RecordBar comes to the Crossroads this spring

Not so long ago, the sleek storefront at 1520 Grand Boulevard housed the short-lived nightclub One, and the hallmarks of that previous tenant remain: gleaming, reflective exterior walls and polished, dark-tinted windows. (On the opposite side of the street, reflected in those shiny surfaces: the Cigar Box’s forest-green awning and Temptations’ salacious “totally nude” sign.) It doesn’t bear even the slightest resemblance to Steve Tulipana and Shawn Sherrill’s beloved RecordBar, a Westport institution pretty much from its opening day, in 2005, to its premature closing in January.

That, Tulipana says, will change — and soon. He and Sherrill have just announced plans to transform 1520 Grand into RecordBar’s new home. They plan be open by May, with a first slate of shows already booked.

“We looked at a million places,” Tulipana says. “I’ve known the people that own that property for a long time, and they offered it to us when it became available. It’s going to take a little bit of work, but not a lot. The bathrooms are great — they look really nice, and we hope that people will respect that and not write on the fucking walls. And there’s a kitchen.”

The kitchen is key. It was one essential, non-negotiable item on the checklist as Tulipana and Sherrill searched for a new location.

“One of the things that we really want to do with the new RecordBar is get back to being a restaurant,” Tulipana says. “We feel that for it to work in that location, we really want to have a strong lunch program, and we’re working on that. It’s going to take us a little bit. We’ve got a chef in mind who we’re talking to. We want to be more than ‘There’s a show here and, oh, yeah, you can get pizza, too.’ And we have plans for a façade change and a patio.”

Another thing that’s new: the size. The new space has a capacity of around 400 — up from the original RecordBar’s 300 capacity. “It’s a jump, but it’s what we wanted,” Tulipana says.

Still, the biggest issue RecordBar 2.0 faces is not program changes or remodeling but, rather, a significant adjustment for its loyal patrons — those who were used to the original location’s expansive (and free) parking lot. By contrast, Crossroads parking on a weekend can be a headache.

“The biggest hurdle is going to be the parking,” Tulipana acknowledges, “and people are just going to have to get used to it. We live in a city — this is what it looks like. But we’re also going to be talking to some of the neighbors that own parking lots near us, and hopefully we’re going to figure out a situation that works for everyone. Or, you know, just park at Crown Center and ride the train, you know?” He lets out a wry laugh.

There’s plenty to get through before it’s time to worry about parking. Tulipana ticks off a laundry list of maintenance items that have to be completed by the time the first shows — Friday, May 6, and Saturday, May 7 — take place. DJ booths will be dismantled. Stage lights must be hung. The bar needs some work. “And first, we have to call City Hall,” he says. “It takes a lot longer than you think it will, but we’ll get it done. I’m not worried. The infrastructure is there. We just need to make it our own.”

The last time I interviewed Tulipana, in his basement office at the original RecordBar, the week before Christmas, he was conflicted and a little bitter about that address’s closure. But even then, he also gave off an air of serious gratitude — and that, he says, is what has given him and Sherrill the drive to rebuild.

“If we hadn’t got all that love and that outpouring of support, maybe I would have felt like saying, ‘Well, maybe I’ll do something else now,'” Tulipana says. “But it was fuel for us. We had been looking for a long time, in all parts of the city, and this particular spot — for me, it’s the feel. It pops in my head, and I can see the space becoming a thing. People thought we were crazy to move into that shopping center [in Westport]. They said it was cursed. And I kept coming back to this space — we looked at it four times — and, like anything, it has its little hurdles, but I kept imagining shows with bands I wanted to see on this new stage. We had to do it.”