A new sports bar, nightclub and upscale cocktail lounge are ready to take their place in Columbia’s nightlife scene, and they’ll all have two things in common: an owner and an address.
That address will be 119 South Seventh Street, host to the new My House. Dan Rader, who ran the now-demolished Bengals under his parents’ ownership, is planning to open My House later in September.
“We wanted to take our favorite parts of the nightlife industry and bring them into one,” says Adam Lowe, the co-general manager of My House and a fifth-year student at MU. “What we’re doing here is totally new and exciting.”
Rader hired an audiovisual company out of Chicago to design and install the technological elements of the nightclub. He didn’t skimp on the electronics; even the walls involve high-tech displays of light and color.
“Considering the area you’re in, it’s definitely not a standard thing for nightclubs and bars to have,” says Tim Pickett, president of the Chicago audiovisual company Encompass AV. “I’m sure it’ll blow everyone in Columbia away.”
Wondering how this place will work or what you can expect? We've got all you need to know about this new nightlife hybrid.
How can you have both a sports bar and a nightclub in the same space?
The first floor of the building will have separate areas for the sports bar and the nightclub. Before 11 p.m., the sports bar works as a normal sports bar, and the nightclub area will work as extra seating for the sports bar. After 11, the TVs will go off, the lights will go down, the walls will start changing colors, the music will pick up and the whole place will get a lot clubbier.
What should we expect in the sports bar?
The sports bar will serve a regular drinks menu and focus on being what Rader calls the “bread and butter” of a college town. According to Rader, all the TVs are 60 inches or larger, and his aim is for the bar to become a game-watching destination. But My House plans to be a little classier than the average sports bar. “You’re not going to see a lot of Mizzou memorabilia and black and gold,” Rader says. “Every other bar has that stuff. We wanted to do something a little different.”
And in the nightclub?
Rader’s focus on technology means lots of lights and motion. The club will have a a full bottle service menu, a disc jockey, jumbotrons, lasers, confetti and CO2 cannons. “This will be a legitimate nightclub,” Rader says.
Should we expect the same kind of crowd here that Bengals had?
Not quite. Rader says he expects the over-21 college crowd, but he says he plans to be much stricter about IDs than Bengals was. The cocktail lounge will be for an older crowd: fifth year seniors, graduate students and young professionals.
Speaking of the cocktail lounge, how does that fit in?
The second floor of the building and the connected rooftop patio will be branded as The Attic, an upscale cocktail lounge. This lounge, too, will become fairly clubby after 11 p.m. It will have its own DJ, like the nightclub, but the music will be more varied and less “Vegas-style,” according to Rader. People who enter The Attic will receive a wristband to access My House, but it won’t work the other way around.
Tell me about the cocktails.
The Attic will place an emphasis on fresh fruit and herbs. It’ll have signature cocktails and twists on standard cocktails, such as an blood orange old fashioned. Their specialty will be four-person cocktails presented in a French press: think fancy pitcher. The Attic plans to prepare them tableside. The customer will choose from different ingredients, allow them to steep and press the plunger when ready to drink.
That sounds fancy. Can I afford it?
These creations are $24, so they come out to $6 a drink. The drinks in The Attic should be in the $6 to $8 range, while the prices of drinks downstairs will be comparable to prices at the other bars in Columbia. As far as cover goes, both The Attic and My House should be fairly competitive with the rest of the city. “We won't do anything crazy with it, so it'll probably be five dollars,” Rader says.
And there’s an outside patio?
Yes. Rader says the outdoor patio was something he wanted to carry on from his experience at Bengals. It will have a casual, party vibe, and eventually it’ll have its own bar. When it comes to football season, he wants to make it “like a big tailgate.”
When can we expect to see this place open?
The main floor of My House, the patio and the indoor section of The Attic will all open on Friday, Sept. 30. Rader hopes to open the rooftop patio and the kitchen about a month later, but he says they will still be able to cater food for events before the kitchen opens.
Rader says he doesn’t plan on doing anything special for opening weekend. “There seems to be enough pent-up demand, particularly among Mizzou students,” he says. “I think it’ll be crazy.”
