So, after a hard day's work, you know, you've been slaving all day, and all you could think of is like a nice, ice-cold drink.
I got your back. If you're in Lesleyville, the place to be is Hitch.
Let's rock.
Live in my life with no regrets To get the right, the right to celebrate
Celebrate, yeah Celebrate, yeah
Celebrate, yeah You gotta fight for your right to celebrate
Celebrate, yeah
We're here at Hitch, and I'm here with the owner, Douglas Tiller.
We're just gonna ask you some questions about Hitch in Lesleyville.
Alright, so first question, how long have you guys been here?
About just a little over a year and a half.
Right.
We've been in January of 2013.
And I was wondering, like, what kind of inspired you to open up a bar?
I don't know. I've lived in this neighborhood about eight or nine years.
I've had a couple of different businesses here, and I just, I don't know.
I thought the neighborhood needed a bar.
There's lots of fantastic restaurants around here, but there isn't anything that I felt was just sort of a straight ahead kind of just that.
Right.
So we were talking earlier, and you said that there was a couple of things that you, that you were running before you came to Hitch.
So, like, what were some of the things that you were doing before?
I had a little breakfast place originally in Corktown, a little place called Morning Glory, which is still going now.
I don't own it anymore, but it is still running.
After that, me and a couple of friends opened an espresso bar just about three blocks down the street called Murphy.
And I've just recently sold that, but that is still running as well.
And, yeah, this place opened, like I said, about a year and a half ago.
What makes Hitch special? What are some of the things that you guys have going on here?
Well, I mean, like I said, I guess what makes it special or makes it different than other places in the neighborhood is the fact that it is just a bar.
We do have a little bit of food, and we also, a friend of mine owns a restaurant around the corner. It's like a takeout place.
So they deliver directly here, that sort of thing.
But I think, yeah, the fact that we are a ultimately just a bar, which is different for Leslieville, because, like I said, there's fantastic restaurants.
We have a trivia club that we do every second Monday.
We have DJs. We have every Tuesday night, we bring you our final night.
We have Sunday nights, we have movie nights, so every Sunday we come here, hang out, watch some movies, get some free popcorn.
It's awesome. See, you thought that vinyl was dead, you kind of bring it back.
Vinyl will never die.
What kind of vinyl do you find people mostly bring in?
You know what, it's pretty mixed. Yeah, it's quite a cross sort of section of what's available.
They're like, you know, we're picking vinyl the other night, and you know, followed up by the repo man soundtrack.
Pretty much you bring it in, we'll play it.
Awesome.
So what's your signature drink? You're thinking you don't really have one, but...
Yeah, I wouldn't say we have a signature drink.
I mean, well, we have a drink called the Hitch, which is because of the fact that the bar is named after Christopher Hitchens.
His drink of choice was Johnny Walker Black with a soda.
So we have that, I'd say probably his popular cocktail.
He had a superb mustache.
And so, I didn't know, so who's Christopher Hitchens?
Christopher Hitchens, he died about two years ago, but he was a writer, a journalist, a debater.
Was he kind of like the inspiration, or did you like some of his work?
Well, yeah, I mean, I'm definitely a fan of his.
But he's also sort of like, he was also very well, you know, drinker too.
So, you know, kind of makes sense.
I'm a fan, he likes to drink, I'm open to your bar.
So, awesome.
Thanks for having me come here.
And yeah, I really love how this place looks.
It's very nice to get a lot of nice work there.
It's really unique, really special.
So yeah, so thank you for having me.
Thanks for coming.
