This Halloween season, deep south city’s Bar: PM (7109 South Broadway, 314-312-6683) brings what’s sure to be fall’s hottest block party: Boo on Broadway. From 2 to 10 p.m. on Saturday, October 13, the event will shut down two blocks of the South Broadway strip. Between Blow and Robert streets, Boo on Broadway will offer live music, a wide array of street vendors, an exciting lineup of drag performers gracing two stages, food trucks, a bouncy house, massive bubble machines, face painting and costume contests.
The growing South Broadway nightlife district provides the perfect backdrop of industrial grit and history for this fall bazaar. Bars including the Livery Company, Hummel’s Pub, the Off Track Saloon, Tesson Station and the Halfway Haus will all be participating in what promises to be a fun-filled, hair-raising community gathering.
“What I would love to see from this event is that people come out and get to experience the true idea of our neighborhood — not what it used to be, or what they heard about it,” says Angel Tutt, president of the Patch neighborhood association. “I hope they see that it is a great neighborhood with accepting people and caring hearts. We all contribute a lot to many charities and give back a lot of time to help make this area great.”
For more than three years, James Pence and Chad Wick, the owners of Bar: PM, have been building their tribe in the Carondelet and Patch neighborhoods. They don’t just run a business there — they are also local homeowners, and community is at the heart of what they stand for. Charity outreach emanates from their shotgun bar on Broadway. They’ve hosted events for the local chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and PAWS’ Thirst for Life, as well as benefits for the Alzheimer’s Association, Special Olympics and Food Outreach.
Now Bar: PM has worked with local officials and its neighboring establishments to create this first-ever street festival on Broadway. Both the neighborhood association and Ward 11 Alderwoman Sarah Wood Martin gave their support.
“As we started to discuss the idea of the event, we began listing off our assets as a community, and one of our biggest assets is down on South Broadway. All the bars are so welcoming,” says Tutt. “Anyone can feel comfortable and be served, whether you’re walking into the gay bars, the biker bars or the hipster bars. There is no exclusion and they all co-exist together. This strip of South Broadway isn’t for one type of individual; it is for everyone.”
Bar: PM’s Pence echoes those words in discussing the goal for Boo on Broadway.
“We really want to showcase the strong diversity of our community,” Pence explains. “It is a common place for all of us to patronize each other’s bars. It’s not about a gay bar versus a biker bar or whatever style bar, it’s about how we all support each other and the blend of cultures we embrace. That concept is how this all came about.”
Bar: PM is an ideal hideaway nestled on the South Broadway strip. It offers the perfect alternative to the Grove if you seek a star-studded drag show, karaoke, live music of all genres, or just a late night of storytelling from a barstool historian. The vibes down on South Broadway are drenched in lore, and the surrounding neighborhood is one of the fastest rising, up-and-coming pockets of south city (in fact, it was recently voted No. 4 in our “Top Gayborhood” online poll; see our cover story for more on that).
Check out Bar: PM on Facebook for more details and the event schedule. Kid-friendly activities are primarily slotted earlier in the line-up, but festivities will continue into the night for older folks. Kid and adult costume contests will be held separately.
