Jeff “Beachbum” Berry’s Essential Tips for Hosting an At-Home Holiday Tiki Party
Jeff “Beachbum” Berry behind the bar. Photo: Randy Schmidt / Sippin Santa
From Garden & Gun: When the weather outside is, if not exactly frightful, then at least a little nippy, tiki bars around the South spring into action. Maximalist decor gets replaced with, well, even more decor. Tinsel and twinkling lights abound. The sixty-six Sippin’ Santa pop-up bars of tiki legend Jeff “Beachbum” Berry are no exception. But if you’re not up for facing the crowds at these Instagram-ready watering holes, rest assured you can bring all that charming kitsch to your own kitchen with Berry’s essential tips for hosting a holiday tiki party.
Berry, whose New Orleans bar Latitude 29 is a French Quarter favorite, has simple decorating advice: Make it “look like Christmas threw up” in your space. But instead of swapping out houseplants, picture frames, and vases for Christmas trees, paper snowflakes, and surfing Santas, just add them. In other words, more is more. “Double your holiday fun,” Berry says.
Promoter wants to buy Gold Dome in Oklahoma City, turn it into a music venue
From Route 66 News: A Tulsa-based music promoter wants to buy the closed Gold Domebuilding in Oklahoma City and transform it into a live music venue.
Mike Brown, president of Kismet Koncerts, has requested $3 million in public assistance for the project, reported The Oklahoman (subscription required). The money would come from tax-increment financing.
Historic filling station will be revived as a new downtown Cary restaurant
A new neighborhood restaurant, Lloyd’s Full Service, will revive a historic downtown Cary filling station. Lloyd’s Full Service
From The News & Observer: Situated at downtown Cary, NC’s most prominent intersection, a longtime filling station and auto shop will become the town’s newest neighborhood restaurant.
Lloyd’s Full Service will open next year at 107 E. Chatham St., on a string of blocks that’s become one of Cary’s culinary hot spots. Built in a former 1950s garage and gas station, Lloyd’s will be operated by Early Bird Night Owl hospitality group, which manages the dining programs at boutique hotels The Durham and Cary’s Mayton Inn.
Historic Silk City Diner relocates to downtown Concord
How restoration of historic Loew’s Jersey Theatre will reshape Journal Square into premier arts district
The chandelier at the Loews Theatre is lowered and dismantled to be restored as part of the renovation of the historic landmark. Shot on Dec. 3, 2024. Photo by Jennifer Brown/City of Jersey City
From roi-nj.com: You can’t miss the new skyline of Journal Square in Jersey City.
The nearly completed One Journal Square project by Kushner Companies, two 52-story towers going up next to the PATH station, already rise far above any other building. Or, at least, they will until the more than half-dozen projects of similar height in the pipeline sprout up in the next 2-3 years – bringing nearly 10,000 housing units to the area.
But if you want to see the heart of Journal Square, if you want to see the majestic venue that will serve as a centerpiece for an arts and entertainment district that many feel will rival any in the state, you have to go across the street and behind the fencing that currently encircles the historic Loew’s Jersey Theatre.
This historic Phoenix neon sign has been removed. Here’s where it’s going
A 2015 photo of the Ziggie’s Music sign. Benjamin Leatherman
From the Phoenix New Times: A piece of Phoenix history has been removed and is heading to a new home. The iconic neon sign from Ziggie’s Music was taken down Saturday after decades of hanging outside the now-closed central Phoenix store on Third Street south of Osborn Road.
The historic sign, which dates back to the 1950s and is shaped like a musical note, is reportedly being donated to the Mesa Preservation Foundation.
Ziggie’s Music, a go-to spot for generations of local and nationally known musicians, permanently closed in May due to health issues faced by longtime owner Dionne Hauke.