A Night at Lasalle Kitchen & Tavern

On Monday, January 21st we hosted a party downtown at Lasalle Kitchen & Tavern to celebrate end of South Bend on Purpose Season 2. It was a movie.

A sold-out, one hundred and twenty person crew filled the third floor gastropub for two and half hours, enjoying chill records spun live by Ethan Marosz. Our primary purpose for the evening was to create space for conversation and if the photographs are accepted as evidence, it was a success.

We paused conversation twice during the evening. First, to introduce guests of Season 2 who were present, and second, to play for trailer for Season 3 for the first time in public. If you’re reading this, you can listen to that now on Spotify, iTunes, Google Play, and WestSB.com.

Each photograph in this story was shot by Helen Cramer. Enjoy the views:

Per request by Casey Dvorak, we mounted the bar for a photo to close out the night. Who are we to deny such a request?

Prior to Monday evening we were fans of Lasalle Kitchen & Tavern – we came up with the plan for Season 2 sitting at the South East corner of the bar – but after the evening we became true believers in the value of this space. It’s position up off the ground, understated stage, focused lighting, and long wrap-around bar make it the perfect space for connection (which ought to be the true measure of a pub).

To Mark McDonnell, owner of the Lasalle, and Casey Dvorak, manager of Lasalle Kitchen and Tavern – we’re so grateful to you for graciously opening your doors to our crew. You believed and invested in downtown South Bend long before it was cool and we take that seriously.

If you listen to the South Bend on Purpose Season 3 trailer, you’ll hear a brief, but powerful, quote from Mark McDonnell. In this upcoming season, we'll tell the stories of people who bet on South Bend by investing new purpose into old spaces, whether that's an old industrial building or a once lively plot of land; people whose internal purpose has manifested itself into a physical part of our city, and you better believe Mark is one of them.