Margaret Explosion played a Friday happy hour gig at the Bug Jar for almost three years in the late nineties. Casey, one of the three owners of the Bug Jar brought in vegetarian Indian food and Rolling Rocks were a dollar. In 1999 Casey got out and he and his brother bought an old building on Alexander Street. They rehabbed it and opened as Mex, a hip, mostly vegetarian, Mexican food place with a few bars scattered about the building.
Casey asked me to paint a mural on the winding staircase that led up to the restaurant and I worked on it for three or so weeks. I used acrylic paint with a little bit of retarder because the stuff dried so quickly and I mixed the colors right on the wall using two, one inch brushes. I still had whole sections to do when they were getting ready to open so I asked my father for some help. He painted the Marigolds that the Mexican woman is selling right by the door as you come in. They were part of the early East End resurgence and the area got so hot it was eventually Mex’s downfall. A group of us used to sit out on the patio Friday evenings and watch people parade by. Their last day of business will be November 1, the Day of the Dead. Peggi and I stopped in there over the weekend. We didn’t know a soul but we ordered a Margarita and wandered about the place one last time.
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