07/17/2024
Fairfield’s former armory to get new life as auditorium, bistro
Andy Hallman
Jul. 17, 2024 1:47 am
FAIRFIELD – The former armory in Fairfield that has sat empty for a few decades is undergoing a transformation, and will reopen next year with a state-of-the-art auditorium on its south side and a bistro on its north side.
The two entities will be known as the Blue Rose Ballroom and Blue Rose Bistro, respectively. The building they are in, built in 1910 as Fairfield’s armory, is located at the intersection of East Broadway Avenue and North B Street. Over the years, it has hosted concerts, dances, basketball games and later was the home of an antique car collection. It hosted a few concerts in 2004 and 2006, but was seldom used in the ensuing years. The building’s former owner, Paul Glossop, sold it to Alex Stanley in early 2020 when he and his friend Stephen Cardinal got the idea to start a kombucha bar in town.
“It was basically going to be Café Paradiso with kombucha instead of coffee,” Stanley said.
Cardinal was the one who proposed the name “Blue Rose,” a reference from the David Lynch TV show “Twin Peaks.” Cardinal has taken the lead as designer on this project, while Fairfield real estate landlord and developer Chris Johnson is the project manager. Cardinal, Johnson and Stanley wanted to host live music events, and they invited their friend Tim Carbone of the band Railroad Earth to look the building over and give suggestions. Johnson said that meeting with Carbone inspired the team to be ambitious.
“He said the only way this will work commercially is if you make it an elite live-recording and video-streaming [facility], and Alex agreed,” Johnson said. “When it opens, sometime next year, we’ll be one of the top live-recording and video-streaming venues in the world. Everything is hand-crafted, all the woodwork.”
Johnson said the team is purchasing exotic marble terrazzo from Creative Edge to install in the building. Remodeling the building’s interior to make the north side suitable for a bistro required taking out some of the load-bearing walls, but the wood from those walls was not thrown away. In fact, it is being repurposed and will be used to create the bar’s countertop.
Stanley said the quality of the sound and lighting systems in the newly rebuilt auditorium will rival any in the country.
“The auditorium is fully acoustically treated, and will have the best sounding sound system on the market,” Stanley said.
The Blue Rose Ballroom will use sound equipment from a company called Clair Global, which Johnson said is regarded as the top sound company in the world. That company will be in charge of the audio, video-recording and live-streaming equipment.
“It’s a huge get to have them come in and do this,” Johnson said. “Alex wanted perfect sound and acoustics, and these guys will achieve that.”
The auditorium will not have permanent seating, but instead will have an open area around the stage. Its standing capacity will be 900 people.
“For the type of artists we will bring in, they prefer that people are standing,” Johnson said.
Stanley said the auditorium will have three, 4K cameras that could be controlled remotely and would be perfect for live-streaming not just concerts but any type of event such as a seminar.
“If a band wanted to make a live DVD, they could record their performance here and it would be utterly beautiful,” Stanley said. “The venue itself will be spectacularly beautiful with all the old wood, the brick, the finishes and the amazing lighting. It will be the premier live venue for filming.”
Stanley said he hopes that all these improvements will create such an over-the-top facility that major musical acts will consider coming to Fairfield.
“This PA system is so powerful, and frankly oversized for the room, that you could treat people’s kidney stones with it,” he said. “It is amazing.”
Fairfield residents may remember that Stanley was the driving force behind the creation of Petra Park, south of the Fairfield Arts & Convention Center. After the Tribune building formerly located at that spot partially collapsed and was then torn down in 2014, it was just an empty lot until Stanley purchased it. Stanley wanted to honor his late wife, Petra, who died in 2016, and he agreed to give that land to the City of Fairfield on the condition that it become a park.
Stanley said that he was miserable after Petra’s death, and he credits Cardinal for helping to get his life back on track.
“He gave me a new life purpose, to spend the rest of my days being the proprietor of this crazy place and all the wild and wonderful things we can do in here,” Stanley said.
