Bargain Barn was the place to be on Thursday night (it's always the place to be but that's beside the point). There was a special event taking place that night that proved that the store contained way more than awesome products.
The event, Sips and Stars at the Barn, brought together many great local businesses in one place. Great food was available from Lemon Tree Mediterranean Grill and Hungry Inc., delicious craft beer was provided by Figure Eight Brewing, and awesome performances were put on by Chicago Street Theatre. On top of this, great shopping opportunities were had with new and unique items that were (and are) always at the Bargain Barn.
"We are very excited to be pairing up with some of our local businesses here at Sips and Stars at the Barn," Tevlyn Schwerd, Creative Director for Bargain Barn, Inc. said. "I had been talking with Chris [Mahlmann] right around the holidays and he thought that this space was yearning for a party. So we started brainstorming on what we could do. This is what we came up with! It will bring new people into our store and give others another reason to come see us."
The stage of the store was transformed as the actors and actresses performed their scenes throughout the night. Scenes from Snow Angel, the Teen Ensemble Studio project at Chicago Street were unveiled to show the great performances that were in store for those who attend the show on Friday March 14. Other sneak peeks at feature plays included: the well-known Romeo and Juliet, the Pulitzer Prize winning Rabbit Hole, and the hilarious Play it Again, Sam. Get your tickets for these shows by clicking here!
This isn't the first time that the Bargain Barn has partnered with Chicago Street Theatre. The awesome event, Little Black Dress Party, coming up on May 14, is another collaboration of these great businesses. Sips and Stars doubles as a preview of that event as well.
"We have gotten a lot of support from the Bargain Barn. They collaborate with us on Little Black Dress Party and we wanted to have an event before that...Karin [Woodside] came up with the idea of us joining forces and promoting the upcoming plays, the items that Tev and Nick have here at the store, Figure Eight, and the other businesses involved. We thought it was a cool idea to have an open house," Eric Brandt, Director of Marketing for the Chicago Street Theatre said.
Along with the live acting were paintings and color sketches of the upcoming shows at the theatre.
It was dinner and a show for the guests as they got to much on great eats like house-made hummus and pita bread from Lemon Tree and pulled pork from Hungry Truck, Inc. And meals aren't complete unless you have something to drink that matches the delicious factor. So Figure Eight was there with the solution: beer. Everyone washed down their food with the craft beer and root beer provided by the generous brewery.
"We came here to support our community," Neil Davey, Purveyor of F8 for Figure Eight Brewery. "Our beer is also served at Lemon Tree so this was a perfect event to come to. We are very happy to be here helping out."
While everyone enjoyed themselves, Bargain Barn remained open for business. One could get in some great shopping and pick up the latest trends for Spring while munching on felafel and sipping on Snake Pro. It doesn't get much better than that.
We love to bring people together for good reasons at Ideas in Motion Media. When you have great people doing what they do best under one roof, that kicks "good reasons" up a few more notches to flippin' great reasons"!
"We always love working with Bargain Barn as well as Chicago Street Theatre, and Lemon Tree. Those are all great partners that we work with, so we all came together to create this awesome event where they can promote themselves, promote each other and really reach out to the community and get to know everybody," Jenny Craig, our Executive Team Leader at IIM explained. "We've got food from Lemon Tree and Hungry Truck which is their market, entertainment from Chicago Street which is their market, and the event is here at Bargain Barn which means that traffic for all of these places will be in one place. This is very exciting and fun!"
Many echoed Jenny's sentiment. The evening was a success for all involved. If you missed the event, no worries, here are the photos from Sips and Stars in the Barn to look at so you can pretend like you were there. Be on the lookout for more information on The Little Black Dress Party in May and support local businesses!