June 7, 2024: the bar is open! Wayves writer Kevin Dadouses attended opening night; here's his report!
Rumours Cabaret will be opening with a "soft launch" on Friday, June 7, at 1668 Lower Water St, 4pm - 2am.
The location, across from the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, was most recently the bar, The Wobbly Duck, but Halifax old timers will remember it as Mother Tucker's!
Publisher Dan sat down with Gerald & José to hear about the details.
So, in April, when you cancelled the initial opening date, you told Wayves that some details of the lease had changed to make it un-doable. What changed to make it work again?
The pricing for 1668 Lower Water Stret changed - it was a little high at their end. We did the math and realized that they were just flat out charging too much money - there was no value there. We went away for a few days, came back to the table and worked out an agreement.
After you got that out of the way, what was the biggest hurdle?
The biggest hurdle was getting the bar running! I've never done this before so there's a lot of extra things I hadn't heard about. We're new to the business and we were on a learning curve.
Big milestones in the last few weeks were getting our logo in early May, and getting our Point of Sale system programmed and running, with our logo on it! It was pretty exciting to see it roll off the system!
Nova Scotia has a notorious contractor shortage. How did that affect you?
We have reached out to the community and they have responded! Our handyman Will is a plumber by trade and a jack-of-all-trades in everything else, an incredible person.
You posted to Facebook looking for staff; how did staff hiring go?
It went well. We got surprised by the number of responses and people walking through the doors. Our hearts melted - that we are making so much of an impact - they're not looking for a job really, they're looking to be part of the community. It's incredible to see the outpouring of support since the first article in Wayves. Thank you for that.
Well - thank you. It was a very popular Wayves article.
You really focus on safety when you talk about your new space. Where did you get the idea that this would be of prime interest to your future patrons?
I watch the news! I get what people's concerns are with the world now, and safety's a big thing with the community. People want to go to a safe space and not have to worry about anything else, and just be safe. A few weeks ago we recognized Harvey Milk Day, the gay activist who was murdered in his office in 1978. Forty-six years ago, and we're not out of the woods yet; there's still a lot of hatred. We have to be safe in our community and our bar. Everyone here is working together, focussing on that.
How do you envision the evening of Friday, June 7 going?
People just want to come to the bar so we haven't planned too much into it, except dancing all night.
Have you been getting any sleep?
We 're getting a little, but we're spending a lot of time here. Lots ten-hour days at the bar. We've been there every day for the last month or so. [José adds:] getting in at 2 or 3 in the morning. I wake up in the middle of the night with an idea, and write it down.
I'm excited for the community and thank everyone for the support. We've never experienced anything like this before, the vibe, this feeling. It's going to be absolutely fantastic.
