![]() Although it has been a challenge to manage the venue, from leaving the most real estate for customers to maintaining areas for food and storage, Briggs has succeeded in creating a homey vibe for the musicians and audience. People are more focused on what’s on stage.”Ĭurrently, the bar serves liquor, coffee and food, and Briggs plans to open up some outdoor patio space. You don’t see people with their nose in their phone here. “We’re trying to make this a place that artists go. “We want to make it worthwhile so they can play the Hudson Valley, Saratoga, Ithaca, Rochester, Buffalo - and Syracuse,” she says. It’s a labor of love for all of us.”īriggs also hopes the room will lure touring acoustic performers who otherwise would have bypassed the Central New York market. People have habits and favorites, and it’s tricky to get people to try out a new place if it doesn’t fit into a neat category. “And any time we’ve done live music, we’ve had a good night. “We’ve been hosting an open mike every Thursday, and it’s been going really remarkably well since the first day we started it,” Briggs says. The cozy inside of the Listening Room Cafe is idea for intimate and acoustic sets. to 4 p.m., unless there are special events. The café is now open Mondays and Tuesdays, 7 a.m. Although the space was zoned to be a bar/restaurant, it still took months of application processes to get the required licenses.įinally, the Listening Room Café started its soft opening in January on a three-day-a-week schedule, then quickly went to four days. But the hoops to jump through kept coming. “It seemed super-reasonable,” Briggs recalls. With the help of Leone’s brother, Mike, who owns the building, the team figured on a September 2018 opening. Then Briggs quit her full-time job as event manager at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Spring 2018 to work full time at the new venue. Jewett had to back out because of the overwhelming commitment, but that void was quickly filled by Briggs’ now-husband, James (Jimmy) Leone. The team realized the place would have to be open every day to make back what they needed. But once I ran the numbers, I knew it wouldn’t support itself.” “Joanna had a full-time job and I did, too. “We originally thought we’d be open once or twice a week for events,” Briggs says. However, it was a long road from picking the place to making it functional. O’Leary’s and the Old Parochial League bars. In 2016 they found the perfect location: 443 Burnet Ave., former home of The Barge, Mrs. (Michael Davis/Syracuse New Times)īriggs and Jewett had already found success in shows like Ladies Night at Eastwood’s Palace Theatre, but starting a space from scratch proved to be a major undertaking. I thought, ‘Maybe we should make a room where we can do this.’”Ĥ43 Burnet Ave. “The shows were magical and I thought we should do more of them, but we needed to make them viable. “That series led to a decision to open my own space,” she says. ![]() While the concerts were impressive, the results were not profitable. “Two walls were exposed brick and it was a long space,” she explains, which was roomy enough for a portable bar, a few tables and a musical act.īriggs hosted about a half-dozen shows with her business partner, Joanna Jewett, and their production company, Red Shoes Black Bag Productions. A back room that the restaurant rented out for private events proved to be an ideal spot. So Briggs started with “The Listening Room” music series in 2014 at the former Small Plates venue in Armory Square. “Being in that environment and seeing how a successful event comes together influenced me to begin producing my own shows,” she says. She had worked with, and learned from, music producer Stacey Waterman on several concerts. Briggs had a solid background in hospitality, event planning and bar management, so the feat seemed reasonable. ![]()
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