Thursday, September 30, 2010

Break Beats & Old School Hip Hop

I'm excited for tonight!! The DJ specializes in Break Beats & Old School Hip Hop. I can't wait to hear songs that I haven't heard in forever! Should be super fun.

And on another super positive note, another Willamette Week article came out about us yesterday! They sent a camera guy out to our Grand Opening so I had a feeling that we'd get a mention in this weeks edition. I nervously flipped through the pages to see if we made it, and we did!!

Mad love to the Willamette Week.

Lovers Rock
By Michael Manheimmer
September 29, 2010
http://wweek.com/editorial/3647/14558/

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Good Food Late

I can't believe how many sandwiches we've been selling lately! It's starting to catch on that we have good food :) People keep commenting on how good it is and how they love that they can get good food late at night. We're starting to get people that come in for sandwiches multiple nights in a row! And we heard that our new friend Sean even wants to have Gerry's at his wedding. LOL I love it!!

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

The roller-coaster

To say I've been on an emotional roller-coaster the past week would probably be a gross understatement. We've had uber high highs of our Grand Opening, amazing 1/2 Price Sandwich Night on Monday, a Banana Republic Employee goodbye party on Friday that rocked the house all night long and slow and steady growth of our business as we meet new people and form new relationships with customers.

But who would have guessed that the re-arranging and "feng shuiing" of our furniture would have turned me in to an emotional basket case. But it did! I'm talking like can't sleep, going to lose it at any minute.

I guess I should probably start by explaining how the baby we've created has taken on a life of its own. As my neighbor, Jen, put it we birthed a child that is now a unruly teenager that wants to do whatever it wants. I say that because our intention in creating it was to be a record store, cafe & bar that opens early and closes around 11PM.

I know that some people I tell this to look at me like I'm insane and point out that we have music and beer, so of course people are going to see you as a bar and want to come late at night. Maybe we were naive, but that's what we thought and this is our first business. So anyways, what has happened is that now we're a record store bar that opens at 4PM and closes late. The whole "cafe/coffeehouse" part has gone out the window - except for the fact that we have really good food and sandwiches.

Now, I love the bar business and being a bartender. I feel bad for my partner, Justin, who is still pulling double duty, working his old job during the days and working late in to the night at the bar. He hasn't had a day off in over a month. So this adds to the stress a little.

So for a control freak like me, letting our business figure out its own place in the world has been an exercise in patience (or lack there of) as evidence in the rash decision to re-arrange the furniture to fit this new "bar bar" model. Well, what seemed like a good decision at the time put me in a tail spin of epic proportions.

You see, I've spent the past 2 years drawing out the floor plan for our store hundreds of times. I firmly believe that it's that persistence of vision that got us the store in the first place. The physical end result is exactly like I've been drawing for two years. So as soon as we started changing the physical layout it threw me uber hard and I felt like I was losing my vision. I had nothing to grab on to and it turned me into an emotional wreck.

So yesterday, after a night of tossing and turning, I went in and put all the furniture back the way we originally intended, with the exception of the listening stations, which was the reason why we moved all the furniture in the first place. So we have a happy medium. We fixed our crowded record area but also kept the couch area in tact. And last night I slept like a baby :)

Saturday, September 25, 2010

BIG Music Collectors Show & Sale


Tomorrow, our friend Dan, from Jump Jump Music and the Night Owl Record Show, is hosting another great record show & sale. Only this time it's expanded in to include tapes, posters, memorabilia and autographs.

Sunday, September 26th
10AM - 4PM

Portland's Double Tree Lloyd Center
Exhibit Hall
1000 NE Multnomah Blvd.

Early Admission 9am (8:30 if you mention invite) $10.
Admission $2 ($1 if you take public transportation or bike) 10am


Justin and I will most definitely be there early! Looking forward to some crate digging!

Friday, September 24, 2010

Wow!!

Another great article!!!

Beer and beautiful music: Hall of Records offers many things you want to consume
The Oregonian
September 24, 2010

This week has been a whirlwind. Saturday was our Grand Opening and the beginning of the work week for Justin and I. Today (Friday) is our first day off. But it's never really a day off. I will spend my day running between banks, farmer's markets, grocery stores and possibly a beer distributor.

I have been averaging about one trip down to Swan Island to do a personal beer pick up because we've run out of something. It's so hard to predict what kind of volume we're going to do. But I swear one of these days I won't have to go down there myself - I WILL get the order right for delivery!

We did some re-arranging of furniture in the store on yesterday. My friend Brooke and her mom were in town from Arizona and they helped me feng shui the space a little better. It all started because we thought the record/listening station area was a little cramped. If someone was listening to a record they would be in the way of someone trying to browse. So we expanded that area and ended up moving everything around. In the end, the flow is much better. Plus we now have the ability to move tables out of the way if we get crowded and people want to dance!

We're getting some amazing regulars coming in to the store and we're so grateful. I love Portland - the people are so nice.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Monday, September 20, 2010

Grand Opening Party Pics!!

It rained all day, but we still had an amazing grand opening party!! It lasted for 12 hours and we were crowded the whole time. By 8PM it was standing room only!

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who came out. It was truly an amazing day.













More pics are over on our Facebook Page!

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Grand Opening Party Today!!

Today is our official grand opening party! We're opening at 2PM and expecting to get in to the full swing of things by around 4PM. I made super fun favors and champagne punch and we had t-shirts made by a local graphics guy in the neighborhood. We have DJs all day, are doing vinyl and food gift certificate raffles and have food samples. It should be a fun day!! But most importantly it's a huge thank you to all our friends who have helped through this process. I can't wait to spend the day with all the amazing people in our lives.

Friday, September 17, 2010

New Hours

The past few weeks have been amazing, enlightening and extremely fulfilling. The best part is that we're attracting extremely nice people to hang out in our store. Like unbelievably nice; from DJs that have spun to people dropping by for the first time to regulars. We feel so blessed.

We've also learned a few things along the way. One is that being open during the daytime hours may not be for us. Our intention in creating this business was to be a cafe & bar, but the final outcome turned out more like a bar, both in the way it looks physically and in general perception. So we're going to embrace what we are and start opening later in the day.

We're also going to start staying open later. It's the worst telling people we've closed when they're trying to come hang out!

Therefore, our new hours are:

Monday 4PM - 11PM
Tuesday - Thursday 4PM - Midnight
Friday & Saturday 2PM - 2AM
Sunday 2PM - 11PM

For the most part, we'll typically stay open later if people are hanging out, but we won't ever be closing earlier than the posted time. That was another suggestion from a customer. He said there's nothing worse than walking up to a place that is closed that says they should be open at that time.

We've been doing a lot of listening to customers lately!! Up next, after many talks with one of my favorite regulars, expanding the wine menu!! Can't wait to try new stuff!

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Soul Sandwich!

The Portland Mercury wrote about our 1/2 Price Sandwich Night!

http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/my-what-a-busy-week

Here's the excerpt:

SOUL SANDWICH—Every Monday is Hall of Records' half-price sandwich night! The newly opened boutique vinyl shop, cafĂ©, and bar—which hosts a grand opening bash on Saturday, September 18—spins funk and soul classics and obscurities, with plenty of booze and eats. A record store with a bar inside: It's pretty much our version of paradise. MJS
Hall of Records, 3342 SE Belmont, half-price sandwiches 6 pm-close

It's pretty much our version of paradise, too :)

Dave Knows

Our friend, Dave, runs an awesome website about the happenings around Portland. This week he did a post about us and included some sweet pics from the Belmont St. Fair!

http://portland.daveknows.org/2010/09/13/september-18-hall-of-records-grand-opening/

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Belmont St. Fair 2009 & 2010

My, oh, my, how far we've come!!

Belmont St. Fair 2009




Belmont St. Fair 2010





More street fair pics coming soon!!

Friday, September 10, 2010

Chalkboard Art

Well, Edgar did it again! His drawing/chalkboarding skills continue to amaze us. Every three weeks or so he comes in to the store, shops through our records and picks out one to put up on the board. This time it was Moondog.



Tuesday, September 7, 2010

DJ & Events Schedule for this week!

Tonight (Tuesday) is our first Pint Nite! with DJ Nealie Neal and Tah Rei spinning some funk 45's and world music. $3 local pints from 6PM - Close.

Wednesday is our first 1/2 price sandwich night from 6PM - Close. Hall of Record's own bartender, Nate, will be spinning lots of funk and soul. **Note that 1/2 price sandwich night is moving to Mondays the following week.

Thursday is happy hour from 5PM - 7PM and then Blakely will be spinning Raggae from 8PM - 11PM.

Friday is open tables starting at 8PM. Bring your own records! Sign up starts at 7PM.

Saturday, Hall of Records' owner Justin will be spinning some funky tunes all night.

and Sunday is the Belmont Street Fair as well as our first Sunday Funday - with $1 off beer and wine all day long!

Come hang out with us!!!

Grand Opening Party Sept. 18th!

We've been working diligently to plan our Grand Opening Party as well as expand our menu. Yesterday we tested out our new sandwich special - a Spinach, Artichoke & Red Pepper Panini - amazing!! We also tested some vegan sandwich options - which also turned out to be uuber delicious! I'll try to remember my camera today and put up pics!

Sunday, September 5, 2010

What a day!!

Yesterday was so awesome!! Feeling inspired by some slow daytime hours the day before, I printed off some sandwich menus and went out to introduce myself to our neighboring businesses. I met so many nice people!! I still have a few more to go, but it definitely set a good mood for the day and some of them even came in for lunch!! So nice!

We've been rocking at night, as the general perception is that we're a bar, but we're trying to get the word out that we are open during the day, too. We have an awesome sandwich menu and are such a cozy place for lunch! So I basically "hit the street" and stood out front all day long passing out menus. And once again, I met some really awesome people and brought in some business.

We passed out so many menus that we had to keep running home to print more (thank goodness we live in the neighborhood!). After running out of ink, I made a quick run to Walgreens to get our cartridge filled, but made a pit stop at a brand new vintage furniture store right off Belmont called White Rabbit. It's in the rear of the building on the corner of SE Belmont & 29th that houses Pollywogs and Bare Bones.

I got a sweet used bookshelf that's going to house all of our magazines and newspapers in the store. AND we made a new friend! The owner came in to the Hall later that night with her husband. I <3 supporting local businesses!

That night we had the Ghost Town Soul Club spinning their amazing collection of soul 45's. We hosted old friends, new friends, people we met during the day, even the writer of our first Willamette Week article! By the time Justin and I left at around 9:30PM the place was packed!!

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Menu

Until we get our website up and running, we're using the blog for all intensive purposes. The website should be ready soon (prob by Grand Opening Day) but in the mean time here is the menu for those of you that have been asking!




Click on it to see a larger version in a new window. Sorry it turned out a little fuzzy. It's the best I could do with a screen grab.