About a month ago we went to The Dopeness for the first time to have dinner, and I loved the vibe! Eating Mexican food while listening to hip hop beats = DOPE. The Dopeness is a cool spot, it isn’t just a restaurant, they have parties there all the time. Open Mic’s, Comedy shows, Art Exhibits and dance parties….Did I mention BYOB?!? In fact yours truly is throwing a Hip Hop Dance Party there July 24th, for the birffday (to find out more like my ChicpeaJC Facebook page!). Also right now the awesome artist Robert Piersanti (post coming soon) is displaying his work, so you must check this place out! #dope #dopeness
I went to an Open Mic event recently organized by Mr Wolf Juice (next one is July 23rd) while they were setting up I hit up Jon to tell me a little bit more about this dope spot and his hot wife!
What’s your name? Jon Webb Scanlon.
Scanlon? Yeah I am Irish, Mexican and Dominican
Nice combo. How long as The Dopeness been open for? Officially one year last month…I’ve owned it for 5 years… it was closed! long story…
What’s the history? how did you go about opening this place? I’ve always thrown parties… That’s the back story…. I am a designer by trade, I worked in retail, I worked for Diesel , Juicy Couture, Miss Sixty… I was a store manager in Manhattan at a bunch of stores. I wanted to open my own boutique… When I first opened this place, it was a woman’s boutique! It was street wear….very trendy. I did it for 6 months and that pipe over there, that sexy pipe. They shut me down for that pipe! 30,000$ and 5 years later we opened The Dopeness….
Within those five years I also opened a screen printing company which I own…. so I had a little more money and since there was a kitchen here… so I decided to fix it….
You decided to open a Mexican restaurant? yeah I am Mexican, I cook Mexican … so I went this way. We are working on getting a liquor license and this bar will be a whiskey bar…. I am very close to getting the liquor license.
Seems like you guys always have parties and events here…. Yeah we have open mics…. those are fun they go from folk to hip hop to karaoke…. its always different. Different crowds… you come one night and it’s all hipsters, on another night people are twerking… on another night you have people in their 60’s having a good time.
Are you from Jersey City ? Actually I am from California originally.
So why Jersey City? I am a city boy, I moved to Manhattan and loved it…. lived in the LES for a long time. I bumped into Jersey City , cause I was throwing after hours parties. …My friend John Fathom who runs 660 Studios.
I did a post about them!! He is my boy, we are very close. I used to fill his place up for a couple years…. consistently for a long time when Jersey City was still “young”… 5 years ago when it used to be more after hours…. That’s how we met…. Then I met the owner of this place and the second I had my hands on it. I took it! I love this city, I call it the secret borough!
It’s better than the 6th Borough! Fuck the 6th Borough.
By the way who is that? She is hot! That is my wife!
Shut the fuck up?! Thank you! haha. Its a family place, my cousins work here, my cook in the back is a family friend…. I am a cook too…
That is a very interesting combination! My father is 6’2 with Blue Eyes.
Other than The Dopeness what is your favorite hangout spot in Jersey City? Other than here I am notorious for being at Lucky 7’s.
What’s next for the Dopeness? The liquor license! I am so close….We are going to be a Whiskey bar because I am Irish and Mexican.
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