Club Report
City Steam Steam Brewerie Cafe
Hartford, CT
written by Ken Carlson
In difficult times, it’s not hard to see why some businesses make it when others don’t. The survivors back a product that people want
and understand the need to innovate in changing landscapes.
The City Steam Brewery Café in Hartford, CT is such a place. The city has lost a lot of jobs recently, to the recession and suburban sprawl, but even in a recession, crowds will always come out for two things they need; to laugh and to drink beer.
Anthony Sousa (see photo below) is one of the faces of City Steam. In this 120 year-old stone building, on a bustling Friday night, at the hostess’ station surrounded by wood and brass, he takes a moment to jot his revamped job title on the back of his business card in ink and tidy script: Restaurant Manager, Comedy Club Manager, Bar Manager, Advertising & Promotions, Website Host. While those tasks might seem appropriate in a start-up or roadside honky tonk, in a place as big and well-known as this, it’s nothing short of daunting.
Sousa understands that business is about relationships; that when you partner with other organizations, in this case, the local media and the arts, it’s beneficial for everybody.
Last year, he and some others from the restaurant came up with an idea for expanding from their comedy roots at Brew Ha Ha, their cozy basement comedy club or rathskeller [who doesn’t love that word?]. They began looking at larger venues around town to bring in high profile comedians, national acts that work in theatres, not just comedy showrooms, to produce a larger scale show under the City Steam name.
“We looked at a couple of places in Hartford,” said Sousa, “that we thought would make great places to host this event. We considered Bushnell Park for an outdoor event. We looked at an old place called the Webster, a music venue on Maple Avenue. We were very close to doing something there, but the club was more of a hard metal/Metallica-type place; kind of run down. It wasn’t consistent with our image.”
That’s when Sousa started putting some pieces together for his promotional puzzle. City Steam had done some advertising with Radio 104.1 WMRQ, an independent station that used to be with ClearChannel, featuring modern rock – The Killers, Green Day, etc. Radio 104.1 wanted to get involved in the comedy scene, but not with a chain like the Funny Bone, in the nearby suburb of Manchester. So they looked at City Steam; a private restaurant, brewery, and comedy club. Radio 104.1 also worked with Hartford Stage, the prominent downtown theater, which has a larger performance space. Suddenly, the picture became a little more clear.
“With the close proximity to our club,” said Sousa, “it became a no-brainer for us. We have a great relationship with Hartford Stage. We send a lot of customers to them. They send a lot to us. We have a promotion where if you come before or after a Hartford Stage show, it’s 20% off your food bill. We had a lot of repeat customers and clientele who were either season subscribers, or learned about it by looking at the back of their ticket.”
So, in May 2010, City Steam, in conjunction with Hartford Stage and Radio 104.1, will produce a large scale comedy event that will include live music in a bigger venue.
“The point is to entertain a larger number of people,” says Sousa. “Some people in our area haven’t given live comedy a chance, but they’re big music buffs. So, they’ll show up if their band is playing and maybe they’ll start following the comics who show up as well.”
At the heart of any successful promotion is the planning phase. Experience in understanding the ins and outs, dealing with the stress, sweating the details is critical at that time. Sousa gained such experience in 2007 when HBO called.
“City Steam hosted the first round of the HBO Comedy Festival,” says Sousa. “It was incredible. One of our comedians, Joe List, made the finals out of 800 contestants. It was a very stressful but rewarding evening. That night we had around 185 people. I can only imagine how 350, along with another 200 will be. We’re going to have to pitch the City of Hartford. We’ll have to give away 50 to 100 seats. You also have to make sure your event doesn’t fall at the same time as another big event in Hartford. We’re looking to the 25-40 age group. We have a lot of young-at-heart people in the Hartford area. That’s what we usually attract at here at City Steam. Of course, families are always welcome as well. The people in college and below tend to stay away because we’re not a nightclub atmosphere. We’re more of a social, sit-down kind of place; have a couple of beers, some great comfort food, mingle, meet some new people – not loud, loud music so I’m yelling at you just to get a beer. That’s not our atmosphere at all.”
Sousa promises to involve local comedians in the mix. He believes in developing local talent, understanding that the experience they get from his stage and crowd, is better than some sports bar with just a microphone on a floor in front of handful who are just trying to watch the game.
Connecticut is as competitive as any market when it comes to comedy. There are large theatres and casinos with marquee acts, dedicated comedy clubs across the river and a short drive down the highway in New Haven, not to mention several restaurants and clubs with weekend shows. But City Steam has developed a loyal following and Sousa works hard to keep it.
“We do a rewards program here,” says Sousa. “through credit card companies and customer satisfaction cards. We found out the majority of our customers are not directly from this area. They’re from Enfield, Springfield, Eastern Connecticut almost to Rhode Island; outlets where they don’t have a lot of comedy. They travel forty-five minutes to an hour in the snowiest months. We appreciate it and it shows you how we’ve been doing with comedy the last 22 years. We don’t advertise single performers; it’s always the comedy package of three comedians. We try to put on solid shows for an hour and forty minutes. It’s tough to keep people entertained in Hartford because of the mentality that if you work in Hartford, you tend to want to leave as soon as you’re done working. You work here but don’t play here. Now, with the economy, people are doing four day work weeks, from 7 in the morning to 6 at night. It demolishes the happy hour business. This being the insurance capital, a lot of major companies moved their headquarters out of the city in 2008. The Bushnell (another theatre with an ongoing comedy series) has the HA HA Hartford, the Funny Bone does their thing out by the mall, but Hartford Stage wanted to work with us because of our experience. The reason why Hartford Stage was a great opportunity for us is because they’re so professional. The Hartford area has a lot to offer. It’s arts-filled. When people come out to this area, whether it’s the Bushnell or the Wadsworth, Real Arts Ways or Hartford Stage, they’ve become accustomed to high quality performances. City Steam is part of the arts and entertainment scene. When I go to New York City, I see a lot of people going out in jeans and a tshirt. Here, they dress up, like it’s Sunday church. It’s a night out for them and they expect a high quality show. That same characteristic rubs off on us.”
Sousa’s already begun to lay the groundwork for the big event in May. His Fall Back to Summer Week, a punny promotion they ran from September 28th through October 4th featured Jim McCue in a halfway to St. Patrick’s Day spectacular. Radio 104.1 sponsored the whole event and gave Sousa a chance to see how people would react to hearing that station and City Steam, meshing, coming together for an event. He’s also negotiating, what has become a staple for most small-to-midsize-market clubs, weekly appearances of his headliners on Thursday or Friday morning drivetime radio show. Opportunities like those promote, not just the upcoming weekend shows, but also the headliners’ CD’s or television appearances. They can also build the radio audience as they become more expected to hear it in a certain slot. Once more, Sousa is finding ways to build the City Steam name and help all the parties involved. It’s the same way he utilizes all the resources from his business, both comedy-related and those more closely related to the restaurant and brewery.
“In Hartford,” said Sousa, “if you exclude a sector, you never know what large group of people might be behind it. We’ve done all sorts of things down there [at Brew Ha Ha]; poetry, jazz nights, they’ve all been pretty successful. We just started doing beer production outside of City Steam. You can get a keg of Naughty Nurse Amber Ale and Acapulco Gold IPA at your favorite distributors throughout Connecticut. It will start spreading through New England in 2010 and we’ll begin bottling our beer as well. Before, if people wanted something from City Steam they had to come and get it. We wanted them in the restaurant and stay here. Mingle. Watch Comedy. Watch big screen TVs. Now we’ll take these products and get them out there. We also do brewery tours. Every October and November we have guided tours come in from Germany, maybe 40-50 people and up. Our brewmaster is here, making additional specialty beers.”
However, as Sousa widens his potential reach, he remains focussed on the upcoming comedy event and what it could mean. “It’s a chance for us to show people we can knock it out of the park,” he said. “Here we are. We pretty much control this area. If you haven’t heard about us yet, come down and check us out.”
For more on this club, visit citysteambrewerycafe.com.