo collected more than 75 possible names for the place from friends.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |