Of course when an email from the corner office comes across your computer you call. Even better when the person is honest and says "I'm not really experienced on how to write up a press release."
Well, I called up the company that made "tables that light up and glow' and set up a story. Seems they were excited to have me out to Halls.
If I had not gotten lost I would have been there on time. Sheesh.
BarChefs was a cool spot. As soon as I walked in, glowing furniture and products were all over the place. Owner Andy Lakatos greeted me, well after he was waving me in, along with his sidekick Kari. These two were making me laugh so hard I'm not sure how we got a story shot. I won't bore you with the details, but the three of us should probably not be let loose together.
Anyway, the crew had just returned from a trade show and were sharing stories.
Andy had been a bartender in the Knoxville area and saw a need for some portable glowing bars. He crafted one and out it on Ebay and voila some little liquor company.. you might have heard of it-- Barcardi, called with an order.
I'm pretty sure I am going to get a tweet about the fact that I just shortened his rise to fame into a paragraph.
Andy studied engineering and had a book of sketches and ideas that he wanted to create. He finally just spent all the money he had bought a bunch of tools and went to work creating these glowing products.
The portable bars have been pretty popular but Andy keeps testing things out and hopes to get a bigger space soon to create more products.
One of the coolest things that Andy says has happened, besides Bacardi, was seeing his tables on television at the Spike TV Video Game Awards. I'm sure he'll say that about this story as well, not.
Andy also takes special orders, he says, "If you can get the idea across to us we can do it."