Downtown bar gets into the Halloween spirit
Oct. 19—The Den has undergone an eerie transformation for the Halloween season.
A giant mummified skeleton stands above the entrance at 519 Felix St., reminding Downtown visitors that the speakeasy is indeed open and full of life despite the construction work and scaffolding in the area. Inside, creatures are crawling from underneath furniture, Halloween lights and decorations are spread throughout, and horror movie characters are standing around the bar.
Morphing the bar into the Halloween-themed pop-up, called "Scream at 519," took over two days. Jeff Waggoner, one of the owners, has a construction company, so his team of construction and bar workers banded together for the intentionally frightening renovation.
"They kind of went a little more extreme and wanted to go up a notch on all the decorations," Events Coordinator Brittney Chambers said. "They just want to always give the customers their highest expectations, and they want to make the customers happy, and they do everything top-notch."
The pop-up opened Oct. 9, and will last until Oct. 28. Scary movies are streamed on Wednesdays and Halloween trivia nights take place on Thursdays.
"Wednesdays we're doing theme nights," Chambers said. "The first one was Hocus Pocus, this week we're doing Scream, and next week will be Michael Myers."
Changing the theme allows employees to get creative with how they approach their work.
"We can go with the theme drinks, which are really fun to make," she said. "We use a lot of props and kind of go all out with the drinks, and we get to dress up."
A few of the Halloween-themed drinks include "Witch, Please," "Full Moon" and "Pumpkin to Talk About."
Waggoner said everyone at the bar enjoys bringing the establishment to life for customers.
"The Den itself is now becoming very quickly a place to go for new events and almost a miniature event space, really to do cool things, gather with your friends (for activities) that are out of the ordinary, which is our goal," Waggoner said.
Waggoner's favorite part of decorating the bar is seeing customers react as they walk in.
"That's where I get my most joy out of it is — they come in and they go, 'Wow,' because everyone respects the amount of time that you put in to do this type of work," he said.
Chambers said many of the customers who visited didn't expect the bar to have as many decorations as it does. Many of the decorations were a loan from a friend of Waggoner's, who allowed the bar to use decor from a haunted house.
"A lot of the stuff that we have here wasn't here last year, so we've definitely got different reactions from the customers, and it's all been good," she said.
This year's pop-up has been another chance for The Den to showcase the renovations it underwent at the beginning of the year.
"I think ultimately there is a great response to the Halloween pop-up, but there's also a great response for people that haven't been since we remodeled in January," Waggoner said.
Waggoner encourages St. Joseph residents to take advantage of The Den's Halloween experience and shop locally.
"Don't go to Kansas City," he said. "Stick around here, get the same style, all the same finesse that you would find in Kansas City at a cocktail bar — get it right here in St. Joe."
"Scream at 519" is open Tuesday through Thursday from 4 to 10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 3 to 11 p.m. Kids are invited to stop by in their costumes to take pictures with the decorations in the bar until 8 p.m.
When the pop-up closes on Oct. 28, it will make way for another holiday-themed pop-up that will start in November.
"We have had so many people ask about the Christmas bar as well, so we know they'll be back, especially once they have made it to the Halloween bar," Chambers said. "We know they'll be back for the Christmas bar."
