Spirit of the Entrepreneur: Ashley Street Station

Published 10:00 am Sunday, December 9, 2018

VALDOSTA — Being an entrepreneur isn’t always easy and everyone does it a little differently. Some open online stores, while others open brick-and-mortar storefronts.

Some go all in and invest their lives into a new venture, while others start a new business as something to do on the side. Regardless of the type, entrepreneurs help drive the local economy.

Bryan Gay, owner of Ashley Street Station, grew up in a family of musicians. His father played in bands in Quitman and almost half his family worked in the gospel industry in Nashville, Tenn., where he grew up.

“I was kind of grown that way to do music,” he said.

He later started doing live concert photography for bands such as Widespread Panic and other Georgia-based bands before moving to Los Angeles to do photography in Hollywood then in Atlanta.

When Gay moved back to Valdosta, he had a dream to reopen the old Ashley Street Station that was located in Downtown Valdosta. He worked as a bartender at the original location while attending Valdosta State in 1993.

When Gay reopened the bar between the intersection of Park Avenue and Ashley Street and the intersection of Bemiss Road and Ashley Street, he had three iterations of the bar in mind.

The first iteration was a dive bar that was hard to find and only a few people knew about.

“When we first opened, you couldn’t find it and that was the point,” he said. “In L.A. you can do that, but in Valdosta that eventually catches up to you.”

The second iteration is where the bar currently stands on Baytree Road: a place for local and touring bands to play live music.

When Gay moved the bar from his first location, he knew there would be several changes in how the business operated. The first location was small and had small bills, he said. Because of the smaller location, he could take losses on bands while still managing the business.

When it came time to move to a more mainstream and marketable location, Gay said he had to make changes to accommodate more of the walk-in business he would be attracting. He still has a time and place for heavier bands or punk bands, but he also tries making sure on nights he can anticipate walk-ins or new customers the music isn’t something off-putting.

“Are you running off more business than you are bringing in?” he said. “You aren’t helping live music at that point. Nobody wants to get on stage and have everybody hate them.”

The third iteration of the bar is “still in the noggin,” Gay said. He wants to open a thousand-seat venue in Valdosta for bands to play at, but he doesn’t want to build an amphitheater; he wants to renovate an existing, historic location such as a church or an old movie theatre.

Before embarking on the final phase of the business, Gay is expanding the walk-in appeal by opening a small record store that will operate during the day called Hole in the Wall Records.

“We added on the record portion because we heard Red Door Records was closing; we went down there to make sure she wasn’t reopening,” he said. “We don’t want to see this town go backward musically, and keeping records here was a part of it.”

Hole in the Wall Records buys and sells new and used records, buys and sells new and used record players and offers professional record-collection cleaning.

Gay’s head bartender knows about records and how record players work, so “it all kind of came together,” he said.

For Gay, the addition of the record store has led to finding a few surprises for him.

“I like going out and find (records) and going to Jacksonville and checking thrift stores and estate sales,” he said. “I’ve found four of my family’s records. That’s probably been the coolest thing is finding a picture of your aunts and uncles in a barn in Lake City, Fla. That’s been a really cool aspect to me.”

The record store is currently operating under a soft opening and will have a grand opening 4 p.m., Dec. 15. There will be live music, food, a giveaway and an opening ceremony.

“Please come out and help Valdosta continue to support original music and all music with the opening of Hole in the Wall Records new and used record store,” Gay said.

Ashley Street Station, 607 Baytree Road, Suite A and B, is open 5 p.m.-2 a.m. Monday through Saturday and 5 p.m.-midnight Sunday; Hole in the Wall Records and the pool portion of the business are open 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. For more information, call (229) 247-1686. 

Jason Smith is a reporter at The Valdosta Daily Times. He can be contacted at 229-244-3400 ext.1257.