Niagara Falls business reinvents itself as salon, bar and eatery
Speakeasy-style cocktail lounge added to downtown haircutting business
You can call it the sneaky little bar inside a hair salon.
With COVID-19 wreaking havoc on businesses, Kellie Crossley was facing the possibility of having to close her Color By Kellie salon and barbershop, which has been open for nine years on Queen Street in downtown Niagara Falls.
But rather than give up, she decided to take loans the government was offering during the pandemic and “reinvent the wheel of a hair salon.”
“We would have had to sell the building if we wouldn’t have reinvented ourselves. We’re trying to rebuild ourselves and pay back that loan. Hairdressing (alone) just isn’t going to do it anymore, it’s not enough, unfortunately, with the economy that we’re in now,” said Crossley.
“Instead of giving up, I decided to use every inch of my real estate. I ended up putting in a fully licensed bar in my hair salon and eventually added food. The health board had to make a new policy and procedure because no one in the Niagara region has ever had food, liquor and hair services.”
She said for the past eight months customers have been coming in not just for haircuts, but also to enjoy hand-crafted cocktails and other alcoholic drinks at the No Tell Cocktail bar.
Crossley’s partner, Adam Wlodarczyk, manages the food aspect, with a homemade menu that changes weekly, while Crossley manages the bar, where she’s known to craft her own “funky” drinks with various ingredients.
The hair salon and bar are in the same 93-square-metre space but separated by a sliding door.
“We had to make a wall that can open and close, so if we’re going to prepare food we would close that wall, so no airborne hair, but then at night we can keep it open because we don’t do hair at night,” she said.
“We don’t put a big bar sign outside. We try to make the bar at night like an old-fashioned speakeasy. We put advertisements out (on social media) and people kind of like coming and finding this place.”
Once customers enter the building at 4661 Queen St. they’re met with the cocktail bar area, surrounded by tables, framed wall photos and paintings, a jukebox and a Pac-Man arcade machine. Further back is the hair salon.
Crossley said the bar has special nights dedicated to painting, tarot card reading, comedy shows, competitive games and live music.
“It’s become quite a local hangout,” she said.
The salon is open Tuesdays to Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., while the bar is open Thursdays to Saturdays, 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. and Sundays 3 p.m. to 2 a.m.
“One night, nine Santa Clauses walked in and a bachelor party and then nine bachelorettes walked in because they were all hairdressers and they wanted to see what we were doing,” said Crossley.
She said some people like to have a drink while getting a haircut, while others go to the bar after they get a new look, or maybe even later that day.
“We just try to say 5 o’clock (for the bar) because sometimes guys will come in and all of a sudden they’re arguing about football, so, after 5 argue about football, but during the day don’t do that. That’s the only reason why we more pump the bar at 5.”
Crossley said the bar is building momentum, especially with people staying at vacation-rental properties.
“When they Google speakeasys and cocktail lounge, we come up, so we get a lot of Airbnb people, and then my social media, that’s what brought those bachelorettes in, they were from Buffalo, but they kept following our social media,” she said.
“In Toronto, they have all these sneaky restaurants now, so you go to this bookstore, and you have to know, and then you open this certain shelf and the restaurant is back there. We’re not that sneaky, but it’s kind of like our idea of what we’re doing by not putting (up) a big, huge sign that says bar. It’s more if you know, you know.”
Crossley said there are three employees on the salon side and three on the food and drink side, with plans to add more.
“The one thing I like about this place is a lady could come here for a glass of wine by herself and feel safe. It’s not that kind of place where there’s ever going to be a fight or trouble. We sort of filter that out.”
With eight months of operating the bar under their belt and feeling as though they have the proper “flow” under control, Crossley said she and Wlodarczyk are preparing for a grand reopening on April 10.
She said while some other Niagara businesses offer hair and alcohol services, her hope is that her model, which also includes food, will open the door for other establishments to follow suit.
“Now, luckily for them, we did make a new policy, so you might see more of it — and good for them. If five more cocktail lounges opened on this street, it’s better for us because the Queen Street shuffle, you know.”