If there were a doyen of Valley nightlife, it would probably be Big Rick.
If you’ve been dancing in Northampton, chances are you’ve seen Rick Gifford. A fixture since the ’80s, the 51-year-old Gifford is well-known at local hotspots for working it on the dance floor from the moment the DJ starts spinning until the club closes — on weekends and during school breaks, that is.
In addition to being an enthusiastic dancer, he’s also a sixth-grade schoolteacher in Conway. He’s also known for being, well, big. When the six-foot-seven Gifford stands on the floor with his eyes closed and long arms undulating, he seems to lose himself in the music.
Mr. Gifford by day, Big Rick by night, he knows all the best places to shake it. Lately, he’s been spending his Friday and Saturday nights at the Blue Goose, Northampton’s newest place to dance.
“I find people there really have a great time,” he declares.
The Blue Goose is part of the 30,000-square-foot bar and restaurant complex on Strong Avenue that includes the Tunnel Bar, Deck, Platform and Union Station. Longtime Tunnel Bar bartender Jeremiah Micka bought the building last November with business partners John Rhoades and Dave Fortier under two corporate entities — Notch 8, Inc. and Harmonic Rock LLC.
The space had grown stagnant after Union Station and Spaghetti Freddy’s closed in 2011. In addition to the $2.55 million-dollar price tag, they invested $500,000 in renovations, including converting a banquet hall into the Platform sports bar and making the Union Station restaurant a tasteful wedding venue. They put up a new roof, overhauled the kitchen — and watched the crowds pack in.
The appeal is strong for diners and revelers who want a variety of experiences under one long roof. “You can bar-hop without going outside,” Jenn Leveille of Southampton said while visiting on a recent Saturday night.
Joel Veléz has been part of the security staff for about a year and worked as a bouncer at Platform since it opened last spring. He says business has been steadily increasing, especially since DJ nights started in September in the Blue Goose — a side room connected to Platform.
“We have been near or at capacity for the past few weekends,” says Veléz.
Tunnel Bar bartender Kate Kelly, who has worked there for almost seven years, can’t talk about the changes without smiling. She says there was buzz about Micka buying the place long before the deal was sealed and she is excited to have experienced restaurant people at the helm.
“They’re here all the time,” Kelly says of Jeremiah and his wife, Jessica Micka. “They just hit the ground running.”
Kelly says the day the purchase was finalized, the place filled with people — friends, family of the Mickas and their business partners — all eager to help in any way they could.
“Good food, good people, good beer,” says Omar Encarnacion, 24, as Platform bartender Jen Muska serves him and his friends a pile of wings on a Thursday evening. “It’s the place to be.”
Friend Denny Keo, 25, offers a clarification: “He means it’s where the ladies are at.”
Since Hinge recently changed hands and the new owner, Aaron Kater, chose to replace DJ spins with more live funk and jazz, much of the Main Street bar and restaurant’s former dance crowd seems to have migrated to the Blue Goose. Patron Charles Clarke observes, “There’s no other place that plays hip-hop.”
Now, DJs like Benny Black, who had a regular slot at Hinge, are spinning at the Blue Goose. Divas nightclub on Pleasant Street has a regular DJ schedule and plenty of room, yet the club is a bit outside of downtown and also fills hours with drag shows. The World War II Club on Conz Street has DJs on the weekends, but that space also sits off the main drag and the music is alternated with karaoke.
Customers who want to do nothing but dance say they are increasingly flocking to the Blue Goose, which offers DJ dance nights from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. every Friday and Saturday.
Visitors to the complex often enter through the Tunnel Bar, where new LED lights cast bright beams that arch along the ceiling as laughter bounces from one end of the old railway tunnel to the other. With upbeat music and cozy armchairs, the feel is hip and casual. The lighting and popular music contrast with an antique feel — dark wooden bar, three hanging chandeliers, old-fashioned cabinetry and staircase straight out of an old movie.
On a Saturday night, I make my way past the hordes of guests gathered around the bar to the stairwell that connects it with Platform and the new ballroom. I head upstairs, where even more people are entering from the double glass doors. Doormen with solemn expressions guard the upstairs and downstairs entrances, checking identification and stamping hands with smiley faces and thumbs-up signs.
In the sports bar, there’s barely an empty seat and 20 televisions display a football game between Florida State and Miami. Rock music on the high-tech juke box contrasts with the muted bass throbbing from back room DJ station. Tucked into the north side of the building, the Blue Goose is surrounded on all sides by glass windows. Red, green and blue lights run around the room. The dance floor is packed with a college crowd, a few couples in their 30s and 40s — and, of course, Big Rick.
On Saturday, groups of friends appear split by the activities — half of a group stays where they can sit and watch the game and throw back some Bud Lite, while the other half goes in and out of the Blue Goose. If the space did not offer both the sports bar and dance scenes, these friends might be forced to choose between their preferred activities and sticking together. I’m pleased to report that they don’t have to choose.
Born and raised in Northampton, Jeremiah Micka felt a connection with the Union Station space since he started washing dishes there at age 13. He and his wife Jessica — who have been friends since first grade and are expecting their first child in March — are at the wheel of the revitalized new venue.
For Jeremiah Micka, the building has been a part of his life for nearly 20 years. He left the space when he served in the military, but he came back and worked as a cook. Later he started behind the bar and then moved up to bar manager. As one nourishing his business mind as a marketing major at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, he often thought about how underutilized the space was and what he would do if it were his.
“I just rolled over one morning and I decided I wasn’t going to stop until I had it,” Jeremiah Micka says. “And she stuck with me,” he says, gesturing towards Jessica.
“I said, ‘You gotta try it, otherwise you’ll always wonder,’ ”Jessica Micka adds.
As we talk, a Pan Am Railways train rolls by. Passengers inside the cars are clearly visible from the Platform windows; the tracks run directly beside the building. Our conversation comes to a dead stop as we watch the train pass. When Jeremiah and his partners began negotiating the major purchase, the prospect of restored train service was just a rumor. Now, state-contracted workers busily restore the tracks that lay next to a newly awakened version of the former station.
The rumble of trains provides the perfect sound track for the renaissance happening inside the old station building. Says Jeremiah Micka: “It brings out the kid in you.”•
