Just in case you were curious...no, Teresa wasn't invited to the Grand Opening.
“ You won't ever see me on that [mechanical bull] before midnight, I'll tell you that.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You have to look really hard for clues that Whisky River, a new nightclub in town, is owned by someone famous in racing. That is, unless you know more about Dale Earnhardt Jr. than he usually lets on. Then the place immediately begins to make sense.
Don't come looking for racing memorabilia or a Martinsville-style hot dog. For that matter, don't come looking for any food at all (at least not yet, although a kitchen with presumed bar-food menu supposedly is in the works).
But if you are looking for that rare combination of country and rock-n-roll music, a little live music mixed in with a whole lot of dancing and people-watching and partying in a laid-back atmosphere, then this might just be your place. Oh, and don't forget the mechanical bull, which the nightclub's Web site promises to produce "the best eight seconds of your life."
Earnhardt invited the media for a look-see on Tuesday, when he explained why he is getting into the nightclub business and talked openly about how important it is for him to pursue interests outside of mainstream racing to protect his own sanity.
Of the club, he said simply: "I think it's a bit of Southern gentleman and a little bit of Carolina country."
A humble Web site
Check out the Whisky River Web site and you'd never know Earnhardt is one of the owners. There is no mention of it. There are no pictures -- or at least there weren't as of Wednesday morning -- of Earnhardt mugging for the camera.
The place is described as thus: "Nestled between the rising steel of Uptown Charlotte and the Bobcats Arena," Whisky River promises to be "Charlotte's crown jewel of nightlife and entertainment." For the right price, "your group can select just a portion of The River or you can rent the entire place."
Junior, at heart a simple guy who seems to most enjoy many of life's simplest pleasures, just wanted to own a place where folks could go and have a good, hassle-free time. His definition of that is having perhaps a few drinks and mostly listening to music. Yet he is smart enough to realize that many of his patrons won't have the same exact interests as himself.
"We wanted the bar to have a Carolina, country feel to it, but we didn't want to be known strictly as a country bar. I wanted to kind of weasel myself into a spot that was available, that nobody had covered. We play a little rock-and-roll, more rock-and-roll than country," Earnhardt said. "So it's old rock-and-roll and Southern rock early in the evening. Of course later in the evening you get into dance music. Everybody wants to dance on the dance floor, so you get into that kind of stuff later and it turns into more of the traditional sense of club.
"For the most part we tried to stay more Southern rock. It's kind of a challenge to deal with because you don't get a mass audience showing up to a bar like that. You get the locals or the regulars, the after-work guys, but you can't pack a bar with 1,300 people playing Southern rock all the time. We're just trying to give people a fun place to go. It's really more about who comes than anything."
Then again, Junior doesn't need 1,300 of his supposedly and frequently self-acclaimed closest friends to have a good time away from the track. A few truly close ones will do.
He credits one of those, former Daytona Beach bartender J.R. Rhodes, with helping him turn the concept of Whisky River into a reality. Rhodes is the mover and shaker behind the scenes, taking care of all the little details that have brought the place to life. Earnhardt also enlisted the help of a female interior designer, with the end result being a place that sort of is a cross between something straight out of Star Wars (you gotta love the little glowing lights embedded in the bar) and Gunsmoke, what with the aforementioned mechanical bull and imitation cowhide on the backs of chairs and VIP booths.
Speaking of the VIP booths, the Web site promises "it's the equivalent of being in the pits on race day ... you know, except for the 100-decibel engines and having to watch out for oil stains on the ground." That currently is the only visible reference to racing on the entire site, which, like the nightclub itself, is still going through the final, little-detail stages of construction prior to this weekend's Grand Opening for the public.
Tables in the VIP areas can be had for a mere $400 and $300, respectively, but before doth protest too much, that down payment is then applied to your progressive drink tab.
What's in a name?
The name for Whisky River comes from the Western-style saloon Junior built on his property just outside of Charlotte.
"I built that Western town right next to the creek on my property and we named it Whisky River after the Willie Nelson song," Earnhardt said. "When we started building this I was still with Bud, and we couldn't name it that. We had a bunch of other names that were pretty cool, but when we parted ways with Bud, I was like, 'We have to name it Whisky River. It's such a cool name.'
"We had other names with Junior in it and they sounded cheesy. People want to go to Whisky River. They don't want to go to Junior's Bar or Junior's Garage. That's just not my style. I don't wear my name on my belt. The name gives the bar a personality that I can't give it."
Yet when one looks closely enough, Earnhardt's personality is all over the place. It is a large and calculated part of its appeal.
No kitchen? Who cares? There is cold beer, a giant (and we do mean GIANT) bottle of Jack Daniel's behind the main bar, and, of course, the requisite coolers filled with 20-ounce cans of AMP Energy Drink to keep everyone going well past midnight.
On Thursdays, management promises to bring in "the best in local, regional and national acts from the worlds of country and rock 'n' roll." Recording artist Gary Allan, representing what Earnhardt considers one of the best combination acts of both worlds, was to play the stage for a special, invite-only Grand Opening on Wednesday. Members of select race teams, sans girlfriends, got the invite as Earnhardt reluctantly had to scale back the guest-list to accommodate the local fire marshal's occupancy limit.
The general public can begin wrapping its hands around the place this weekend. Or as the Web site says, folks can "experience the crazy Whisky Party that will have you wondering why you ever went anywhere else. Plus, you never know who might drop by and really Amp up your night."
The truth is, Junior won't be there all that much and will no doubt attempt to keep a low profile in a VIP booth when he is. He does have his day job, you know. And he is quick to remind everyone that he only owns a piece of the place; he doesn't drive himself crazy with the day-to-day details of running it, nor does he have all that much time to hang out there. His focus, he promises, is on driving the No. 88 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports.
It's just that everyone needs something to do on the side, something to occasionally take their minds off the rigors and pressures of a Sprint Cup race season that grinds on for nine and a half months.
"People think I'm on the phone wheeling and dealing, ordering the beer and liquor and positioning everything like I want it. I'm not the one doing that," Earnhardt said. "I'm racing in Phoenix, for crying out loud."
But folks can dream, can't they? After all, the Whisky River Web site also asks: "Can you just picture your boss standing on stage singing with the band? How about Eileen in accounting riding the bull?"
Eileen in accounting? We care even less about that than the fact that there currently is no kitchen. How about Junior on the bull instead?
"You won't ever see me on that thing before midnight, I'll tell you that," he said, smiling.
By Joe Menzer, NASCAR.COM
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