How One Restaurant Owner Turned an Idea into a Thriving Concert Venue
Clark Crook has been in the restaurant business for a long time. When a building next to his establishment became available for purchase, he capitalized on the opportunity. Clark built 189 Public House in July 2014 from scratch after seeing the potential for one of the finest music venues in the country.
The venue has two levels with a capacity of 200. To create an intimate “theater in the round” experience, the seating and viewing areas almost completely surround the stage. The space is also considered a whiskey emporium, showcasing iconic distilleries from all over the world.
Clark envisioned 189 Public House being very popular and ultimately evolving into a national tour stop. In order to achieve this goal, he needed a way to sell tickets in advance through an integrated ticketing system.
We researched a number of options like Ticketmaster and we found that the best bang for our buck was with Ticketbud. You deliver a great value for the fees you charge!
Clark Crook, Owner of 189 Public House
Growing their audience was hugely important for the venue. Being the new kid on the block meant finding ways to spread the word in any way possible. Clark also expected a steady stream of shows each week and didn’t want an unorganized check-in process.
Ticketbud turned out to be perfect for 189 Public House. Clark, having formerly worked in IT, exclaimed that “to use a piece of technology and actually have it work is refreshing”. Offering online ticketing allowed the venue to utilize Ticketbud’s check-in app to quickly and securely get concert goers through the door. As each show ended, Clark had access to all ticket holder information on ticketbud.com ‘s dashboard so that he could send future updates about upcoming shows. This type of functionality helped tremendously in driving initial growth for the venue.
Clark also appreciated the ability to talk with Ticketbud’s star customer support team if he ever had any questions or suggestions. He said the ability to be able to talk to a human in addition to the working tech is a great 1-2 punch.
189 Public House didn’t have to waste any money on developing their own system, and Clark could easily post and create events using Ticketbud.
Our goal is to become a legitimate tour stop and we had set a goal of within a year…frankly it’s happened much sooner than that…without Ticketbud it would have been very difficult, we just had to point to you guys and you made it so much easier.
Clark Crook, Owner of 189 Public House
