Feeling groovy: Yellow dog eats to host pop-up record shop

There’s a sense of nostalgia that comes along with listening to music on vinyl. That nostalgia is, in part, why some music lovers still are drawn to records.

“I personally like vinyl, because that’s what my parents listened to when I was growing up,” Justin Hall said. “I like the fact that it’s a tangible item. And yes, the sound does sound better. It sounds fuller.”

Hall is the owner of Triangle Vinyl in Clermont. He also lives about a mile away from Gotha’s yellow dog eats, which will be the site of a pop-up record shop from 6 to 9 p.m. Monday, Sept. 24. The pop-up record shop is hosted by Triangle Vinyl and Foundation College Park, which sells vinyls and vintage clothing.

Hall and brothers Alex and Peter Cohen, who own Foundation, are regulars at yellow dog eats. They said they started doing the record pop-up at the restaurant last year. 

“We’ve been eating there for a long time, and we just kind of came up with the idea … (of) doing a monthly pop-up shop or something around the holidays,” Alex said. “We did four of them last year — the first one was in August or September — and we did it all the way through the holidays.”

Peter said they chose yellow dog eats because they thought it would fit in with the restaurant’s atmosphere and the type of people who frequent the restaurant.

“We were expecting the yellow dog-type of crowd,” Peter said. “Doing a pop-up there, it just felt so right. It’s like a hippy barbecue, sandwich spot. It just felt perfect (to have a pop-up there).”

“The reaction has been great,” Alex said, adding the pop-up shop has attracted vinyl-lovers of all ages. “The very first pop-up we did, all the first customers were all teenagers. They were so stoked that there were records at yellow dog.”

Hall added although vinyl has always remained popular among collectors and audiophiles, a lot of younger music lovers are being drawn to it. 

“A lot of it — the comeback (of vinyl) — is because of the younger kids are buying it instead of CDs or downloading stuff from (online),” Hall said. “It helps that all the new artists are putting things on vinyl. It helps a lot.”

A lifelong music fan himself, Hall used to collect vinyl. These days, he sticks to just selling them from his shop, which he considers his collection.

“I can listen to whatever I want at any given time, and if I sell stuff, I’ll eventually replace it,” he said. “I used to collect and separate the two, but I found out that when people do that a lot of times, the real good records are kept for the collector. So I’m not putting out the best of the best if I’m collecting it for myself. I find that you have a better record store if you put out everything.”

Restaurant General Manager Phillip Ingram said the pop-up record shop helps bring in new faces to the business and also exposes his customers to the two record shops.

“It’s a great partnership,” Ingram said. “We get to introduce a lot of people to our atmosphere (and) our food  while providing a great music selection for them, so it’s the best of both worlds. They get to experience yellow dog and great music.”