By PAUL BOOTH
It was a crowded Saturday night at Annex, the hide-away bar located next to Brickwall on Cookman Avenue in Asbury Park. There was the expected drinking and socializing of course, but also, amid the DJ- spun music and 1920’s furniture, some unique and unexpected artistic expression was happening as well.
Thanks to chalk made available by the staff, the bar’s crimson walls have become the preferred canvas for many of the customers.
About a month ago, Christine Busch, manager of Annex, said she thought it would be a cool idea to allow customers to draw on the wall. They have been doing it ever since.
“It’s part of trying to give people a different experience,” said Busch, who is also an artist and helped design the Annex with design partner Freddi Vilardi.
Kevin Lawrence, 27 of Shark River Hills, was one of the first to to draw on the wall Saturday. His drawing, which he titled “Ancestral Channeling”, would be four feet by four feet before he was through, requiring him to stand on a chair to finish it. It explored the Hopi Indian migration by boat.
“This place is amazing, it’s like being in the city,” Lawrence said of Annex (which shares a wall, phone number, and owners with Brickwall), in between describing why our ancestors would never have migrated here via a land bridge through Alaska.
“Who would make that kind of walk,” he asked. “No one. They took a boat here.”
His drawing, his second at Annex, depicted that very opinion. Lawrence, who works in construction, said he likes to draw and paint in his spare time.
Saturday was Zach Wilson’s first night at Annex. An art teacher at Rumson Fair-Haven, he helped himself to a piece of chalk. Inspired by Lawrence’s drawing, he continued with the water theme and drew an underwater scene complete with sea bass, stripers, a great white and a sea monster.
“It’s very chill here, I like it a lot,” said Wilson, 33, who had eaten dinner at Brickwall and was checking Annex out as a possible venue for his upcoming rehearsal dinner.
Much of the evening went on this way. One person would build off a previous artist’s contribution, or simply add their own, and before midnight rolled around almost every available inch of the bar’s 10 foot by 30 foot wall was covered with an array of chalk art; flowers, animals, self portraits, outlines of hands, it was all there for all to see. And, as part of the ephemeral experience, they remained mostly unsigned. The artwork is washed off at the end each week.
Asbury Park resident Jack McNamara who was there Saturday night and added to the wall, likes the idea.
”It’s a good conversation piece,” he said.
It is also a good representation of the vibe at Annex, which has shed the character of the typical bar experience in favor of a forgotten era. The bar was closed for several months and reopened on Dec. 5, the anniversary of prohibition being repealed, a historical fact not lost on its designers.
With the 1920’s speakeasy in mind, designers Busch and Vilardi have filled the space (long and narrow) with an eclectic array of furniture and artwork, most purchased at flea markets and estate sales. There is only one television and it plays black and white movies on a loop. Most of the bar’s ambient light comes from candles.
Away from the bar, which offers microbrews and specialty cocktails, are “pods”, areas that sit five to six people and have the feel of a study. There’s even a table, off on its own, elevated and in the window for the exhibitionists in the crowd.
“We’re trying to offer a different atmosphere. So you don’t have to go to the city when times are tough,” said Busch. And though times may well be tough, at Annex, it seems, it’s still the Roaring 20’s.
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Published every Thursday.
This is an interesting blog post. I think it was a good idea by the manager to let the patrons to be creative. It has probably created some buzz among guests and potential guests, creating more new and repeat customers!