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Visitors from far and wide turned out on Saturday, Feb. 1 to help celebrate the anniversaries of two local businesses - Ghost Note Brewing and the Barber Shop.
Thelma and Kenny Coleman, owners of Ghost Note, had a record crowd, keeping the beer flowing and the food cooking at a frenetic pace for their 4th anniversary.
“It's been a very good turnout today,” Thelma Coleman said. “A lot of our regulars have come back to see us and we're very excited about that.”
Kenny Coleman agreed.
“It's been awesome,” he said. “Sunlight and live music brought a lot of people out. And good beer.”
As usual, Ghost Note offered a special brew to celebrate.
“This is an imperial stout with chocolate and peanut butter. It takes a while to brew, but we bottled about 100 bottles,” Kenny Coleman said. “It’s pretty special.”
Mike Sorci, of Clear Lake, Iowa, said he and his wife are snowbirds who have been coming down to Texas for the past three years. He was enjoying one of the anniversary beers.
“It’s excellent. I highly recommend it,” Sorci said. “We've been to Ghost Note several times. We probably make it out here to the Hill Country about two or three times during the couple months we’re here.”
Terry Henry, who has lived in the Dripping Springs area for 66 years, came out to the event with his wife Connie to listen to the Wyatt Weaver Band. It was his second visit to Ghost Note.
“A friend of mine told me about Wyatt’s band, and so I came to hear them,” Henry said.
Like many of the local breweries, Ghost Note is family and dog friendly, so there were lots of pups enjoying the weather, including Rudy, who attended with Paul Neigebauer and Jane Hofmeister.
“Oh, it is wonderful! The music, the food, the beer,” Hofmeister said. “The weather is perfect, and we’re enjoying all the people, and the dogs. We just got down here Monday.”
The trio are from Minnesota, and came down in their RV to spend a month in the area. They learned about Ghost Note on Facebook and came out to the party.
“The band is very good. And the people we've met in this part of Texas have been so nice and friendly, and are making our stay very enjoyable,” Neigebauer said.
Over at the Barber Shop on Mercer Street, locals and outof- towners were also mingling and enjoying the beer, accompanied by live music from The Good Life with Frank Iarossi. In the front room, a trio of friends were there for a birthday.
“Yes, I turned old. I was young yesterday, but I'm old today,” Julie Coles said. “These are my best friends for 30 years, and they're helping me to celebrate.”
Coles is from the Dripping Springs area, while her friend Meta Bates is from Georgetown and Ann Morris is from Houston.
“It is my second or third time here,” Morris said. “Every time we come here it's very relaxed and very easy. And the band today is fantastic. They're doing just a great job.”
Bates said this wasn’t her first visit to Dripping Springs, but it was her first time at this establishment.
“I love the vibe. It's awesome. I love the airflow, the people that it attracts,” Bates said.
Out on the front porch, three craft beer aficionados were enjoying the Barber Shop’s craft beer offerings. One of those was Alvin Joslyn, @ thejudgementalhop on Instagram, who is originally from Las Vegas.
“Starting out on Instagram and being in the craft beer community that has spawned, I met these amazing people that I just truly grew to love and adore and respect,” Joslyn said. “They said, you need to move to Austin, you gotta come and experience this. I fell in love with the community, the kind of people that are out here, the culture that's out here. These people that I've met through the craft beer community have been the best people that I've met in my life.”
Joslyn was visiting the Barber Shop with Brian James @beer_ with_b, and Brian Clifton @bribrewski.
“This is my first time to the Barber Shop,” James said. “I love enjoying craft beer, and this has been an awesome place to visit and have some brews with my friends.”
Clifton is more of a Barber Shop veteran.
“I started coming here more than 10 years ago when my buddy Ben brought me here,” Clifton said. “It's an old history, it's a great culture, good vibe, lots of good beer. And when people ask where you went, you just say the Barber Shop.”
John McIntosh and Dave Niemeyer are the co-owners of the Barber Shop, which is celebrating its 14th anniversary. The building was originally a filling station, then it was a repair shop for a little while, and it was home to a couple of other businesses after that. But starting in the mid 80s, it was a barbershop.
“When it came time to come up with the name, we thought, it's already got a sign that says barbershop. Everybody knows where the barbershop is,” McIntosh said. “Then there's kind of the pun about, well, I'm just going up to the barbershop to get a trim. We just thought it was kind of a funny thing, and there we were.”
Hence the shirt, “I got buzzed at the Barber Shop.” McIntosh said Mercer street was very different at that point - not exactly run down, but underdeveloped.
“We were the first bar in Dripping Springs in 2011,” Mc-Intosh said. “We really saw this as a good opportunity to help reenergize the street. I mean, it's a really nice little downtown street, a very historic street, and we just didn't want to see that neglected.”
McIntosh said they were pretty happy with the turnout for their celebration, and thrilled with the beautiful weather.
“When we first opened, it was an okay day, and I think it was okay for the first week or so,” McIntosh said. “Then it went to 13 degrees or something and stayed there for a week. And people still came in and drank beer, these guys in insulated coveralls. I thought, well, if we made it through this, I think we're gonna make it through almost anything.”
He said they really appreciate the support they’ve had from the community.
“A lot of beer bars have closed over the years, a lot of breweries,” McIntosh said. “To have a beer bar like that for 14 years - that's an accomplishment we're very happy and very grateful for.”
