Hoppers Corner Bar Opens Doors Off The Strip

TUSCALOOSA, AL. — It's been an interesting year to say the least for the owners of Hoppers Corner Bar, located just off The Strip at 508 Red Drew Avenue. Despite sustained economic tumult and work on the bar's renovations coming to a screeching halt due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Hoppers officially opened its doors on Friday, Oct. 16.

"We were thinking about changing it to call it Hindsights," said co-owner Evans Smith with a laugh as he referenced the uncertainty over the last several months. "But we were too far in the process with Hoppers, so we just stuck with that."

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The bar's logo features the mythical jackalope — a jackrabbit with antelope horns — and the name is derived from a play on the term "bar hoppers."

Hoppers is also a playful comparison of Smith to his celebrity doppelgänger David Harbour, who plays Sheriff Jim Hopper on the popular Netflix sci-fi series "Stranger Things."

"We jumped around on names a lot," Smith said. "That was one of the hardest things to figure out. There’s three of us and it had to be unanimous."

Smith, who is a first-time business owner, is joined by fellow co-owners Mike Musgrove and Alana Sasser. The trio closed the deal on the location, formerly High Tide Bar, late last December and immediately set out on improvement efforts until the COVID-19 pandemic forced a pause for several months with the closure of non-essential businesses.

"Then when all of that lifted up we started hitting it harder and got it all done," Smith said, with relief apparent in his voice. "We quietly opened the Friday of the Georgia game [Oct. 16]. We got our liquor license that Thursday, so we had to kind of bust through some hoops to get everything delivered, cold and ready to go."

The business is far from massive in scale, coming in at around 1,100 square feet, which is intended to provide a more intimate environment and experience for clientele. While the capacity for Hoppers is set at 49, the pandemic has seen that number reduced to 24 people allowed in at one time, including staff.

"If you could fit 50 people in here, it would look busy," Smith pointed out. "It's not really a blessing, but as far as the way we’re starting off, it kind of helps to only be able to have 24 people in here and work some of the kinks out first."

Smith went on to say Hoppers aims to cater to those in the service industry because of the backgrounds of the owners.

"We’re gonna be just a regular bar," he said. "We’re not going to do many fancy cocktails. We’re just going to have cold beer, Jack and Coke or whatever. Not to say in the future we might do some stuff, but right now we’ve got six [beer] taps and a full bar."

When asked about his background, Smith — a Tuscaloosa native and graduate of Tuscaloosa Academy — said he spent 15 years in the service industry at various establishments in the downtown area.

Going into business for himself, though, Smith explained that the stress of getting a new concept off the ground, coupled with the pandemic, had provided plenty of challenges and frustrations.

"The anxiety is crazy, because there’s just so much stuff we had to do and it can be overwhelming in parts, but once you get it open it all kind of goes away," he said. "We all know how to run a bar, but it was hard. We finally got it open now and can just focus on running the bar and then everything else will come with time."

Work on the barroom itself saw the interior of the business gutted down to bare bones as the new owners then set out to rebuild it. The changes include adding garage doors to the building's facade, table tops and outdoor bar tops made out of salvaged wood from lanes in the now-closed Bama Bowl and a glowing epoxy river built into the indoor bar countertop.

Physical renovations inside and out may have come to the bar with its new owners, but Smith stressed that the approach will also seek to change the reputation of the location as well, due to the past perception of the bar as a haven for underage drinking.

"We're adjusting to a younger clientele and we’re going to try to get away from that stigma," Smith said. "I know once Thanksgiving comes, all the students will be gone, so it will be a little weird with that, but we have a good following of people downtown who live here and won’t go anywhere and I think once the kids leave, [the locals] may come even more. Their biggest reason for not coming down here right now is parking, because it’s pretty limited."

Hours at Hoppers Corner Bar will be 4 p.m. until 2 a.m. on Thursdays, 3 p.m. until 3 a.m. on Fridays and closing at 2 a.m. on Saturdays, with opening times depending on the Alabama Crimson Tide home football schedule. The bar will also be closed on Sundays.

"I'm just excited about trying to get a good, quality product around here," Smith said. "This place has been a lot of different places in the 15 years I’ve been down here. We've still got to do some stuff, like putting some pictures on the wall, but we were just focused on getting open and getting regular patrons."

Click here to visit Hoppers Corner Bar on Facebook.

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