Working with the City....MAN, Oh Man

So not sure if you've heard, but we partnered with the Mamma D's crew to open ROCKE SUSHI KITCHEN, down in Hermosa, at the old Club Sushi spot. I've been building and designing the restaurant, and tonight I have to go down to the City Council to plead with them to allow us to fix a mistake that was in our city documents when we bought it. I thought this would be an interesting topic, because when we opened Saint Rocke, we went through the gammet of the City, with the naysayers telling us that we were too loud, we couldn't operate, etc.etc. If you look at the door at the back of Saint Rocke, at the behest of one city council member, I had to put in a door that costs $9,000. FOR ONE DOOR!! It is made for an airplane, just so no sound could potentially leak out. Now Im not being politically charged here, but as this blog is about owning a venue, those potential venue owners beware....know the city, know the politicians, and konw what you're getting yourself into before you dive in. It's half the battle. And by the way, a bad economy doesn't do much on the scale of weighing into their decisions. So, check us out on cable tonight, and hopefully we'll make it through so we can serve you some sushi.

HOLY F .......Tuesday in December

Man, I gotta say we got some cool shit that Im excited for. When you run/own restaurants (ask anybody), you dont tend to like to go to your own place, because you can't have fun there. You can't "let down your hair" or guard, you get annoyed by little things like trash on the floor, you have to talk to people that are pissed off for some reason or another, you can't flirt with the bartender (keyword: sexual harrassment), and the sound is never just right. a little too loud, a little too soft, etc.etc. BUT I have to say, there are a few shows coming up that override my nuerotic idiosyncracies that Im going to FOR SURE. Top five upcoming shows and why:

1. Unwritten Law Christmas Unplugged. I f'ing love unplugged shows. Great songwriting, and the genius bleeds through the distortion. This is going to be sick. 12/13

2. Ellis Hall in December on Tuesdays. The only thing I can attribute this to is good karma since someone stole my surfboard in manhattan off the beach. I knew I had something good coming. Tuesdays in December. He is a modern day Ray Charles.

3. Justin Nozuka. Cant get that friggin "golden train" song out of my head. 11.25.

4. Chris Pierce + Amber Rubarth. CP has more soul than my favorite Vans. Amazing.

5. Justin Hopkins w. Katie Costello. LOCAL. can you say SUPPORT LOCAL MUSIC?????

Hope to see you all there. Introduce yourself - would love to meet anybody that reads this gibberish :)

Allen

FIRST LIVE STREAM SHOW

This weekend, Jay Nash, will be our first artist to be a part of our live streaming show. Log on to www.saintrocke.com this Friday night at 7pm to check it out. Worldwide from the South Bay.

An Amazing Visit (Ellis Hall)

Last week I went down to have some wine at Soundbox on Wednesday, and our friend Bryon Holly was tasting (by the way, he works at CostPlus on Hawthorne - go buy some wine from him), and invited his friend ELLIS HALL down to play some piano and sing. Ellis is a blind, black man, and he is supremely talented as I found out throughout the night. He walked (yes, he's blind) around the stage, playing every instrument on the stage - bass-guitar-drums-piano-vocals- and killing it at every turn. He covered some Paul Simon, Otis Redding, played some of his own stuff, and just absolutely blew me away, so much so, that I had to write how much I respected his musical talent, and how much I enjoyed his music. These days, I listen to almost TOO MUCH music, and the one thing that's always missing for me is what I call MOVEMENT: the ability to take me somewhere else. Ellis, thank you for giving me movement last week, and hopefully, if I get my way, you'll be playing at Saint Rocke regularly and blessing the south bay with your music. check him out...and keep your ear out for when he's playing next.