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The Evolution of Big Cans

Well, I told myself I wasn’t going to write anything about this place and give it more publicity than it deserves, but I happen to be downtown Friday night. While under the influence of alcohol after leaving my company holiday party at Haydn’s On Pine, I ended up following a group of my co-workers into The Hardware Bar.

bigcans.jpg Now if you didn’t read Sara’s column in the Patriot last week, or if you didn’t visit the corner of 2nd and Pine last weekend, you probably didn’t know, or notice, that Eclipse dance club and its lounge on the 2nd floor are no longer. They have been quickly remodeled into the new Evolution nightclub and a no frills bar known as Big Cans.

I won’t try to rewrite what appeared last week, but to reiterate, Evolution was created because owner Ron Kamionka believes he needs to recreate his spaces every few years to keep them fresh and exciting. I can only think that Big Cans was created because after the demise of South Street Tavern, he needed a place to sell cheap beer to the masses.

The 3rd floor dance area was cleaned up and seemed a bit brighter. Couch booths now run along the far wall and the two bars remain at either end of the room as it was in Eclipse. A fresh coat of paint and the metal decorations on the walls and tables made me feel like I accidentally stumbled into a modern art museum. I don’t recall much of the music since I was busy dancing and having fun in the drunken mess Harrisburg’s original entertainment complex intends to be the host of. The one thing I do remember were the piercing laser displays which seemed to burn my retina at 1:37 a.m.

Not much has changed of layout on the 2nd floor either. Some clean hardwood floors, a bar, and pool tables now call this space home. There was one thing, however, I don’t think I have seen, even in the days of the Vault… windows! Yes, the paint has been scraped off and you can now check to see if there are any brawls spilling out onto 2nd street before you stumble out at 2 a.m. From what I heard there were two fights that occurred just after closing time. Luckily I cabbed it home before things got too out of control.

The one added bonus to having a stripped down bar, a cleaned up dance floor and a big open area where scantily clad women dance on the bar is that you can now see them all for free. If you were once hesitant about paying $7 to get into the place with neon palm trees on the sidewalk, now is your chance to see the spectacle without paying a cover.

After shopping the concept of Evolution and Big Cans around to a few local message boards I was able to compile a few quotes about the place.

“Big Cans? Sounds like a place we’ll see a lot of fat-assed women. I can hear their theme song now… “Baby Got Back!””

“Lowest.
Common.
Denominator.”

“[Kamionka] says that nightclubs need to change to keep up with changing tastes….they don’t. What happens is he goes for bars that are cheap NOVELTY BARS and once the cheap novelty wears off, the customers lose interest. So he needs to come up with a new novelty, a new gimmick. TRUE nightclub owners know that if they concentrate on creating a quality venue, its legend will only grow and its name/brand/image will only become more and more powerful with time.”

“Sounds like this place might do well if it was situated next to a frat house….and featured wet t-shirt contests. Big Cans makes me think of big boobies…mmmmm, boobies.”

“Great. Just what we need, another bar for people to drink copious amounts of alcohol, binge drink, and take to the sidewalks and commit utterly stupid acts.”

Insert your own quote below.

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Posted by Bone on Monday, December 18th, 2006 at 11:19 pm.

13 Responses to “The Evolution of Big Cans”

Wow, this is all just too darn funny and I have no idea where to even begin! I guess I can sum it all up like so: Another failure? You betcha…

Left by dskillz78 on December 19th, 2006

I was sent a link to this posting and intrigued by its content and more importantly, its intent. I’m happy you had fun at the Hardware Bar. That’s what it is all about. People go to nightclubs to have fun. Hardware is programmed for strictly that purpose.
I find it fascinating that some people judge my businesses instead of taking them at face value. They are built and run to make a profit by appealing to the largest demographic. They are not trendy. They are not chic. They are designed to provide the product that appeals to the majority of people in central PA. I am not here to try to make Harrisburg into a cultural Mecca for nightlife. I am here to make the most profit in business, and that is done by volume. There are places that do a great job at providing a more cultured environment; I believe Cafe Fresco does an incredible job of serving that part of the market. I choose to appeal to the masses. I do not judge the people that don’t like my bars. Everyone has their own taste. I find it amusing that people judge me or my customers. I find it disturbing that they look down on people because of how they choose to spend their hard earned entertainment dollars. The “scantily clad girls dancing on the bar” went out all week long working at a job they probably don’t even like to earn the money to go out on the weekend and have fun. No one has the right to sit in judgement of how other people choose to have fun. If the Hardware Bar isn’t for you, don’t go. If you find my business too low brow for you, don’t spend your money there. If you want to criticize the way I do business, either tell me yourself or at least put your name on your criticism. You own that criticism just like I own my bars, my ideas and my mistakes (I’ve made a couple of them). But I do thank you for talking about it. It is better to be talked about than ignored. By the way, the name Big Cans was an idea about how to get the most amount of people to talk about the room, good or bad, so it achieved its objective. I find the most interesting thing about people who criticize my business model or my businesses are the one’s who end up there, buying drinks, dancing, having fun, but then have to socially cleanse themselves by bashing it. I would love to have an open forum to discuss my theory of nightclub evolution and hear opposing points of view. I actually welcome people’s opinion, as long as they are willing to have a discussion which includes current market trends, the impact of increased competition in saturated markets and ultimately what products are best for a market and how to maximize profitability with all those variables. If you can create such a forum….I’m in. If you just want to snipe about me and my businesses and my lowest common denominator patrons, have fun with that and remember to NOT attach your name to it. I will go on being the “Wal-Mart” of nightclubs and you can go on doing whatever it is you do when you are not judging or criticizing others. By the way, I have some good ideas about how to improve this website and make it a true window to Harrisburg Nightlife. I’m always open for a discussion.

Left by Ron Kamionka on December 21st, 2006

Ron: Instead of me rehashing my comments again, I will bring up a post of mine from the archives of this very site; sounds very similar to what you just said:

–Second, believe me, I will be the first to step in and bash Eclipse, The Hardware Bar, etc., whenever I can but it is the MARKET that dictates what is offered. If there were no market for Kamionka’s bars they would not exist. Is he bringing down 2nd St. because he is catering to the market? He is a businessman after all, and many do not care about their environment, what effect they may have on it, etc. Tom Sawyer’s is an eye sore and I scoff at the city for giving prime real estate away to such garbage. But I blame the people in Harrisburg even more for making places like that so popular (and profitable).

Yes, it can be argued that people only cater to these places because they have little choice. But I spent 28 years of my life in Harrisburg, and overall, it is a very simple market of people and I don’t see them accepting much else (and trust me, I take no pride in saying that). Sadly, IMO the AVERAGE Harrisburger would rather get drunk, fight, see the same people week after week, hear the same music over and over again, etc., than try something new. Unique places try in Harrisburg over the years and they almost always fail (or if they don’t completely fail, they teeter on the brink).

Harrisburg is what it is and I fear it will never, ever change. If you don’t like what you see now you won’t like what you will see 5 years from now. But that is not a bad thing for those who like it, and if that is your thing, more power to you. But for those who don’t, you are better off bringing your ambition, money and talent to places like Chicago, Philadelphia, DC, etc., etc. But fair warning: you will pay more than $5 for parking. ;)

Left by dskillz on August 25th, 2006–

I think Big Cans will ultimately fail because people will grow tired of it rather quickly. But I’m sure you have planned for that and will already have something else in the works by that time.

I’m not a fan of places like yours and I avoided them like the plague when I lived in HBG. Make no mistake, though, I have never said that they do not have a right to exist, and I don’t fault you at all for catering to the market in Harrisburg. Thanks for posting and it is nice to hear your take on things!

Left by dskillz78 on December 21st, 2006

I grew up on the West Shore and when Harrisburg “came alive” several years ago, I was thrilled. I had a boat on City Island, I had my college buds come from NYC twice a summer to visit and hang out. They loved 2nd street. We had a whole lot of fun for several years. I recently moved to Orlando and let me tell you, you “Harrisburgers” have it made. Orlando is 5 times the size of Harrisburg and I had a lot more fun in central PA than in central FL. Those who criticize the evolution of 2nd street and it’s bars have no clue.
I can only hope that downtown Harrisburg continues to grow and thrive and the nay-sayers shut up and go elsewere to show how “cool” they are.

Left by bell on December 31st, 2006

Ron, I would be more than happy to discuss the ‘evolution of nightclubs’ with
you and hear your view of how to exist in a saturated market. Where I come
from we had 48 full blown nightclubs (not bars with dance floors) in a 2 square
mile area. None of them catered to the lowest common denominator. None of
them catered to the masses. None of them considered themselves as Walmarts.
A couple of them did consider themselves as being the best in the country. One
actually was the best in the world. Let me know where I can contact you.

Left by Beryl on January 5th, 2007

Methinks Beryl believes he is more important than he is. I don’t know Ron, be he is doing a fantastic job with his clubs in Hburg.

Left by jojo on January 5th, 2007

Beryl, Frost is opening in February.

Left by floor9 on January 5th, 2007

Frost was supposed to be opening Sept 2005 then Feb 2006 then Sept 2006 -
Yawn! Just another example of rookie club owners making the industry look like
it is full of amateurs who just want to make a quick buck!! Biggest mistake you
can make is delay the opening of a club ….. no one wants the problems that
inexperienced club owners bring to a city. Is it true that these guys actually
BOUGHT their systems more than a year ago??? Word is that there is another
club - a larger club - that is planning to open in the area and if it caters to
to the same crowd, Frost will be closed before it is open - or change ownership
a-la Harrisburg.
That space is dangerous and not condusive to safely managing large crowds.
Also as to the dancers that they hired - how many of them have now graduated
college and are living somewhere else? To call these owners amateurs is almost
a compliment. They figure all it takes is a space (any space) a sound system,
some lights and an investor and low and behold you have a successful club. One
of them said “all the big clubs in the big cities have dancers”. They are
“performing artists - not dancers —- that comment shows that these people do
not know the first thing about club operators in ‘big cities”. Do they even
know WHY clubs use performing artists (dancers)??? If you do not know the
concepts how can you make it work?????? If all you can do is copy the big
clubs - what does that say about your creativity, experience and knowledge?
…… It is so obvious that these guys have never spent any real time
learning the business - they are making too many rookie mistakes …. sad since
if they were serious about this business they would have taken the time to learn
more about what they are trying to do.
It is like someone saying - “I have been to hundreds of clubs so that makes me
an expert on owning and operating one”. Look at the facts ….. Most of the
large successful clubs are owned by people who are the wrong side of 50 year
old….. there is a reason for that …. think about it!!!!!
BYW - Beryl is more important that you know ….. I would bet that SHE has
forgotten more about club operations than most club owners presently know.
Sorry to rant but seriously - COME ON!!!!!

Left by Danny G on January 8th, 2007

I am looking forward to going to Beryl’s “superclub” this weekend, during which I hope to experience the fruits of her knowledge first-hand.

Left by blogHarrisburg.com on January 8th, 2007

Have a great time in Miami!!

Left by Beryl on January 10th, 2007

No, I was referring to the Cameron Street “superclub” that we’ve been hearing about since … what was it, January 2004?

Pot, meet kettle.

Left by blogHarrisburg.com on January 10th, 2007

i think all here who have to bash the clubs should do 2 things: acquire some testicular fortitude and find a woman (ie-get laid) and 2, not venture downtown if they do not like it. it is the dragonfly we should be bashing considering it is filled weekly with wannabe thugs and criminals who disrespect the normal passerby or whoever is coming in and out of big cans/evolution/hardware. at the risk of making this a racial discussion i will leave color out of this as i believe it is the genre this attracts to the downtown area. the brawls you have proclaimed to have witnessed or should look out the windows for b4 you leave big cans, are caused by these people. but do we blame them or simply the music they listen to in the dragonfly? face it, hip hop today incites violence, degredation of females and is so about material items and how its so “hot” to have them, it forces the genre, knowingly or un, to fight others based on clothes or “hood”, hit on every female whom passes and steal anything downtown they can get their material hands on. i have lived downtown for 1 year now and have a $400 camera system watching my vehicle and doors at all times. my car was broken into 2wice and both times these wannabe thugs were found in dragonfly not only hiding, but consorting with known probationeers, parolees and known criminals. the “market” kamionka’s bars bring are people who are not about these forementioned things and are there to spend their good money and have a good time. lets face it, bars will always be a congretory medium which friends can celebrate the night or events or meet som1 special be it for the night or other. being from philadelphia and having lived in cleveland, baltimore and miami……i do agree these scenes are mediocre but for a city on the rise like hbg, its a breath of fresh air to release the weeks stresses be it with friends or female consort.
so to you Ron, thank you for making the effort to bring new visions to this lacquered city and be confident, as i know you are from what ive heard from Chico, these same people bashing your est’s are the same people lining the walls of the inside spending their time and money.

Left by a to the k on July 28th, 2007

[…] Downtown also got its first psychic. Long a staple of club towns everywhere, after-hours psychics are always good for draining those last few dollars out of the drunken patrons stumbling their ways home. This particular venue occupies the space left when Downtown After Dark vacated their facility (maybe to relocate to Wal-Mart?). I personally think psychics are a load of crap, but I couldn’t pass up the chance to stand in the door and listen as an eager crowd of already-drunk (at 9pm, no less) twenty-somethings got their palms read. […]

Left by Downtown Changes-- floor9.com on October 18th, 2007

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