Pop & Hiss—a Bar-Record Shop-Live Music Venue—Soft Opens

October 15, 2024 – A strange sound—for Pacific Grove, anyway—could be heard coming from a new storefront last Friday night.

It was the sound of a touring artist playing live music in an actual club. (Yes, you read that right.) Amsterdam-based Jana Mila was there unspooling her own type of soothing and soulful pop Americana.

It was also the sound of history: Pagrovia hasn’t had a dedicated music venue in as long as I can remember, let alone one with this kind youthful verve, and it comes not long after the last dry town in the state added a nano brewery.

It was also a sound that can be best described as Pop & Hiss, the fitting name for the vinyl record shop-performance venue-bar that soft-opened this month, and a nod to the sound records make when the needle brings them to life.

Owner-operator Michaela Kuenster comes to the project after growing up in a family of professional musicians, working in television, movies and animation—with a detour as a school librarian that helped get her into Steinbeck country—and evacuating Los Angeles pre-COVID to find a different vibe.

“I still remember my tiny Fisher Price toy record player, and my dad’s a musician, so I grew up backstage, and collecting records,” she says. “I love records, I love bars, I love music. Why not put them all together?”

That synergizes with her core competencies.  

“It’s easy for me to try to make it good,” she says. “I worked in tons of record stores, played in tons of bands, so I’m coming from the inside. The authenticity of it, it’s me! I am not trying to open a French cuisine restaurant.”

Part of the soft-opening process is sussing out best operating hours. For now the stable part of the schedule includes Two Step Tuesdays with DJ Leo spinning classic country 45s starting at 5:30pm; DJ-driven Pacific Groove Wednesdays with Edison Tesla (of Salty Seal and Compact Disco); and various live acts Thursday-Sunday. The record store, for now, is open at those times and by appointment. 

“For now, our [uneven] hours make it feel more like a speakeasy than a regular bar or store,” Kuenster says. “It’s going to get more consistent when I get systems and employees in place.” (Readers can check Pop & Hiss’ Instagram and website to confirm open windows.)

Jeff White, general manager and program director at KRML Radio, helped connect Jana Mila with Pop & Hiss for last Friday’s show.

“I love having a venue that size because—while we’re fortunate we have Golden State Theatre and Sunset Center, those are 1,000 person arenas—and Folktale [Winery] is great, but limited by nature, literally, and a March to November season,” he says. “Pop & Hiss lends itself to small acts in the front and a place for bands in the back, and I like the idea of linking independent record labels we play on the air with an independent record shop.”

Seaside-based tour book author Stuart Thornton, a reliable (and repeated) oracle for food tips and bigger picture perspective on local attractions, provides further context.

“Pacific Grove got a heck of a lot cooler with the opening of Pop & Hiss and the brewery Hops & Fog,” he says. “To have a new music venue and a new microbrewery in a matter of months is big for a town known as the sleepy side of the Monterey area.”

A Type 90 liquor license designed for entertainment venues allows Pop & Hiss to deploy a full bar as long as there’s an activity happening, and invite all ages. That has enriched a diverse slate of performers, from reggae ska dads playing a version of Baby Shark to dance-offing kids—some of them Kuenster’s piano students—to EDM-leaning rave-style evenings.

Food isn’t required by the license but is by the city, so Pop & Hiss pulls in food trucks on its ample beer garden patio and does simple snacks on other nights. Last Friday, chef and Pop & Hiss collaborator Brendan Esons (Poppy Hall, Big Sur Bakery) prepped simple hot dogs.

Kuenster acknowledges navigating overlapping and unrelated rules around music, food, booze, water, planning and more—for several years—tempted her jump in the Pacific permanently, but her vision persisted. And she did too.

Now she’s re-energized by the early reaction from local audiences.

“When you’re so close to something for so long, you don’t get to pull back, like you’re working two years on a movie making costumes and painting the set and never get to see the movie,” she says. “Now I can step back and know why I was doing that! When people come and get so excited by it—and we have something different, and something for everyone—that’s cool.”

More at popandhiss.net and Pop & Hiss’ Instagram.