The go-go dancers started a couple years after the bar opened and they were brought in regularly until COVID. Yay! The avidly growing party culture this small bar ensued in its origins brought about a current crowd favorite - the go-go boys.
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After that tragic period, they upgraded to music videos on iPods, which eventually turned into iPads and YouTube. Sounds pretty similar to Spotify but I’m not exactly sure…Kidding. In the beginning, they had something called Pandora Music. On Thursdays, they would bring in local DJs for “Thirsty Thursday” to really get the party started.
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On Wednesdays, they did karaoke, which tended to bring in a full crowd. Hence, two flavors all the time now! Those frozen drinks may not seem like much to us nowadays but they were a huge game changer for bars back then. They started with a machine that just had one frozen drink at a time for the first four years then they moved to a double drink machine. They had the same frozen slushy machines as they do now, rotating those drink flavors out on occasion. Taking it back to the basics, the older version of the bar wasn’t all that different from the new and improved. From his years of experience at Tap Room, he was able to identify that there was a severe desire for more bars in the Highlands, and thirst-fully so for Queer ones. On January 1, 2012, FABD Smokehouse was selling their building on Bardstown Road and Kevin wanted it immediately. He ended up working there for about three years before stumbling upon the space where Big Bar currently resides. Upon his return, he took a job with his sister, Sally Clemons, who owns and runs the Highlands Tap Room.
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worked for him, because after about seven years, he moved back to his hometown. where he spent some time…being gay? But clearly Charleston nor D.C. He then moved from there to Washington D.C. Kevin Bryan grew up in Louisville and eventually left to go to college in Charleston, South Carolina. But how exactly did the bar get its start? And how has it grown to such rapidly increasing popularity? “The bartenders are always friendly to me and the crowd of people who go is diverse”īig Bar has been a safe space for many queer people over the years and the diversity within the crowd has risen tremendously over the years too. “I love that it has always been a safe space for me to go to as well,” he said. One of the bar’s regulars, Ryan Blair, said that he is excited for their expansion and looking forward to seeing the new space. Having access to a space of this type would allow for the Big Bar to become much more involved in community events as well as creating more room for new crowds to join the Big Bar family. For those of you that have never been inside of the old Wine Market before, it has an elongated downstairs space with an elevated lounge above where the wine bar, now the all-inclusive alcohol bar, used to be. The Wine Market that used to operate next door closed down and left about 2,000 square feet of empty space. In the spring of 2019, Big Bar announced its plans to expand into the vacant building next to it. Fast forward to ten years later, they’re now essentially quadrupling the space that they began with. Ten years ago today, on the Tuesday right before the Kentucky Derby, the tiny bar made its grand opening. And why go home, when you could go bigger? With Drag Race viewing parties, go-go dancers, karaoke, and DJs, the bar has had no lack of party hype.
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It may be a small space, but they’ve utilized every single inch to the fullest. With only 500 square feet of usable space, the bar has somehow managed to develop a solid, regular crowd as well as participating in and putting on several events. (I promise to limit the “big” puns, bare with me).
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Although the bar has been a safe space for several people over the years, it hasn’t been a very big space to frequent. Some incredibly dramatic and traumatic (in a good way) things have gone down in the little 800 square foot building over the past 10 years.īig Bar has been a Bardstown Road staple for quite some time and has always played a huge role in supporting the LGBTQ+ community in Louisville. By Sophia Big Bar opened up on May 1, 2012, Kevin Bryan and Jim Lunger never imagined it would become one of the most popular watering holes in the region.