Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrew Earley.
Hi Andrew, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers.
The idea for our space started as an adaptation of a coffee shop that I used to work at called Baxter’s Cafe. We were able to use the space for concerts, poetry slams, organizing, and all sorts of community events.
Eventually, that space and I parted ways, along with one of my good friends who was working there with me, and we decided that we could put together something even better. After being joined by his wife, we got into a lot of planning, writing business plans, conceptualizing, etc. and we were able to invest in some property in Marmalade…Which ended up getting tied up in red tape for about a decade.
During that time, I volunteered weekly at a local animal sanctuary with some good friends, one of whom was booking DIY concerts in town, and had been for about a decade. After losing a handful of spaces, he was looking at doing a more legitimate space and reached out to me one evening to inquire if I would like to bail on the project that had been spinning its wheels in red tape for a decade and join with him on a different venture in the heart of downtown, at what had been the Bar Deluxe building.
I thought for a moment and asked, “What is the address of that bar?” with a pretty good idea of what the answer was. He responded “666 S. State St” and I immediately told him “Let’s go first thing in the morning.” After that and some rather reckless planning, we decided to shift our focus from the project that seemed like it would never come to fruition, to creating our community space and event venue in what would soon become The Beehive.
The friend that I had left Baxter’s Cafe with had taken the 10 years to teach himself to code and had started a career in game design, leaving myself and his wife to undertake the creation of what would be Mark of the Beastro, but fairly quickly into the process we realized that our visions were different enough that parting ways made the most sense, and as mine held more closely to working well with the music venue and event space, I took on the rest of the process of opening the restaurant alone. After fighting with architects, city planners, banks, credit unions, contractors, and pretty much everyone else we were able to finally open our doors after 3 long years.
Our first year was a struggle, as all restaurants will tell you, and immediately afterward we started a long arduous journey through a global pandemic. Not the best environment for a new niche restaurant and live music venue… but we were able to cut back costs, stay relatively safe with a whole slew of safety precautions, and claw and fight our way through.
After the stresses of Covid, my business partner had decided that his heart wasn’t truly in running a music venue anymore, so he stepped down and I took control of the entire business. I knew that the odds of us surviving as a DIY music venue and community space were slim.
So I approached one of the sound techs who had been with us from the beginning and had taken on the role of maintaining the technical side of the venue and had become a close friend, and suggested that we band together and create an arts non-profit… and with the help of some friends and lawyers and a bit of luck, Alternative Arts and Music Program Utah was born!
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
We have struggled every inch of the way! Running a DIY space is already a harrowing journey, with little money and a lot of responsibility, and a restaurant is no easier… but we’ve managed to squeak through by the skin of our teeth!
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Before everything else; I’m an artist and creative first who happens to run a business. I have painted and drawn my entire life and recently found a lot of rewards from oil painting. I also have performed and written poetry in the local poetry slam scene for years, and since moving the slam to beehive I have been involved with the poetry scene again.
I also love cooking, which is a pretty important part of owning and running a restaurant, and love expressing myself in the kitchen creating exciting dishes and challenging myself by pushing new exciting vegan concepts.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up.
I think getting my first dog as a 12-year-old boy and just spending all of my time with her for the next few years takes the cake. RIP Samantha.
Contact Info:
- Website: AAMPUtah.org and Markofthebeastro.com
- Instagram: @beehiveslc @markofthebeastro
- Facebook: @markofthebeastro and @aamputah
