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Zombie Room resurrects B-Side days
Last year this time there was a lot of uncertainty about what was going down at 230 W. Riverside Ave.
The former home of The B-Side has been through some serious growing pains, but it looks like things are finally stabilizing at The Zombie Room.
People were wondering if it's a punk venue, a metal venue, a hip-hop venue or a sports bar.
The answer is yes.
(Also add in jazz and rockabilly.)
The B-Side was as legendary for the grimy bathrooms as it was for live music. The Zombie Room is cleaner but is still earning its reputation for shows.
Darfus Moore came on as a part owner last winter, when the name changed from The Spread, briefly to Bricks, and then to The Zombie Room. Since then Moore has lost one partner but gained a new one, local bar scene fixture Eryn Johnson, who was a bartender at The B-Side when Moore was a bouncer there. Back when B-Side owner Ben Cater was running music at Mootsy's, Johnson was behind the bar there, too.
Erin Fasbender, another B-Side and Mootsy's all-star bartender, is booking the majority of the metal and punk. Live hip-hop at The Zombie is being handled mainly by Jason Corcoran, aka local emcee veteran Freetime Synthetic. And Mootsy's familiar Eli Bickerton is booking pretty much everything else.
Cater uses his Full Point Productions platform to book music at RAW Sushi and Island Grill – where he tends bar – but he'll also be moving select shows to his old stomping grounds. For example, indie hip-hop hero Ohmega Watts' makeup show is expected to sell out at The Zombie Room on next Friday.
"(The Zombie Room) is a natural spot for Ohmega Watts. He's been there probably four times leading up to this show," Cater said. "I'm happy to help Darfus out; he's been trying to get some more funky music in there."
Moore's room will offer more than just a great stage and sound for shows to the 21-and-older crowd.
The 6-foot-7-foot screen behind the stage shows sports events from ESPNU and NFL Network. Pinball and dart tournaments are also in the works. The pool tables are free. Expect the old B-Side burlesque shows to return.
And, by popular demand, Moore's father, Darfus Moore Sr., is bringing back his soul food kitchen for lunch and dinner on Fridays, with DJ Fade spinning '80s jams during the lunch hour. The menu includes red beans and rice, catfish, ham hocks, neck bones, black-eyed peas, cabbage and corn bread – nothing from the can. Lunch plates start at $4.
The Zombie also has a weekly open mike on Monday, karaoke on Tuesday, DJ Big Mike from Realside Records on Wednesday and Eryn Johnson's hospitality night on Thursday with cheap drinks, featuring her famous Justin Timberlake concoction.
"It's called The Zombie Room, but it's not that scary," Moore said.
