It’s a slow process, but we’re making real progress on my new cocktail and coffee bar, Kerry Lou’s LLC, soon to be doing business as The Dreamland Lounge. Yes, after filing the original paperwork with the Secretary of State’s office, I decided to simplify the name of the restaurant/bar from Kerry Lou’s to Dreamland Lounge. It’s a stretch but the new name still keeps the “LOU” in “Lounge” preserving my previously-wanted nod to my mother, who named me.
This renaming idea came about as every time I spoke of my new bar, Kerry Lou’s, the person with whom I spoke would always ask, “Where’s that?” Then I’d have to explain it’s on the first floor of the Taborian Hall, home of the famous Dreamland Ballroom.
Wrapping it all up.
So, to wrap everything up in a nice little easy to understand bow, I started calling it the Dreamland Lounge and instantly everyone knows where it is and what I’m doing.
Deciding to do business as Dreamland Lounge sent me back to the Secretary of State’s Office for what is called a Fictious Name Change, commonly referred to as a DBA. The filing takes a couple of days, but it hasn’t slowed the progress.
This week I took the required Arkansas Beverage Control (ABC) class. While the instructor was explaining how many of Arkansas’s current liquor laws were shaped in the early 1900’s, after Prohibition, she took a detour and veered off into a fun little history lesson about “cow shoes” worn by bootleggers during the Prohibition era.
Cow Shoes?
Documented in folk lore, pictures, and newspaper articles of the times, bootleggers and moonshiners would sometimes strap wooden blocks carved to look like cow hooves to the soles of their shoes. The idea was to throw off the authorities who would see cow prints and assume livestock, not people, had passed that way.
Al Capone’s bar in Dreamland Lounge
Knowing that Dreamland’s, recently installed, antique bar is circa 1918, Prohibition era, and that it came from Cicero, Illinois, a known mafia town for Al Capone, I’m trying to think how to incorporate the “Cow Shoe” story into the theme of the Dreamland Lounge’s folklore of history, storytelling, and a little outlaw charm.
I’m having so much fun building this new business…can’t wait to share it with everyone!
About the Author
Kerry McCoy founded FlagandBanner.com in 1975 with just $400 and a dream, building it from door-to-door flag sales into a multi-million dollar enterprise. With over five decades in the American flag and banner business, her insights into patriotic trends and flag sales patterns come from serving customers nationwide during times of celebration, crisis, and everything in between.
Kerry is also the host of “Up in Your Business with Kerry McCoy” radio show and continues expanding her business empire through Kerry McCoy Enterprises while sharing the entrepreneurial wisdom gained from decades of building the American dream.
