Gandy Dancer Open for Business!

March Storm in Buffalo

Friday marked the unofficial opening of the Gandy Dancer Martini bar at Riley Street Station.
www.rileystreetstation.com

I'm not sure why I included that url other than to make the post look more legit. The url is really just a link to my half hearted attempt at creating a website. I am not now nor have I ever been a webdesigner, therefore the website really is just an attempt to put up some pictures of what the bar looks like until I get a webdesigner to build me the site. That being said, someone help me out here, clearly I need it.

Anyway, back to the topic of discussion.

Friday night marked the 'opening' of the Gandy Dancer room. I use the term opening lightly as it was the original bar of the restaurant back when we opened in 1987. It served as the primary bar for approximately 3-4 years. Hard for me to remember how long actually as I was only 8 or 9 years old at the time.

The concept is unique in a sense that we are going to have two bars in the same building. Not a totally unique concept as many places do this, but mostly just night clubs and bars in densely populated areas. Not East Aurora, NY.

So the opening went ok. Really is hard to judge the initial success as we suffered from a serious winter storm, the worst of the year, this past weekend. Probably accumulated close to 4 feet of snow between Friday afternoon and Sunday morning. The included picture is a random shot of this storm. I hate snow.

Surprisingly though, there was a good showing of patrons at the bar. We'll see how the new addition does after the buzz around town begins to spread. All in all, I think think it will be well recieved.

Friday night, I spent the night at our other bar, the Glenwood Grill. We had a band there that night who were actually very very good. Unfortunately their name escapes me at this moment, but I'll post it as soon as I can remember it.

They were a duo that both sang and played guitars. Playing a mix of classic rock, and blues with a very distinct feel. They even played some pop songs, twisting them into their style and complete providing a different yet appealing alternative to them. The one that sticks out in my mind was Madonna's Like a Virgin. Normally, I'm not a huge fan of this song unless I'm sauced up dancing away at a wedding, but the way they were able to incorporate the lyrics into a 'bluesy' feel was absolutely incredible. You would have never known it was the same song... although the "like a virgin, touched for the very first time" verse did give it away eventually.

Unfortunately, the Grill is located in the heart of ski country. And the winter storm provided to be even too much and the turnout for the performance was less than desirable. But I made sure to express to the band that I would love to have them back on a night when we were not getting 6 inches of snow every hour. Did I mention I hate snow?

Saturday then was spent heading to the party store to pick up some decorations. We are having St. Patty's day parties next Saturday at both places with bands. So we needed to get the decorations done early. My girlfriend and I spent the afternoon decorating the Grill, with the help of the many onlookers. It's entertaining to set up, or decorate or do anything out of the ordinary at the bars during business hours. Everyone becomes so mesmerized by what you're doing, they just sit and stare. Sometimes you'll even get a comment or two along the lines of "you should do this" or "you know what would look good?". One general rule that you must except in this business is that everyone is an expert.

Sunday I decorated Riley's, but I did this in the morning before the place opened up. Therefore I didn't get any suggestions, just me and my hangover pushing through trying to get everything in place. All in all I would say both establishments turned out pretty well.

Saturday night was spent in the Gandy Dancer at Riley's.

We had a good band at Riley's too called "Little Louis" with "Santina". They are a great local blues band.

I spent the night watching the Duke/UNC game on our new 50" HD television in the Gandy Dancer, sipping on a pinot noir and listening to blues. It was indeed a very snooty night for me, but I had a great time none the less.

I even ran into two seniors from Otterbein College who were home for spring break. Unfortunately for them, spring was still a ways off. Regardless, one guy had me laughing about how he was going to extend his collegiate career an extra semester, maybe two. I then felt the need to encourage him to do so. Stating that I myself was a supersenior at one point in my life as well. And that my second senior year was probably one of the if not the best year of my life.

If any of you that may ever read this ever are presented with option of taking the "victory lap" in your collegiate career, do it. Life can wait, you only get to go to college once and it is such a short period of time. Don't be afraid to extend that time of your life longer because it really doesn't ever get any better than that.

Well, thats about all for now. Nothing too exciting to speak of really. Next weekend should be a good part for St. Patty's day so I'll be sure to update on that.