A thriving bar with a storied past is a melting pot for people and music in Lawrence.
The Gaslight is all right
Despite it's small housing, the Gaslight packs a lot of entertainment. Visitors can drink a beer on the porch or enjoy the music within.
By Chris Brown, Jayplay writer
On a crisp mid-winter Monday night in late January, a small bar dimly lit in sultry red and garnished with Far-Eastern decor invites an eclectic crowd in from the cold streets. At 11 p.m. here at the Gaslight Tavern and Coffeehouse—one of Lawrence's newest fixtures for live music—there's a handful of people seated at the small, L-shaped bar, some older, some younger, some dressed in tight jeans and vintage T-shirts, some dressed in corduroy pants and oversized hoodies. Regardless of age or appearance, patrons smile, laugh and relay stories about musical experiences of the past.
Explaining the reasons she makes it a point to be at the Gaslight almost every Monday night, twenty-something KU graduate student and Lawrence resident Hannah Treiling says she loves the music and the variety of people the bar brings in.
"The atmosphere is very laid-back here," Treiling says while sketching a tree on the bar with chalk just brought by bartender Melanie Coen. "Plus, puppies can come inside and I don't know where else they have Honker's [beer] on tap."
Honker's Ale on tap and chalk to draw on the bar are just two of the appetizers for the main course that is changing every night: the music. Coen lists punk, hip-hop, reggae, indie-rock and bluegrass as categories of music that can be heard regularly at the Gaslight.