Pizza Party At Plug & Taps
Saturday 8th October saw the first Pizza Party At Plug & Taps, and hopefully we can do some more in the future because it was a great night. An idea cooked up by Secret Industries, we hosted a party at my favourite bar in all the land Plug & Taps, with beers by Chain House Brewing Co, pizzas by Char de Feu, and merch by yours truly.
I've always wanted to do events as part of Secret Industries, but I’ve just never had the time or bottle to organise them. Now that I'm flying solo and I’m my own boss, it gives me the perfect opportunity to try new and scary things. I had also been stewing on a design for a pizza shirt for a very long time. Riffing on a top tier song by the Wu-Tang Clan, my shirt design centred around the slogan Pizza Rules Everything Around Me (P.R.E.A.M). I decided to combine both of these half ideas together and try to put on a party for the t-shirt release.
Over the past year or so I have developed quite a good working relationship with the guys at Plug & Taps, having previously installed a bunch of my artwork in their downstairs bar, plus working with them on some merch designs and even helping them brew a beer with Chain House Brewing Co. For the first Secret Industries event, there was no other venue I wanted to use. I went for a beer at the bar, and had a chat with Ben about my half-formed idea. “Oh I have a guy who does pizzas. We’ve been looking for an excuse to have him at the bar…” we also both agreed that Ryan (Chain House) should be involved, and just like that, the Pizza Party was real!
The next few weeks were a hurried blur. Now I had to actually make this thing happen. I finalised the shirt design and had to scout around for a reliable screen-printer, settling on Vino Sangre whose work I have admired for a long time. I designed flyers, posters and web banners. I made an event on Facebook and mentioned the Pizza Party at every single opportunity - I wanted my gamble to pay off. I even went the whole hog and sourced some pizza boxes to package my pizza shirts - these details matter. I also worked on restocking some of my other prints so that my stall would be well stocked on the night.
It wasn’t just me putting in work though. Ryan managed to find a keg of the legendary Hop Grinder beer that was left over from our beer collab to serve at the party. I pestered Charlie to come up with a vegan pizza to match my t-shirt design, and he not only agreed but came with an entire menu that covered everyone’s taste and/or diet. Plug & Taps made sure to stock some tasty AF beers for the weekend. And everyone helped share the promo posts and tell everyone to come and party.
Team work does indeed make the dream work. The Pizza Party was so much fun! Everyone came with their friends and we all had an ace time. I sold the entire stock of PREAM shirts in one night, Char de Feu ran out of pizza toppings, Chain House got through several kegs of beer and Plug & Taps were rushed off their feet. We all had such a great night, and I truly hope everyone that came down to support us enjoyed themselves. When can we do the next one?!
Pizza Rules Everything Around Me. Beer tastes better up North. The North IS Ace
