This was an article that I wrote for my Feature Writing class final, but I figured it would be a great blog post as well!
A new store
on Newbury Street has just opened and every weekend night curious shoppers peer
into its windows to observe a strange sight. This shop looks more like a
studio, with exposed brick walls and canvases set up on easels. White shelves
display a wall full of amateur paintings and a bar sits on the opposite side of
the room. By 7 p.m., over 20 people are painting the canvases, intently
watching the instructor in front of them. But this isn’t a serious painting
class. The atmosphere is lively, social, and sometimes, a little drunk.
This place is called Paint Bar,
or what Sean McGrail describes as a “paint and sip location.” McGrail is the
co-founder and co-owner of Paint Nite, a business that brings paint instruction
to local bars and restaurants. He came up with the idea after he went to a
friend’s party at the first Paint Bar location in Newton, Mass. Since they have
expanded to their second location on 248 Newbury St., the Paint Bar has over
10,000 likes on their Facebook page. Their online calendar has an event going
on every night of the week and most get booked weeks in advance.
However, this business wasn’t
always in high demand. Co-owners and mother daughter duo, Jill and Jackie Schon
had trouble when they first opened their store in November 2010. Their friends
and family doubted that people would want to attend their events. “Our first night
in business we had three customers. Then our following Friday we had zero,”
said Jill. After five months, it wasn’t until a feature on Chronicle and a Boston Globe
article later, when they acquired a steady amount of customers. “Those two
things happened at very critical times,” she said.
They began to see their classes fill up with both new and regular
customers. At the beginning of every class, they ask their “addicted painters”
to raise their hands. There are more than a handful each
night who keep coming back. “More than 300 people have come back more than five
times,” said Jill.
Steven Hayes is one of these addicts. “I was actually one of their first
customers in West Newton. They didn’t even have a bar at the time,” he said.
His fourth time at Paint Bar, he brought his date Laura Ferraro to the Newbury
location. In his forties, he shows his mother all the paintings he’s done with
just as much pride as a little kid.
“Whatever painting I do I give my mom for Christmas,” he said.
Paint Bar caters to children with special parties and family events. Jill
says they love the experience, “They’re less fearful. Adults haven’t painted
since they were kids, so kids don’t see what the big deal is.” For new
customers and children, a painting event costs $25. For returning customers it’s
$35 and for private parties, it’s $45 a person.
The Schons brought this trend to New England after a friend told Jill of
a place where “you paint and drink.” After some research, they discovered this
painting bar phenomenon started in the South. They traveled to Georgia to see
it for themselves, then came back to discover no one had caught on up
North. “We weren’t looking to work
together, we just happened upon a good idea,” said Jill. They trademarked the
name “Paint Bar” when they began and now it’s gaining popularity. “We came up
with this name, and now it seems to be the name that everyone is using,” she
said.
While Jill handles the business side of their store, daughter Jackie is
the artist who instructs most of the classes. However, she wasn’t a painter in
college. She got her Bachelor of Fine Arts in photography and her professors
always told her, “You’ll make no money as a painter.” Yet she is grateful in
the path she took. “Now I have two skills and we couldn’t have opened if I
didn’t have the money to support myself through that business,” she said.
A typical paint instruction starts with a pristine set up. Each person
gets a 16x20 inch canvas on an easel, a paper plate with paint, a cup of water,
and five different brushes. Jackie puts on her headset and steps onto her stage
in the back of the room, as if she is about to put on a show. Everyone takes a
seat after grabbing a drink at the bar and she begins her instruction. She
starts by telling all the “type-A painters,” to be “type-J” painters. “Which
means when I tell you to take your brushes and dip them into multiple colors at
a time, nobody’s going to freak out at me, or start crying and run for the
door!” she explains. “No stress,” she continues, “That is why we have a bar!”
Then, she tells everyone to take the rubber bands off their brushes so
she can show them what each one is for. “Notice that the people who have
already taken their rubber bands off are probably in the type-A category!” she
says. Before she goes on, she tells everyone that it’s important to have fun. “Nobody
likes negativity. It’s a buzz kill to the room,” she says. She warns that
anyone who makes a negative comment about their painting will have to get on
stage and show off their creation.
She begins the first steps of
the painting clear and simple, demonstrating movements slowly and using fun
analogies like, “Scoop it like you’re dipping a nacho Tostitos scoop chip into
guacamole.” Between each step she turns on music and walks around to help
anyone who may be struggling. After almost an hour, everyone takes a break to
grab food from nearby restaurants while the backgrounds of their paintings dry.
By the second half of the class,
they start to paint bottles on their canvases and the tipsy giggling sets in. While
being able to serve alcohol is a main attraction for their 21 plus crowd, it’s
also the part of the business Jill likes the least. They are cautious with
their liquor license and it can be tough when they have to be strict. They card
everyone before they serve them and carefully examine every ID. For instance, Jackie
noticed an out-of-state license looked a bit suspicious and asked for another
form of ID. “I had a fake ID in college once,” she told the blushing young
lady. At one point, Jill stopped serving
a man wine after he’d had four glasses. Their biggest concern is to be
responsible because they don’t want a fun night to end up in something more serious.
This is where McGrail comes in. He and Dan Hermann started Paint Nite to
offer an alternative approach to this pastime. “We thought it was a great concept,”
said McGrail. But they wanted to improve upon this idea by making it more
accessible. So they bring the paint instruction to bars and restaurants that
already have liquor licenses. This way, there are several locations to choose
from, customer don’t have to travel far, and there’s no studio to pay rent or
get a liquor license for. Their first event in March 2012 sold out to friends
and family and by their third week they had regularly sold out events. Their
events cost $45 and sometimes they have special wine tastings that cost $55.
The public’s response to their franchise has been overwhelming positive
said McGrail. They post pictures of each “paint nite” on their Facebook page.
People see their family and friends tagged in the pictures, and then their page
gets more hype from all the comments. “I don’t think this business could have
existed five years ago,” said McGrail, attributing their success to the
advances of social media.
As social media is such a major part of everyday life, McGrail says Paint
Nite offers a great way for friends to meet up and actually talk in person. It
was recently named “Best Friend Date” in New York Magazine.
Since there are 35 participating locations in Boston, they can hold many
events a week. They’ve recently expanded to New York City, have plans to reach
Miami this month, and will get to multiple cities in California by late
June. “We do see it as a plan that’s
going to sweep the nation,” said McGrail.
While McGrail and Hermann’s goal is to grow rapidly, the Schons plan to
stay local. “We have no interest in becoming a national franchise. We just want
to run a good business in Boston,” said Jill. Instead, they work on keeping
things interesting at their two locations. “You have to come up with new and
different ideas,” she said. Jackie creates unique paintings to keep up with
their returning customers. “She’ll probably have five or six new paintings this
month,” said Jill. They feel confident that this trend will last a while. “I
don’t think it will go away anytime soon,” she said.
Whether this phenomenon of painting and drinking is here to stay or will
fade out along with rollerblading and drive-ins, it’s guaranteed to be a fun
social outing. It could be a unique date, a new place to go with friends, or
even a way to meet new people. Paint Bar’s slogan is “Mix it up and paint!”
This is surely one great way to way to mix up your life.
