May 11, 2008
Debuting: The Trade
Noticed Jason "Homey" Smith at the Royale the other day. I asked him about his new bar, The Trade, in which he's a co-owner. Apparently, the word's gotten out, a touch. A local industry veteran, Smith pointed to the RFT, where Annie Zaleski had written up a blip about the room, which you can read here.
I asked Homey a few questions about the space. While it wasn't the longest interview, it might give you an inducement to drop in, esp. if you're tooling around Midtown, as I was last night, my first visit to the new spot.
52nd: What was appealing about the room?
Smith: It just had a good, underground vibe. It reminded me of the downstairs of the Hi-Pointe, just smaller.
52nd: Definitely, people know about the Complex, so that's an interesting place to start another bar.
Smith: Yeah, it was one of the first things we thought about. It's a gay bar, but it's not just a gay bar. And everyone knows where it's at.
52nd: I imagine you'll do a lot of business after 1:30.
Smith: We do, but we want to try to have a happy hour. There're a lot of businesses right around there and we going to try the happy hour for them. But we'll probably have the later crowd. We'll cater to industry people, off work at 1:30. We'll have a late-night industry happy hour.
52nd: What's the story behind the name?
Smith: We went through a bunch of names. It's for everybody. Bartenders or electricians. We're trying to include everyone.
52nd: What's on the drinks menu?
Smith: It's kind of a drinker's bar. We don't have any drafts. We don't have a menu, but we can pretty much make any drink you want. No specials menu, or anything like that.
52nd: How will you bounce off of the Clubhouse?
Smith: I know Brandon the owner and he's going a different direction than what we're doing. It's more of a SLU crowd. But we'll work together. Howard, who owns the Complex, owns that building, too. So we're all good.