Dill Street Bar holds grand opening

After giving the public a preview over the weekend, Dill Street Bar officially opened its doors Wednesday for its grand opening.

Attendees heard Dill Street’s new sound system, an amenity that wasn’t present for the soft opening that occurred during the weekend.

“If you want to max it out, it’ll rumble your chest, so I’m pretty excited to be honest,” said Jake Larimore, kitchen manager of Dill Street Bar.

Other features the bar added that they didn’t have at the soft opening included a gated entrance area and a 20-piece light system.

“We didn’t have our lights going, so there were general comments of ‘it seemed kind of dull’ compared to the old place, but it wasn’t finished either,” Larimore said.

Moving from the old location and renovating the new space with all of the new equipment took the owners and the staff several months to complete.

“I spent most of my summer, even though we weren’t open, setting everything up and taking everything down,” Larimore said. “Most of the stuff in here is pretty new.”

Still, the work paid off.

Dill Street reached capacity at Saturday’s opening for more than three hours and had a line that reached Calvert Street, making waiting time about 90 minutes, Larimore said.

“You can call it soft, but it was pretty wild,” he said.

Aside from the opening of Dill Street, Larimore said the addition of the new Cleo’s Bourbon Bar and Red Bird will make the block better for the local night scene.

“The more attractions you have in the village, the better the draw is from other universities and people coming to visit us, because we actually almost have a bar scene now,” Larimore said.

The new additions to the Village might be here this weekend, said Chris Ellison, owner of Red Bird, Cleo’s and the Silo.

“As long as we have our walk-in inspection go well, we will open Friday,” he said.

Friday will be the soft opening if construction goes as planned, Ellison said.

“This weekend is kind of just getting everyone familiar with the space,” he said.

Lola’s Tiki Bar, Ellison’s newest venture, will not open until mid-October, he said.

Even after Ellison’s bars open, Larimore doesn’t see the competition as a bad thing.

“Honestly, you can have as much competition as you like, but it betters everybody,” he said. “It increases the value of the Village.”