Looking for something very UN-Valentine’s Day to do in Denver this weekend? (And next weekend? And the weekend after that?) Check out the French Punk pop-up from local event company Thrice (not the band Thrice – I know, I was initially confused too). Thrice was founded by Denver designer Abigail Plonkey to create one of a kind events with a focus on food, drink, and design. I got on the phone with her recently and she told me how Thrice started, all about her past projects, how the French Punk pop-up will work, and what she has in mind next.
Interview with Abigail Plonkey, founder of Thrice
Aimee:
Thanks for taking the time to talk with me. I’m super fascinated. What you’re doing is just totally up my alley, so I’m excited to hear about it.
Abigail:
Thank you!
Aimee:
So, can we just start at the beginning and tell me a little bit about you, and Thrice, the company? What you’ve been doing and how you got here?
Abigail:
Yeah, absolutely. Thrice started as a passion project. The reason I call it Thrice is I always focus on three things within these pop-ups: food, drink, and design. And it really just came from those three passions. That turned into now a full-time career. Denver has responded well to it. My background is interior design and branding. I was at OZ architecture for about ten years leading the brand design studio, and applying my interior design know-how to restaurants – I’ve worked all over the country. I started my own business called Maximalist. Just actually a year ago that I went out on my own and did that.
Aimee:
Good for you!
Abigail:
Thank you. Two sides of my business. Maximalist is like the permanent installation, interior design, the concept, the brand. And then Thrice is more of that but temporary. I think the pop-up term has been widely used lately.
Aimee:
Yeah. For people who don’t know what that means, can you explain what a pop-up is?
Abigail:
So to me, my definition of it, is that it’s immersive, it’s temporary, there’s an artful component of it. And like if you’ve heard of Meow Wolf, like Meow Wolf meets food and drink. So you have this immersive environment and this temporary experience. But the excitement about it is that it only lasts for a short time. So it’ll be gone. And my whole thing is that I don’t want to repeat it twice. So it won’t be in Denver ever again. I take it all over the country, I look at it like a music tour and plan to just take each of these to like-minded cities like Austin and L.A. and New York and all over. But the excitement is that it’s not going to be there again. So the temporariness of it gives us a little bit of room. Because it’s always tough on budget and execution, but I have this strong vision that it always incorporates those three things.
Aimee:
This must be really hard to pull off.
Abigail:
So, I collaborate with different artists and designers, fabricators, chefs, bartenders. Everyone, every corner of the industry that comes together. And we create this underground world that lasts for a short time and then it all comes back down. But we get to use ordinary materials interestingly. And my thing is that I want it to be fun and provocative and slightly strange. I want people to tilt their head and look differently and experience something that they wouldn’t expect by just reading the verbiage on the website or seeing social media. I like getting out and around social media, out from behind your phone and connect with people and experience something new.
Aimee:
What are some of your past projects?
Abigail:
The first one that I did was Korean Barbie-Q. I think that’s the one most people in Denver have heard of. We actually took that one to Reno, just for Burning Man. It lasted a few months. More of a takeover at a bar. And then I’ve also done events for Aspen Food And Wine. Did an event for Denver startup week. One was called Chroma. It was all color immersion of the senses that we did with Uchi. So we’ve had some amazing partnerships and great chefs and locations and teams that we’ve been able to work with to bring these to life.
Aimee:
And the new one is called French Punk?
Abigail:
So, anything that’s been done, I try not to repeat anything like that. So, what you’ll see is like in each of them is they’re dynamic and layered, and there’s a lot of components of different eras tied into it. Pop culture, obviously the food being an inspiration, a core element about taste. But really taps into all of the senses. So French Punk came from just the series of different concepts that I developed way back when. And the vision of it is that it’s rebellious. It’s this anti-establishment, it’s the spirit of the punk culture. All with like a French twist. The two paired together well.
And they also are a good contrast from one another as well. Because it’s not what you’d expect from just French punk. They’re actually there is a genre that exists called French punk on Spotify that I found. But taking that more of the industrial and the Bohemian aspect of French and tying that into this punk era. And being that it’s starting on Valentine’s day, I really aimed to make this a very anti-Valentine’s day. It’s not what you’d expect. It’s great for like a Galentine, bring all your friends together and more of a social club and atmosphere.
Aimee:
I can tell you that my husband and I hate Valentine’s day. This sounds like something that we would love to do.
Abigail:
Yeah, I mean, it’s fun. It’s just something different. So you know with every communication that we put out there I’m like, don’t lump this in with Valentine’s day events. Because it’s so anti, you know we have drag queens that are coming from Orlando. They are top finalists and Dragula and RuPaul’s Drag Race. True performance artists that are bringing a fun element to the first opening weekend for us. They make all of their costumes, there are special effects artists and make their wigs. This is a true art form.
Aimee:
Absolutely.
Abigail:
So, I’m excited to bring that to Denver. And then the other side of the space, we’ve got a pretty large like 5,000 square foot space that we’ve split in half. It’s something for everyone.
Aimee:
Where is it actually being held at?
Abigail:
At 1855 Blake Street. It’s a corner. The corner of 19th and Blake.
Aimee:
The very corner?
Abigail:
Yeah. It’s like the last empty, vacant space at Dairy Block.
Aimee:
See, that’s why I was confused because I didn’t understand the location. Like where it was when I saw Dairy Block.
Abigail:
Yeah. I know it’s hard. Because it has an address but no one recognizes it. So they’re all going to try to go to Run For The Roses.
Aimee:
Right.
Abigail:
Or meander around the Dairy Block. So it’ll be an adventure or trying to get people to find it.
Aimee:
Well, good. We’ve just clarified that, at least!
Abigail:
But you can’t miss it once you turn the corner there’s a gigantic graffiti on the outside of the building that says “punk’s not dead.” And so, this space itself is just very different from all the finished spaces in Dairy Block. This is very like raw warehouse-type space. I didn’t even know it existed. I think most people will be surprised when they find it. But I think we’ve helped push Dairy Block a little out of their comfort zone.
A different world too. They haven’t had something quite like this come to the block yet, but we basically have split the space in half, so you have a large space for the drag show that’s sectioned off that’s ticketed to enter and you can still access the bar. And then the bar side is no cover; it’s a cash bar. First come first serve philosophy with that one. It’s just a cash bar.
Aimee:
I saw that there are all kinds of different ticket levels.
Abigail:
Yes!
Aimee:
I mean, it seems like you can pick and choose which type of parts of the event that you want to attend.
Abigail:
Exactly. And I think that’s something most people maybe haven’t grasped yet because I think there’s so much about it and I know it’s overwhelming. There’s a lot of different activations throughout the month, but that’s like one thing I would really love to communicate to people. Is that Run For The Roses pop-up bar is open to all, and it’s just more like: get there early, so you don’t have to stand in line.
Aimee:
Sure. That’s great. I do like that because, again, sometimes things like this can be overwhelming that you’re going to have to dedicate your whole weekend or something. But you could just pick and choose pieces of it to add on if you’re doing it.
Abigail:
Right, and every weekend is something different. So the opening weekend is the drag focus. We have the brunch on Saturday and Sunday, and then the next weekend it’s more of a dance party, discotheque we’re calling it. And then Saturday the 22nd is a night Bazaar, so we’re working with several different vendors to bring some cool retail with a French punk twist to it. We’ll also have a salon there that’s going to be doing faux hawks on people.
Aimee:
Oh, fun.
Abigail:
Little Black Church is going to be doing flash tattoos.
Aimee:
What does that mean?
Abigail:
So, you can pick basically from like a small sheet of tattoos that the artist has developed that are based on the theme, and you can get a tattoo inside the space. It’s a quick, inexpensive immersive experience.
Aimee:
Wow. Yeah. So flash meaning fast? I thought it was just a different style of tattoo I had not heard of before.
Abigail:
Flash is more like event style focus that more people can get them done, and it’s just a select few that you can choose from. So usually they have a flash sheet of like 12 to 24 different tattoos you can pick from. So it’s not like a custom tattoo. Steven, who owns Run For The Roses, who’s my partner in all of this, is opening his tattoo shop the same week.
Aimee:
Oh, that’s great. I saw Run For The Roses is doing the cocktails.
Abigail:
Yes.
Aimee:
And then, did I miss who is providing food?
Abigail:
No, I didn’t mention this yet. So that’s Kelly Whitaker. He owns Basta up in Boulder. Dry Storage, Bruto on the block, Wolf’s Tailor. He’s got a great selection of different brands in his collection, and he’s doing the brunch.
Aimee:
Amazing. And then I saw that also the proceeds are benefiting the Matthew Shepard Foundation.
Abigail:
Yes. All like within the spirit of anti-hate, anti-violence, anti-homophobia, anti-racism, and just like this “anti” spirit, we really felt like this love all message behind it. So we’re calling it a love revolution. Benefiting Matthew Shepard. There was such great alignment with that and with their foundation and really help in giving them exposure. But also yeah, they get to benefit from some of the proceeds of the event along with Noble Grain Alliance. That’s Kelly Whitaker’s nonprofit as well.
Aimee:
I love that.
Abigail:
Yeah, they’re sponsoring the brunch portion of it. And our message around that is “free the baguette!”
Aimee:
I love the fun and humor behind the serious message that you got going on. It seems like a fun way to celebrate that feeling.
Abigail:
Yeah. Definitely.
Aimee:
What’s next after this? What do you have up your sleeve after French Punk?
Abigail:
As I said, I have a series of other concepts that are just like burning a hole and have to figure out how and where I’m going to execute them. They will come out where wherever I can find the right space and location and partnership within those. I’m looking at potentially some other food and drink festivals as well. And then who knows? It’s exciting because each of these translate into something new afterwards. Or like during the event, maybe we’ll meet someone that comes through like, oh my gosh, I have this site for you… We’d love to have you bring your pop-up here. So I have a few that I could tease out. A few of their names are… One is called Microwaves.
Aimee:
What does that stand for?
Abigail:
It’s all about the 70s era.
Aimee:
Like how we all sat and ate dinners in front of the T.V.?
Abigail:
Yep. Yes, exactly. It’s all about retro analog, fancy T.V. dinners.
Aimee:
I love it, that’s great.
Abigail:
So that I’m excited to do. And then another one is called Cosmo Tropical, and it’s David Bowie meets outer space meets Tiki bar.
Aimee:
Oh, I’m apparently going to just going to come to all of your events. Because you like everything that I want to drink and do. And that sounds just so fun.
Abigail:
Thanks. Yeah, I’m working on some kind of membership.
Aimee:
That’s a great idea.
Abigail:
We’re gaining followers and truly dedicated patrons that want to come to more of them. I’m also looking at doing some behind the scenes. Like as I go do research for them, I like to go meet with chefs and try different foods and research different cultures. So maybe allowing some people to come along for that experience.
Aimee:
And you will have music during the French Punk events too, right?
Abigail:
Yes! We’re going to have some special performances. W have a lineup of really cool D.J.s and live music sets, including D.J. Cyn as the resident D.J. They will highlighting and blending the worlds of French and punk. And not to say that we’re going to hear punk music all night long, but it’ll be their take on it. So, it’ll be cool to see their rendition of French punk as well.
Aimee:
Love it. Anything else to share?
Abigail:
I just want to say these events are not exclusive. This is an inclusive experience. We want everyone to come participate, be a part of it. It’s obviously 21 and up. But, I would just ask people to come with an open mind and leave their expectations at the door and prepared to see something very new and different!