Mixing it up
Every night at the ECC lends itself to a different experience. From movies to dancing to potluck dinners, the bar is constantly reinventing itself. Steven Rericha, a 2003 Kent State graduate, summed up the ECC’s appeal on a night while working as a DJ. “It’s kind of a hippie place, I guess,” he says. The people who inhabit the bar lean back on the couch, hunch on their stools or stand entranced by the film being shown on the wall: Baraka, a film that explores 24 countries and cultures by dropping into each one for a moment. Bar patrons nurse their various drinks and get lost in the music and the visuals.

On a lazy Sunday afternoon in September, the vibe inside the ECC is much different. Owner Joel Jacobson hurries from the front to the back of the bar, preparing the room for his guests, who will arrive shortly for a potluck dinner.

Officially, the dinner is serving as a closing for an art exhibit. Paintings and pictures from Kent-area artists hang from the wall, and some of those artists and other ECC-regulars enter the bar with a variety of picnic food. “I got some wicked chili,” says Richard Meara, a 21-year-old senior political science major and member of the band Unicron. Meara and his band have been around the ECC since it opened, and he enjoys spending time there. “This is the best place to hang out,” he says.

For Ashley Besett, a 19-year-old Kent resident, hanging out is reason enough to stop by. “It’s very mellow,” she says. “I like the art.” The ECC has a relaxed feel, and Jacobson says there has yet to be a fight at the bar, which helps people feel safe.

At the potluck dinner, the bar was not crowded. No band or DJ played, and alcohol was sparse. But booze, music and rowdy crowds aren’t what personify the bar. The easygoing people who inhabit it epitomize the sense of community felt within. This crowd, this feeling, is what Joel Jacobson had in mind when he opened the ECC.

Seth Roy is a junior newspaper journalism major. This is his first time writing for The Burr.