Penticton

Live music pub The Hub on Martin ready to rock for soft opening weekend

The Hub opens its doors

Casey Richardson - Jun 8, 2023 / 12:22 pm | Story: 430918

Photo: Castanet

The stage is set, the drinks are cold and a new live music venue pub is hot.

The Hub on Martin has officially opened its doors in Penticton, welcoming in friends and family to test out the new digs before the big bands start playing and the crowds are in.

The team announced back in May, after taking over and rebranding the former Tug's Taphouse social media pages.

New owners and operators Kori Iceton and Loree Hubner told Castanet that Duane Jordan, the past owner of Tug's Taphouse, located at 260 Martin Street, connected them. Tug's Taphouse closed during the pandemic.

The partnership was solid and the two quickly formed a bond while getting their pub set up.

Iceton said they got the keys just three and a half weeks ago to the building and it's been "all hands on deck" to get it set for the busy season.

But their first soft opening on Wednesday went "really great."

"The vibe was good. The energy was good. It was nice to see the place filled with life again," Iceton added. "We're doing a second soft opening with live music. We have three different bands playing tonight. They just want to test out all the equipment and whatnot."

Tonight's soft opening event is sold out, but The Hub will open its doors Friday at 11 a.m.

"It's just seeing it all come together, I love how the stage turned out. It is so killer, like just the colour of red on the front of the stage. I'm just super excited about how all of that turned out," Iceton said.

"Just all the support from the community and everybody saying 'This is exactly what Penticton needs,' I think we really found a little market that hasn't yet been filled."

On Friday and Saturday nights, there will be a $10 cover charge after 9 p.m., which goes to the band playing that evening.

"We have Lucky monkey booked for Friday and Saturday night. We are accepting reservations for groups of eight or more. We just kind of want to open our doors and let the talk of the town kind of direct people our way just to not be too overwhelmed for this."

Iceton said they have been lucky enough to fully staff the business with seasoned employees that are excited to join.

"I just want people to come in. I want this to be the neighbourhood pub downtown. So when people are deciding where to go and where to meet up with some friends and have some good times I hope they choose The Hub."

For the rest of June, some of the bands booked include: