PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — There were still a couple of crunched, empty 16-ounce PBR pounder cans scattered around the drum kit and cymbal stands on the gem-shaped corner stage — a few ear plugs left on the floor, too.
A few days had passed since The Grape Room abruptly closed. The decision was still fresh but a long time coming.
“It’s rough,” said Brian Hassinger, “but it has weighed on me for probably the better part of two years.”
Hassinger, known as “Scooter” to regulars, has been connected to The Grape Room for more than three decades. He first played the venue in 1992 when it was known as the Grape St. Pub, and he was the drummer for a Penn State indie rock band, the Durgis.
“It was love at first sight, love at first gig,” Hassinger said of the two-story building at 105 Grape St., just off Manayunk’s main drag. “We rocked and I never stopped coming.”
Hassinger started working at the Grape St. Pub off and on after college, continuing to play there with band Stargazer Lily. In 2008, the original Grape St. Pub closed after relocating to a larger space in Manayunk. Two years later, Hassinger secured a lease for the original location, purchased a liquor license, and reopened it as The Grape Room.
In 2012, he booked The Lumineers for a show, adding them to a list of acts like The Roots and G. Love who passed through the Grape before hitting it big.
“I thought the sky was the limit,” said the 52-year old Belmont Hills resident.
As proprietor of the Grape, Hassinger did just about everything from crunching the numbers to helping his staff clean the bathrooms, mop the floors, and unclog the occasional sewer line. Whatever it took to preserve a treasured showcase for local art in its many forms.
“This is what people come here for,” said Hassinger. “They want to see people perform, they want to see art they’ve never seen — whether it be music, a singer-songwriter, a band, a comedian, an artist who has posted their art on the second floor.”
From the shiny disco ball above the stage to the space-themed, Erik Horvitz-painted mural on the wall behind the drum kit, aesthetics were a big part of The Grape Room’s vibes.
Hassinger’s favorite spot to hang was at the back of the first-floor performance space, next to a piece of floor-to-ceiling contemporary art — two clowns playing brass instruments — made by West Philadelphian Raphael Tiberino.
“You come in here and there’s artwork everywhere from different artists through the years — fine art, oil paintings, photographs — that people have displayed and donated,” said Hassinger. “It’s just a culmination of people and their art fused through the years.”
‘More than special’
The Grape Room’s defining trait went beyond what you could see or hear. It’s how the bar made people feel.
“A magical music ride.” … “So many memories.” … “This place changed my life.”
That’s just a sampling of the hundreds of social media comments that have poured in since The Grape Room announced its closure plans on Instagram.
“It was nice to have a spot that everyone can access and come together as a community,” said Dave Shields, guitarist and vocalist for Turtle Ridge, a local folk band that started playing The Grape Room a few years ago. “It’s definitely a huge bummer to see it go.”
If it weren’t for the Grape, the group wouldn’t exist. Shields met Turtle Ridge’s co-writer and vocalist Colin O’Gorman there during an open mic night. He credited Hassinger for taking chances on emerging artists and fostering an environment at The Grape Room that gave amateur musicians confidence.
“The space in there made you feel like it was a place where you could get up to no good and have a night with your friends,” he said. “It was that kind of atmosphere, and we’ll all sorely miss it.”
“It’s difficult sometimes to find a place where you feel like you belong and you feel like people want to actually hear your original work,” said Ryan McCloskey, a guitarist who first played the Grape in 2010 with the group Song Dogs. “Scooter really cultivated that by being an original artist and musician himself, taking an interest in supporting other original artists, musicians and giving them a great place to play.”
McCloskey lived in the neighborhood at the time. He estimated there were weeks he would spend five nights at the Grape, either playing or hanging out. He even met his wife there.
“It was the summer of 2011, and she was actually on a first date with somebody else,” McCloskey said. “I saw her from across the room, didn’t know she was on a date, and struck up a conversation. As the night progressed, we realized we were probably better suited for each other than the guy she was on a date with. So we left while he was in the bathroom and never looked back.”
The music could have been the draw, the backdrop, or both at the same time. These were the types of stories and memories The Grape Room made.
“It’s a dream come true to have been part of this thing, and never really kind of setting any ideas about how it would grow or blossom, that it would just be the Grape,” said Hassinger.
McCloskey, his wife, and their young children now live in the Wilkes-Barre area. On his last night as a Philly resident, there was no question where he and his wife would be.
“We revisited The Grape Room,” he said, “saw some great music, danced a little, had a wonderful time. … That was our closing chapter living there.”
Hassinger is the first to admit that running a small independent venue that relies on artists bringing out crowds isn’t the easiest business to navigate. Other smaller venues in the city to close in recent years include The North Star Bar, Boot and Saddle, and The Legendary Dobbs. Despite the ups and downs of the business, Hassinger said the community made every part of the ride worthwhile.
“I feel so lucky to have been given this opportunity to have artists like myself through the years and share it with people,” he said. “That’s special — more than special.”
So why close? Why now?
A confluence of factors, from the desire to have a space in a building he owns, not just rents, to the tug of having four teenagers at home.
“It’s tough,” Hassinger said. “It’s a quandary. It’s life. Sometimes you have to make these difficult decisions. … There are weekends that I say goodbye [to family] on a Friday and I come up on a Sunday.”
Thirty-plus years was a good run, the last 14 as the person in charge. It was time.
But Hassinger isn’t ruling out some sort of return at some point, somewhere. Like plenty of bands, he thinks a hiatus could actually be good.
“You do a little retooling, a little reformation,” he said, “then the next record is the greatest.”