PLAINS — The River Grille has a house recipe for fun: Take one-part good food, add one-part good moves and stir until thoroughly mixed.
The BeatTeks Bar-B-Que is the latest event brought to The River Grille by Wilkes-Barre DJ Frank Hershberger. Gregory Kratzer, manager at The River Grille, said that the Bar-B-Que was the brainchild of Hershberger, who conceives and produces a number of the restaurant’s special events. Hershberger, who performs as DJ Hersh, is part of the BeatTeks DJ collective and one of the performers at the Bar-B-Que.
“I’ve been DJing in the area for about 11 or 12 years (and) I’ve been playing at The River Grille for the last 5 or 6 years,” Hershberger said. “Some of the other guys are good friends of mine. DJ King B is good as anybody that I know of in the bar and club scene. Jay Velar is a guy from Scranton (who) plays at Kildare’s every weekend and a good friend of ours out of Philadelphia, DJ Jay-Ski, is currently an on-air radio DJ there for Boom 107. He’s been in the radio DJ scene probably for at least 20 years.”
The four DJs will each have an hour and a half set at the Aug. 22 event, with the first DJ taking the tables at 8 p.m. The term ‘DJ’ is synonymous with rap, hip-hop and R&B, but Hershberger said that the event will have something for everyone.
“The music is going to be every kind, every genre,” Hershberger said. “It’s going to be an open format night, so we’ll play everything. A bit of old school stuff, R&B, rock—pretty much anything you can think of, we’re going to be playing it. The feel of the night is relaxed. I don’t see it being a wild party, but it’ll definitely be a good time.”
Kratzer said that The River Grille will feature special barbecue items for the event and their bar will have a number of drink specials, including $2.50 Coors Light Radler cans all day, as well as half-price drinks from 10 p.m. to midnight. They’ll also feature classic cookout games on The River Grille deck, like bean bag toss. The event has a $3 cover charge.
“It’ll be a nice, relaxed, casual atmosphere,” Kratzer said. “A lot of people just having fun.”