Two men take a seat at the black bar of the Hi Tone Cafe’ located on 412-414 North Cleveland. On a typical Tuesday the Memphis sun creeps through the glass windows and is the only source of light in the bar besides a flat screen above the list of drinks.
Armed with colorful tattoos and a fierce, burly beard, head bartender/general manager Patrick McIntyre grabs the television remote and turns the volume down. His accomplice, Joel Gradinger, the ponytailed sound engineer, lights up a few cigarettes as the two reminisce about what each of them miss about the old location of the Hi Tone Cafe’.
“I miss breaking bottles for sport at the end of the night,” Gradinger said. “We only have cans now.”
Gradinger admits North Cleveland has been a much better fit.
“We were the black sheep,” Gradinger said. “Everybody around there didn’t care for us too much. There’s a lot of businesses and neighborhoods that didn’t support us, but over here we’re surrounded by like minded people.”
Like minded people include Memphians rooting for the Crosstown Concourse, a development project overseen by Kemmons Wilson Companies and designed by Architecture firms Looney Ricks Kiss and Dialog (Vancouver). Overseers of the future Landmark aim to create 800 jobs for Memphis and generate $37 million in new wages annually with 265 loft-style apartments, restaurants, a small grocery, a fitness center, health clinics, a charter high school, commercial offices, and a contemporary art center. The Concourse is scheduled to open in the Spring of 2017.
“Everyday those guys are in there working on that place and they're not stopping,” McIntyre said. “It’s gonna be great for the area in general. There’s gonna be more businesses opening up and this whole area is gonna be completely different in a year and a half. I think we’re all looking forward to that.”
McIntyre, a seasoned Memphis bartender, has spent several years serving drinks at different Bluff City locations. It took him 13 years to find his Hi Tone home.
“I’ve worked at Murphy’s, the Buccaneer, and then the Deli,” McIntyre said. “I’ve worked at all the ones that are kinda known for all the craziness that can kinda go on, but we don’t really have that many problems here.”
The man admits however, that one incident in the new location of the Hi-Tone sticks out in his mind.
“This guy literally only had two bloody mary's from me,” McIntyre said. “Everybody’s standing there looking at him. He’s peeing. He’s just peeing on the bar.”
McIntyre maintained that after contacting authorities the situation was peacefully handled. Months later McIntyre even shared a laugh with the officers who specifically apprehended who he still calls “the urinator”. The bartender shared that instances like these, as well as the tight-knit “Hi Tone family” make the venue an extremely unique place to work.
“It’s not your typical bar job,” Mcintyre said. “You're expected to do your job, do it right, and do it well. It’s honestly hard to find people like that. ”
One of these people is undoubtedly sound engineer Joel Gradinger. Gradinger, who began working at the old Hi-Tone location in the Spring of 2002, led the actual sound renovations when the bar planted itself at 412-414 North Cleveland in August of 2013.
“I had a lot more to do with designing and installing the sound system in a much more ideal way than there was at the old spot,” Gradinger said. “I think the best thing you can do is to help the bands be comfortable and confident. If you blow that part of the job; there’s not enough buttons, knobs, and faders to get that back.”
One of the most visible changes for the new Hi-Tone is that it contains not only a big stage with a second bar, but another smaller room with a more relaxed aesthetic. Most of the bands that perform in the small room stand eye-level to the audience, with the drummer as the only musician on an elevated platform. According to Gradinger there were many reasons for building a second, smaller room into the North Cleveland Hi Tone.
“When I designed this stage I had at the front of my mind that I wanted it to feel natural to play on- the same way you’d jam in your living room or something,” Gradinger said. “It can be intimidating stepping up from a rehearsal space or a house show to something with a full sound installation.”
Gradinger stepped up his own musical career in Memphis as a local guitarist and a student in recording technology at the University of Memphis, but gravitated toward doing live sound after working as a studio partner for Brian Powers. Powers came into ownership of the Hi Tone in 2002 and enlisted Gradinger to the sound engineer position.
“I liked the pressure of having one shot to do it,” Gradinger said. “My background was in studio recording where you can obsess over every little detail
and live sound is the total opposite. I enjoyed the challenge.”
More recent challenges have followed the Hi Tone family during and after the venue’s move from Poplar to North Cleveland. Renovation required new bathrooms, electrical, and plumbing as well as building new walls, painting them, and building the bar itself.
“It was a bitch,” McIntyre said. “This place was just one big empty shell of nothing. It was just torn to bits; piles of trash everywhere, but we’ve come along way in 2 ½ years.”
Another persisting challenge has been getting virtual databases just to recognize the Hi Tone’s shift to North Cleveland.
“Not even that long ago a cab driver took some people from out of town to the old venue thinking we were still over there,” McIntyre said. “It was really hard to get Google Maps to change our location on there. I think Apple maps still has us listed at the other location.”
Beyond finding the venue, Mcintyre stressed that there are still some Memphians with other reasons for not visiting Hi Tone 2.0. He believes these reasons aren’t legitimate.
“I still hear that there’s people that either don’t know we’re open again
or know where we are,” Mcintyre said. “There’s other people that I hear possibly are too scared to come down here, they think it’s a bad area. It’s Memphis and I know years ago this used to be, but honestly we haven't had any problems with crime down here.”
Gradinger also shares the opinion that crime is a lot less prevalent in the newer location of the venue.
“I would guess we used to eject an average of three or four people a week at the old spot and I think we throw out like maybe once a month,” Gradinger said. “Since we’re not right on Poplar we don’t have issues with homeless people, crackheads, whores, and transients.”
Still, most of Memphis hasn’t caught up with the safer, newer Hi Tone quite yet.
“We knew it would be a struggle,” Gradinger said. “We came in on the front end of the redevelopment of this neighborhood so it’s not an instant transition.”
Even after lengthy renovation, public misconceptions of the neighborhood, and the occasional customer lacking bladder control, the “Hi Tone family” has stuck together since the move. Gradinger even sees the “family” as something that’s bigger than the bar itself.
“I’d say the Hi Tone family even extends beyond the people who work here,” Gradinger said. “The core group of musicians who have been playing around Memphis professionally- even when they don’t have a gig they end up here. It’s a tight nit group of employees but it’s a broad spectrum of creative people in Memphis who I think constitute the family.”
One of the newer, although more helpful additions to the Hi Tone family has been ex-Newby’s owner Brian “Skinny” McCabe, who in Dec. 10 of 2014 jumped at the opportunity to run the new Hi Tone. According to McIntyre, McCabe’s 10 years at Newby’s has brought entirely new crowds to the venue.
“That’s a whole new circle of bands we hadn’t worked with before,” McIntyre said. “As well as customers, events that he’s always hosted, and annual parties. That growth is great. I just can’t emphasize how amazing it’s been to work with him and his wife. They are the first ones here the last one's gone they're very hands on that’s really helped the growth of the new spot.”
With newer management, newer stages, and a newer sense of 901 pride North Cleveland has already proven to pave greener pastures for Poplar’s “Black Sheep;” The Hi Tone Family. With the addition of the Crosstown Concourse, as well as what McIntyre hints as the next wave of musicians and entertainers to grace the Hi Tone stage(s), the grass may only get greener.
“These days there’s a lot of these local kids that are playing up here that are 20,21, 22, and they’re already just amazing artists,” McIntyre said. “They are already talented as hell. It’s just great to see this younger generation that’s now coming along.”
Both McIntyre and Gradinger cited that a few of their favorite local bands to work with include MOVIENIGHT and Dawn Patrol. Gradinger further emphasized that his reasoning for adding the Hi Tone small stage was to assist this new wave of musicians.
“Having a smaller venue on the side allows us to bring in bands that might not be able to get a gig otherwise,” Gradinger said. “It’s easier for us to take a chance on a new band and see how it flies. I mean it basically doubles our booking opportunities.”
With double the room to book, and the increased musical network of the new Hi Tone, McIntyre remains positive that the growth around North Cleveland is representative of a growing Bluff City in general.
“For years it seemed like the city was stagnant,” McIntyre said. “The last couple years it’s just been growing like crazy. All the new restaurants; the food trucks, the bike lanes, I couldn’t be happier about the way it is. It’s really put itself on the map a lot more than it ever was during the last couple years.”
Speaking of maps, it may be a good time for Google and Apple maps to update their databases to include Hi Tone’s new location.
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