A broken dentist’s chair. Tattooed waitresses. Shots of absinthe. It’s not exactly what you’d expect from the average bar on Guadalajara’s fashionable Avenida Chapultepec.
Pulp bar, however, likes to do things differently. Squeezed between an Italian restaurant and a parking lot, this small bar could easily go unnoticed. Luckily, it doesn’t. After all, it’s hard to ignore a 50’s inspired rockabilly bar with pin-up waitresses and punk music.
Priscila Tamariz is the creative spirit behind the Pulp bar concept. She grew up listening to The Ramones and by the age of 14 had her first tattoo. An encyclopedia of punk and rockabilly knowledge, Priscila was well prepared to create Guadalajara’s first rockabilly bar. Nonetheless, she is quick to point out that Pulp is a bar for everyone.
“It isn’t just a bar for punks, tattooed-people or rockabillies. There are seniors, the super trendy people, the hardcore punks and the rockabilly fans. All types of people come to the bar. It’s synonymous with cultural heterogeneity.”
“Pulp,” she continues, “is a medium to explore alternate cultures. If you see a group of punks you’re not likely to go and talk to them. But at Pulp people have the opportunity to ask us questions about our tattoos, about our ideas. It’s a way of teaching people and increasing tolerance.”
For the waiters at Pulp, the job offers them a space to be themselves – nose-piercings and all. Many of them are refused work on the basis of their appearance. With flaming red hair and multiple tattoos, Priscila admits that she too has had trouble finding jobs. What most people don’t realize is that underneath the punk-rock aesthetic, lies an highly intelligent businesswoman.
Priscila graduated from the ITESO, the private Jesuit university in Guadalajara, with a masters in Communications and Philosophy. Upon recommendation, business partners Rafaele Matrone and Angie Guille offered her the task of reinventing the space that is now Pulp. “It was a difficult decision to make,” she says, adding, “I’m not selling tortas ahogadas. At Pulp I utilize many of the skills I learned in university.”
Pulp has benefited greatly from Priscila’s business savvy and creative direction. Since it first opened in May last year, the bar has enjoyed a full house every night.
“What’s good about Pulp bar is that it’s a concept that doesn’t grow old. It’s not like electronic music or the fashionable music of the day. Once the fashion has passed, those bars that have attached themselves to it fail as well.”
Pulp bar shows no sign of failing. In addition to its original rockabilly-punk ambience, the bar also features live music every two weeks on Sundays, an exotic cocktail list and the opportunity for its clients to program the music for the night with their iPod. This September, the bar will open for the first time on Tuesdays with a program called Band Night. On these nights, an entire discography of a band will be played.
For Priscila, the greatest challenge is “to continue innovating, continue offering new products and diverse activities.”
Despite the bar’s success, the work has brought its fair share of problems for Priscila. “My boyfriends have not liked that I have my own business, that I earn more than them, that I work late at night and that I like to dress up – not for anyone else, but for myself.
“I’m at the age where I want to concentrate on myself. Every now and again my parents ask why I don’t have children, why aren’t I living with my boyfriend but what’s most important for me right now is to concentrate on myself and my business.”
Pulp is located on Lopez Cotilla, one block from Chapultepec. Look for the large Bette Page poster and experience this cultural phenomenon for yourself. You can find out more about Pulp from their facebook page: www.facebook.com/pulp.bar.
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