Kate's Moustache Wall

"Have all of these people ate here?"

That was a question that Kate & I had to field more often than you might think.

I was in charge of the west wall in the customer lobby, while Kate decorated the east wall.  Beginning in March 2019, she began coming up with a list of celebrity moustached men, had some friends print out the color photos at their respective work & I collected frames from local thrift stores to house those 8 1/2 x 11s.

It was a lot more work than you would imagine.  Kate said that the hardest part was positioning the frames together & keeping them straight.  She also removed the glass from each one so there would be no unfortunate accidents.

This went on for almost a year- adding to the wall exponentially until it surpassed the century mark & the wall was filled out.  By March 2020 (right before Covid-19 struck, mind you), her collection/puzzle was complete with a total of 103 frames (pictured below).

From Randy Marsh to Jimi Hendrix to Tony Gwynn to Albert Einstein, none of the famed men had eaten at Mad Munch.  But, the fascination with the popular facial hair prompted many passersby to stop in & take a look.

"Can I be up there?" a young man with a handlebar stache would ask, "I can bring you a photo."

Or, "I met so & so, once.  He was a real nice guy."

And, "You know who you need up there?  _________."

What was meant to be something to look at after you placed your order, became more of a distraction that took away from what we were trying to do, which was to get people to try our Cheezers.

It takes a lot longer to become established than you think it will.  These men on the wall had done their time, by one measure or another.  And, Kate & I were slowly finding out that when we opened up the store, we were starting all over again.  

It was as if market & brewery life was like high school & college.  When we upgraded to a brick & mortar, we had thrust ourselves into the Real World: "When people stop being polite...& start getting real."