Editor’s note: The soft opening was moved to April 18 at 4 p.m.
MANCHESTER, NH – Sonya Gelinas wipes her forehead with her sleeve, her hands covered in the dust of progress. She takes a break from hauling debris to the alley trash can to talk about her dream come true.
“It had to be five – maybe even ten years ago – I was walking past this place and I said, ‘I’m going to start a piano bar there someday,'” says Gelinas. She may have also been having a simultaneous flashback to the old Black Brimmer, which was THE downtown hot spot back in the day. But the point is, she had a dream and now, it’s become reality.
Gelinas and husband Josh Philbrick are deep into renovations at the grand and spacious corner bar and grill that has been through several iterations over the years. Keys Piano Bar & Grill is on track to open May 1, featuring Caribbean fare and glass-enclosed VIP seating up front and some configuration of a boozy smoothie juice bar, a nod to The Smoothie Bus, one of their other business ventures.
In the meantime, you can take the side entrance to the downstairs sports bar as soon as Thursday April 18 for some Red Sox action. They will be working with a limited menu until everything’s up and running.
“We’re hustling,” says Gelinas, giving a brief tour of the basement space, which will have a sports bar theme. It’s the upstairs, however, that will fulfill her vision of the kind of place that’s been missing from the city’s main drag.
There will be dueling pianos every Friday and Saturday night featuring a rotation of accomplished musicians who will field requests and hammer out crowd-pleasing tunes.
“We’ve contracted with a company that will be sending us different piano duos each week, so it will always be a little different, but interactive and fun,” says Gelinas. “We’re going to have Stormy Mondays which will be for amateur blues bands,” and other theme nights throughout the week. “We’re way open to suggestions.”
Their business partners, Kelly Hebert Ruggio and Tom Ruggio, are also putting in sweat equity as the four of them have been working day and night to completely renovate the interior. Gelinas said a new bar top is on the way and all the kitchen equipment has been replaced.
And they’re all in for the May 2 annual Taco Tour.
“We really want to bring back the energy and nostalgia of the Black Brimmer as the place to be,” Gelinas says.