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Home / The Bar Lounge
The long wooden bar with stools and bottle shelves in the Bar Lounge at McGowan Hall
Downstairs, at the back

The Bar Lounge

A 1970s jukebox still spinning 45s, a long bar, low light and a speakeasy feel. It is the least formal room in the building and the one people are most surprised by.

Seated
50 guests, comfortably
Furniture
Tables and chairs for 50 are already set up
Saturday
$800 for 12 hours, $500 for 6
Sun to Fri
$600 for 12 hours, $450 for 6
The bar
Full service, in the room itself
Access
Lower level, stairs only. No elevator in the building.

The room does not need decorating

Most rentable spaces are blank until you spend money on them. This one is not. It came with dark wood, sconces, a proper bar and a jukebox, and it has kept them. Tables and chairs for fifty are already in place, so there is nothing to set up and nothing to break down.

People book it for birthdays, Colts game watch parties, small live music nights, retirement drinks, book clubs, and gatherings of five to ten where a boardroom would feel wrong. It also works as the after party when the Grand Hall upstairs is winding down and thirty people are not ready to go home.

A jazz quartet playing saxophone, drums, bass and trumpet in the Bar Lounge
First Friday. The band sets up in the corner and the room fills.
Card table, dark wood chairs and wall sconces in the Bar Lounge
The seating end, away from the bar. Sconces and original woodwork.
A bassist playing under red light during a live set in the Bar Lounge
Live music in here is close quarters, which is the point of it.
Free, first Friday of the month

Come to a jazz night instead of a tour

The Christopher Pitts Trio plays this room on the first Friday of every month. Doors at eight, music from nine until eleven, bar open, no ticket.

If you are weighing up the lounge for a party, this is a better look at it than any tour we could give you. You get to see how the room sounds with people in it, how the bar runs, and whether the feel is right for your night. Stay for a set and ask us anything.

On music nights this room goes by its own name, The Columbian, which has a site of its own covering the programme, the sound system and what it takes to play here.

A full room of guests talking and drinking in the warmly lit Bar Lounge
The practical bits

Drinks, food and getting down here

The bar in this room is a full service bar. Cash bar is the default. You can prepay an open bar at $20 a head for beer and wine or $30 a head for beer, wine and liquor, or run a tab up to a limit you set. A fifteen percent gratuity applies to prepaid and tab arrangements. One bartender is included for up to five hours, and additional hours are $20 an hour per bartender. Outside alcohol is not permitted anywhere on the property, including the lot.

Food is up to you. Bring a caterer, bring platters, or have something delivered. There is no food or beverage minimum. Anything cooked has to be prepared off site.

Getting here matters for this room. The lounge is on the lower level and the only way in is down a flight of stairs. There is no elevator, and there are no accessible restrooms on that level. If that rules out anyone you are inviting, book the Grand Hall upstairs instead, which is fully accessible including its restrooms, and we will help you make fifty people feel at home in it.

Full accessibility notes

Two ways to see it

Book a tour, or just turn up on a Friday

Either works. One of them comes with a jazz trio.