Alive & Unedited

Everything's Nice

by John Ross

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WILL SHILLING PHOTO

Mike Gallicchio and Chris Corso

Casual, laidback, decorated with bamboo and grass thatching, the Park Street Patio doesn't look like a Park Street bar.

That's exactly the point, according to owners Chris Corso and Mike Gallicchio. "We think it's a complementary venue for the neighborhood," Corso said. "With us, you know, kind of being in charge of this corner of the block, we want to enhance the neighborhood."

Corso and Gallicchio, who also own Sugar and Spice, have helped transform an ordinary side street into a thriving nightlife district bolstered by—but distinct from—others around it. The new bar is set to open this weekend, coinciding with the Park Street Festival that will showcase how far the neighborhood has come in recent years.

The duo sat down with Alive to discuss the latest addition to the city's hottest spot.

One of your earlier projects was the Long Street complex, which has fallen out of vogue. Is there something about Park Street that will give it a longer lifespan?

Gallicchio: We like to think we're in an area now where we have a lot more traffic flow, a lot more people coming down here. So we're not going to be in that kind of a struggle as often, you know what I mean.

I think with the more bars, and the diverse kind of bars down here, it's going to bring more people [to Park Street]. So we won't be out there on a limb by ourselves—which we have been in the past.

Corso: A lot of our concept, though, is we look forward to recreating it. That's kind of our passion too, you know, How can we change this space to make it new and exciting for the area and for the community and ourselves? That's just part of how we do business.

There seems to be a disconnection between the Arena District and Park Street. Do you feel people are commingling between those areas as much as you'd like?

Corso: I think there's no disconnect as long as the arena has an event. Other than that, we've tried to position ourselves to be part of both the Arena and the Short North. That's why we're kind of labeling our area Park Street. We think we need to be our own area dependent upon the Arena and the Short North. We like the positioning of it.

Gallicchio: I think our success still helps them, obviously. We still bring a lot of people down here.

Corso: It's still close enough that we both benefit from each other. But the density is right here, right now, where we're at.

Your two other Park Street bars are among the swankiest in town. Do you think people will be surprised at how casual the Patio is?

Corso: We've done some stuff that isn't high-end club. There are all kinds of parts of Long Street, you know, Long Street Live, and portions of that will mimic some of the things we're doing here [at the Patio]. But that corner just lends itself to being a neighborhood bar—a live music kind of spot. Mike and I are going to build what we think's best for this neighborhood.

We went to Costa Rica last year. We went to Thailand, went to Vietnam. We saw some laidback concepts that, you know, were still kind of nice and looked good and fun and that we thought we'd like to bring to Columbus.

Gallicchio: Columbus loves outdoor things to do, obviously. We don't have the longest summers, so I think it's going to work perfectly for the location.

June 7th, 2007

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