New restaurant, music venue in Louisville
Waterloo Icehouse looks to gain reputation for good burgers, music 10/31/2007
By Ryan Want
Colorado Hometown Newspapers
Long and narrow, red brick walls, wood floors, bowls of pretzels on the bar, a small stage for live music and a patio in the back for warm summer nights complete with a bronzed-guitar fountain — The Waterloo Icehouse, located on Main Street in Louisville, has the feeling of an old watering hole that has been around for years.
However, the bar has only been open since September, but the familiar vibe can be traced back a few more years to owner Josh Karp’s youth in Texas.
While growing up, Karp’s father-owned a record store and managed and produced many local artists.
His father now lives in Colorado, but still has many friends and contacts in the music industry which has helped the Waterloo Icehouse book national talent. Karp says they book all types of musicians from singer-song writers to rock to bluegrass to country, just as long as they don’t play covers.
“We’re from Austin, where every night of the week you can see a show for two bucks or free,” Karp said. “Friends of ours would sit down and say it sure would be nice to have a neighborhood place to hang out at and we just figured we’d give it a try.”
Last New Year’s Eve was when Karp first seriously considered the idea of opening a bar.
“It’s chains, there are good chains, not a lot of locally owned spots,” Karp said. “Louisville got voted third best place to live and there’s nowhere to go.”
Karp had worked as a bartender in the past and figured he could handle that aspect of the business. He also knew he could save money on startup costs by doing all of of the construction and renovation on his own.
Also, Becky Hogan of Edge Consulting helped the City of Louisville provide business assistance for the Waterloo Icehouse based on generation of future sales tax revenue and utilization of existing vacant space.
“They’re a good Louisville company in terms of providing service to the community and an entertainment option,” Hogan said. “The city is pleased to have them.”
Last Thursday afternoon, the 28-year-old Karp, with closely-cropped hair, a goatee and stubble, looked relaxed as he worked in the bar dressed in jeans with holes in the knees, a white T-shirt, boots and black sunglasses. He even brought in his dog, Cash, to to keep him company as he completed a small project on the patio.
“I’ve owned a construction company which isn’t close, it’s easy compared to this,” Karp said. “This is all pretty new to me.”
For Karp, running a kitchen, hiring a quality staff, and figuring out what the clientele in Louisville desires has been the difficult part.
“When we thought about doing this place we thought about doing a bar with music and a really good burger, that was kind of going to be our thing,” Karp said. “Then we opened up and our clientele wanted more of a restaurant.”
As a result, the Waterloo Icehouse has expanded the menu to include more options and is adding a late night menu to be served after 9 p.m.
Karp says they’ve been doing a very good dinner business on Fridays and Saturdays. The bar has the ability to fit around 100 people at any given time and that on a good night 200-300 customers will come through.
The price of a burger at Waterloo Icehouse is either $10 or $11, which may seem high, but Karp, who tried to eat a burger at every place in Louisville before opening the bar, said he feels it’s priced fairly. Karp says that they only use Coleman beef and try to buy as much of their produce and ingredients from locally owned shops nearby, such as the buns they buy from the Marketplace Bakery that is located across the street from them.
“You can get a burger and get everything you want on it, a beer, tip and be out of here for 17 or 20 bucks,” Karp said.
Though home to a popular summer concert series, few would describe Louisville as a hub of entertainment and Karp is still not sure not sure whether live music in Louisville is viable three nights a week.
“To me, paying two bucks, even five to see a show is less than a tip,” Karp said. “But it seems like a lot of people would rather walk down the street and not pay two dollars and sit down and have a beer. It’s not worth it to them.”
One national act that came to the Waterloo Icehouse earlier this year was Dale Watson, an artist that Karp says sells out large venues in Austin for $25 a ticket. And while Dale Watson did draw a good crowd from all around Boulder and Denver, Karp said he was somewhat surprised at the number of people passing by who weren’t willing to pay the $5 cover charge.
One way the Waterloo Icehouse is looking to increase traffic for live music is by starting an open mic night on Thursdays, betting that many of the local musicians will bring their following of fans, friends and family.
The Waterloo Icehouse is hoping for a good turnout this weekend with Colorado’s elder statesman of the blues, 80-year-old Willie Houston and his band coming to Louisville on Friday, and The Indulgers, a Denver Based Celtic rock band, performing on Saturday night.
“We’re emphasizing high-quality food, service and music,” Karp said. “We think if we keep putting into it and supporting the idea, we’ll get a reputation and people will start coming.”
Go 4 It Services
Louisville Business is 4 Fast 4 Furious 12/5/2007
By Ryan Want
Colorado Hometown Newspapers
Michael Pettiford’s office displays the popular poster “Justification for Higher Education” that shows a garage full of expensive cars.
Though many have the same picture, few have a driveway that looks like Michael Pettiford’s — lined with decal-laden performance cars.
Pettiford started Go 4 It services 22 years ago in offering everything from basic driver’s education to high-end instruction and professional certifications.
In addition, Pettiford races both cars and motorcycles professionally.
“We're just trying to help people not get killed or have accidents in cars, motorcycles and buses. We have a system to do it, if you give us long enough we can teach it to you and it will work for you like it's worked for me,” Pettiford said. “I’ve been racing motorcycles since 1978 and never been seriously injured, and I haven't fallen down in a race in 20 years and I set a lap record last year on my Ducati. So it's not like I'm one of the old guys who used to go fast; we go faster every year.”
Pettiford said that racing professionally has kept him out of a lot of trouble.
“When I was a kid I had a lot of energy and did a lot of things I shouldn't have done on the street, and probably should've been killed on a daily basis, but wasn't,” Pettiford said. “So, for me, rather than paying high fines and always being in court, it's better to do it on the race track where they pay me to go fast. We switched it around and turned a negative activity into a positive activity.”
Go 4 It services has vehicles with cars in nearly every class. The fleet consists of Mazda Proteges, 6’s and Miatas; Pontiac Solstices; and, Chevrolet Camaros and Corvettes. Pettiford also has a good-sized collection of motorcycles with mostly Ducati 999R’s, but also a few gentler bikes for beginners to learn on.
“A lot of schools will give you cars that are watered down or set up so you can't possibly get in trouble. That's not how we do it,” Pettiford said. “The same car that I race and win and set a lap record in is the same car you can rent and see how fast you can be in it. Then we take you step by step to change your sequence to the correct sequence.”
Pettiford says that the Corvette is their top of the line vehicle because it offers the most “bang for the buck.”
“They give you the best performance, that's not even my opinion, that's provable,” Pettiford said. “Though, when I'm driving a Lamborghini, it's not like I'm not loving that, because I am.”
Pettiford has had the opportunity to test out the finest sports cars in the world.
“I get flown around to test different cars for manufacturers. We did a thing for Lamborghini, Ferrari, did testing for Speed Channel, I was on Speed Channel just the other day,” Pettiford said. “So it has really come full circle.”
Though specializing in one-on-one instruction, Go 4 It services also puts on team building seminars for companies.
“We blindfold the driver and put a co-worker in the passenger seat and have to set up some kind of communication system,” Pettiford said. “I think it's cooler than a ropes course or falling back and having someone catch you.”
Also, Pettiford and his team will do risk analysis for businesses whose drivers are having accident problems.
“We can usually find the problem and fix the problem,” Pettiford said, “because it always boils down to certain elements and once you get those elements corrected, people are going to be safer.”
With such a wide spectrum of services, Pettiford said the toughest part of the job is “Keeping all the balls in the air. There’s always a car that needs something, someone to call back, always more research to do, always testing. I'm never bored.”
Street instruction at Go 4 It Services runs $60 per hour for both motorcycles and cars.
“It takes about ten hours, our training is very high-level and rigorous,” Pettiford said. “You don't just cruise in and say 'got it' and head out.”
Instruction on an actual race track is offered for $600 per day on a motorcycle and $700 per day in a car.
“We have a lot of fun and we're trying to make a difference, like the commercial, trying to make the world a better place to drive, that's what we're doing person by person and we can make it happen,” Pettiford said. “We're not an insurance company. We don't sell cars, but we research about them. We end up being a very knowledgeable, non-biased, if-you-want-the-truth-talk-to-us place, and those are kind of hard to find in the world today.”
Local taxidermy shop a global attraction
No project to large or small 11/7/2007
By Ryan Want
Colorado Hometown Newspapers
Whether or not most teenagers know it, there's a good chance they've seen a Jonas Bros. product.
Besides providing the mounted moose-heads for Abercrombie and Fitch stores, Jonas Bros. Taxidermy Studio has “brought to life” nearly every imaginable animal at its factory in the Louisville Tech Center.
Jonas Bros. Studio is the oldest taxidermy shop in the nation and will celebrate its 100th year in business this coming April. Rocky Losasso and his wife Sharron first became involved in the taxidermy business in 1969 when they began producing the plastic molds for the original family that owned the Jonas Bros.
“Then through the years as they started retiring or passing away, I started purchasing different divisions of the company,” Losasso said. “It was back about 16 years ago we ended up buying everything out.”
A little over six years ago, Losasso combined all aspects of his business into the current location in the Louisville Tech Center. In all, there are 53 employees and Losasso is hoping that number will continue to grow.
In addition to the taxidermy studio, Losasso also operates a supply company for smaller taxidermy shops that supplies all of the necessary materials such as the forms, jaws, chemicals, resin, paint, scalpels and knives. Losasso estimates they have close to $250,000 worth of inventory in synthetic eyeballs alone. They even have a drawer full of eyes for albino animals.
Losasso says that they have over 7,000 different molds. Mannequins were once hand-made from materials like plaster and hemp. Over time, the standard mediums became paper and fiberglass. Today, artists first sculpt the mannequins out of clay and then they are turned into plastic molds that can be easily reproduced again and again. Losasso says that continuing to create new and innovative forms is key to driving repeat business.
“You start adding different ideas,” Losasso said, “and guys start realizing they need those, too.
Losasso estimates that only five percent to eight percent of their business is local. The rest comes from across the United States and all around the world. As a result, there are very strict regulations and precautions taken to ensure that they are not involved with stuffing any endangered or illegal animals. When the animal skins ares shipped in, often times from African safaris, federal agents are the first ones to open and inspect the packages.
“They're looking for disease, the skins have to be bone hard, can't be wet or have any fungus,” Losasso said. “The federal agents will also make sure there isn't any contraband. When they walk in they're full blown federal agents, no smiles, no 'how you doing today?' It's just like if you're under suspicion for arrest. There are no fun and games.”
In addition to the many exotic animals, Jonas Bros. Taxidermy does a lot of work creating novelty. Items such as lamps, rugs, even paintings on the inside of an elephant’s ear that are used by interior decorators and displayed in many offices and homes. Also, Jonas Bros. Taxidermy creates many fully-synthetic animals for people who want the look, but don’t actually want to use a real animal.
“We get a little bit of everybody, all the way from your once-a-year hunter or fisherman who goes out and gets his one-time five-pound rainbow and comes in and has it mounted,” Losasso said. “Then we have clients that we work with virtually year-round, that hunt extensively all over the world, who couldn’t care less what it costs. They want top of of the line, and whatever they hunt, mounted.”
There really is no project too small or large for Jonas Bros. Taxidermy. From the tiny salamander that sits in the office lobby to the fully-grown elephant mold that is currently being crafted in the workshop, they do it all. The total price of the current elephant project is close to $90,000 for the entire process and will be delivered using a Mayflower truck. Losasso said that the elephant is not headed for a museum, but is actually going inside the client's private home.
“Hunting is a passion like some people have with the golf course, they can't stay off of a golf course, these people hunt all over the world. That's how they spend their money. Those are the guys that pay the bills,” Losasso said. “It's not the guy who brings in a deer head once a year.”
Losasso acknowledged that there are many misconceptions about taxidermy shops, but stressed the technology, knowledge, craftsmanship and artistic talent that goes into each piece they create
“It's like anything, the more experience guys have, some artists are better than others, some mechanics are better than others,” Losasso said. “It's the same thing in the taxidermy world. I don't have a guy here with under 15 years experience.”
