They’ve picked a spot for their all-ages Wichita night club. But should Marty McFly stay?
Over the summer, a trio of entrepreneurs announced their plans to open Club His Hop Wichita, an all-ages Christian night club and lounge.
All they needed to do, they said, was find the perfect spot.
Now they have, though they’re trying to decide whether Marty McFly and Doc Brown will get to be a part of it all.
PC Patton, Darin Smalls and Greg Pianga say they are opening their club in the spot at 1021 W. Maple that most recently was home to 1985 Arcade Bar + Grill. That business, an 21+ arcade and burger restaurant, closed in the fall, but not before its owners hired a mural artist to decorate the west-facing side of the building with a giant mural of “Back to the Future” characters Doc Brown and Marty McFly.
The Club His Hop owners now are in the process of remodeling the space and and say they hope to have it ready by the time school gets out. When it’s finished, the space will have an outdoor basketball court, a covered patio with outdoor seating, and room inside for all sorts of safe activities, including live music, comedy shows, Bible studies, dance classes, concessions and more. There’s also space for a recording studio.
And club goers will be able to play vintage arcade games, the owners said, because the games brought in by the previous arcade owner stay with the building.
“We want to make a safe haven for kids to come to feel free and not have to worry about violence or chaos,” said Patton, a para educator and coach at Mayberry Middle School and who also is a hip hop performer, “a place where they’ll be in a Godly environment and just have fun and be able to mingle.”
The club will be under the umbrella of a Las Vegas club of the same name and will offer Christian outreach during the week and an alcohol-free, family-friendly nightclub environment on the weekends.
Patton, who met Club His Hop founder Sam Stewart in Las Vegas a year ago, took up the challenge to expand the concept into Wichita and pulled in two collaborators he knew from Church on the Street, a homeless outreach ministry that puts on weekly services in an alley near Douglas and St. Francis. Smalls is a general contractor in town, and Pianga is the onetime owner of The The Big Apple food truck.
After word of their plans started to spread, they said, people started offering to help in any way they could, volunteering labor, money and items. The community is eager for Wichita to have a place where young people can have fun and be safe.
“We want to leave a legacy for the kids, something we didn’t have,” Patton said.
The owners are having trouble, however, deciding whether to keep the Doc and Marty mural. They’re not so sure it fits, but people who find out where they’re opening always demand to know if they’re keeping it. They’re encouraging people to visit the Club His Hop Wichita Kansas Facebook page and weigh in with their thoughts.
I’ll keep you posted on the club’s progress.
This story was originally published January 29, 2020 at 5:01 AM.
.jpg)