A chef, a bartender, a comedian, a musician and a tattoo artist walk into a bar… and decide to go on tour. Though that’s not exactly how it happened, this was the scene at The Hangover Pub in Worcester this weekend as the city’s bacon-themed gastropub announced it’s going on a four-city tour in October – and bringing along a star-studded cast of characters. 

“This is five very different people coming together and showing what they can do on different stages in different cities,” said Jay Grey, financier of The Hangover Pub. The tour will kick off with a send-off event at The Pub in Worcester (details TBD), then stop in Providence, R.I. (Oct. 20); Albany, N.Y. (Oct. 22); Portland, Maine (Oct. 27); and Salem (Oct. 29).

“These cities all have very distinctive vibes,” said Grey. Upon arrival in each city, the guys will explore the area to capture its essence and uniqueness, which they will then use to customize their event and pay homage to the city – there will be local flavor infused in the dishes (all featuring bacon, of course), cocktails, music, tattoos and comedy. According to Grey, no city experience will be the same.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen until we get there,” said Grey. “We’ll have about 24 hours to figure out what we’re doing in that city.”

“That’s the fun part,” added The Hangover Pub’s Executive Chef Michael Arrastia.

The crew accompanying Grey and Arrastia – who will be assisted by Worcester’s Best Chef Competition winner Chris Bairos, of Amaia Martini Bar – on “The Way of Life Tour” are The Hangover Pub’s head bartender Nick Patchen; Sam James, a singer/songwriter from Sturbridge who is currently on a national theater tour with Boyce Avenue and Leroy Sanchez, and releasing an album in late September; Opie Ortiz, legendary tattoo artist from Long Beach, Calif., most famous for his work with the ska-punk band Sublime in the ’90s; and Paul Virzi, a stand-up comedian who is currently selling out Madison Square Garden with Bill Burr and has a Netflix special airing in October.

“Think of [the tour] as The Avengers, but with a lot more drinking,” said Grey.
According to Grey, the concept essentially started off as a restaurant pop-up shop tour. “The idea was that we were going to go from city to city and tour as a restaurant,” he said. “A lot of people do the food truck thing, but we wanted to do something very, very different than what other people have done.”

Grey said they knew they needed to do something bigger if they were going to make a tour out of it, so they added music, a comedy act and tattooing to enhance the experience. “The idea of this tour is to encourage everyday people to do extraordinary things,” he said, with the hope that the variety of entertainment will open people up to trying new things.

One by one, members of the crew started rearranging their busy schedules in order to join the tour. James said he moved some tour dates around, while Ortiz cancelled a trip to Japan because he “missed the feeling of being on the road.” They all saw this as an opportunity to be part of something that’s never been done before.

“It’s kind of like a traveling variety show, which was appealing to me,” said Virzi. As a professional comedian for 13 years, Virzi has only ever traveled on tour with fellow stand-ups and loved the idea of doing something different. “I’m always down for something new, a different challenge.”

“Mike and Jay, their passion, is what got me excited,” said James of why he joined the tour. “It’s really important, from an arts standpoint; if you’re not working with passionate people, you might as well go home.”

Since opening its doors to the public this spring, The Hangover Pub has quickly become a top spot, not just for those in Worcester, but for out-of-towners, as well, thanks to word of mouth and appearances on shows like Chronicle and most recently, The Phantom Gourmet. According to Grey and Arrastia, people come from across New England to get their fill of bacon-infused dishes and drinks at The Hangover Pub. “That gave us a little more confidence to know that we can pull off this tour,” said Arrastia.

Part of the motivation behind this tour is the desire share the love and expand The Hangover Pub brand beyond the Worcester-area market. “Worcester is absolutely, 100 percent going to get a taste of every single thing that we are doing [on this tour],” explained Grey as to why Worcester isn’t on the official tour list. “We never, ever want to turn our back on our hometown… But we also don’t want to deprive other cities that haven’t gotten a chance to listen to Sammy, haven’t ever gotten a tattoo from Opie, haven’t ever eaten Mike’s cooking, haven’t ever tried Nick’s drinks, and haven’t ever heard Paul.”

Grey and his gang will also be bringing along a camera crew comprised of Keith Shaffer and Johnny Hickey, of Moodswing Motion Pictures, who will document every aspect of the tour for a planned reality show. “We wanted to maintain full creative control, so we’re not shopping it to any networks until we’re done shooting it,” said Grey, adding that it will capture the essence of the tour, which is encouraging everyday people to do extraordinary things and for people to take pride in who they are. “I think that message is going to resonate with everybody from [ages] 15 to 75.”

Each event is limited to 200 tickets, which cost $199 and includes a tattoo, a concert, a comedy show and a meal. Drinks and custom merchandise will be available for those who opt out of getting the tattoo. A portion of the proceeds from the tour will benefit FIGHT (Film Intervention of Getting High Team), which was founded by Shaffer and Hickey to help prevent and bring awareness to the opioid epidemic.
For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.thewayoflifetour.com.

By Kimberly Dunbar