Above: Taking Back Sunday performs to a sold-out Bottle & Cork crowd in 2024. Photo by John Mollura.
By Roger Hillis
Nightclubs come and nightclubs go, but the venerable Bottle & Cork in Dewey Beach is still going strong as it celebrates its 90th anniversary. That it has survived is remarkable enough; the fact that it is thriving is equally impressive.
The 1,200-capacity Cork has a tavern license and only offers live music and alcohol. National acts perform in concert Sundays through Fridays, while Saturdays are reserved for the cover-band fiesta known as the Saturday Afternoon Jam Session.
“The jam is bigger than ever, and no one knows why,” says owner Alex Pires. “Maybe the bands have gotten better? There’s a $10 cover charge and people are lined up at the door before we even open at 5 p.m.”
This year is also the 53rd anniversary of the jam session. The sound of the bar’s vintage World War II air siren can be heard throughout the town as the doormen and bouncers open the doors. The crowd is a mix of 20-somethings in bathing suits, aging hipsters, locals, tourists and everything in-between. Pires can almost always be seen standing on stage right by the DJ booth, handing complimentary cans of beer to select patrons up front. The last several summers have been hugely successful, with 2022 setting all-time sales records.
The outdoor wall of fame next to the DJ booth lists national act who have played through the years, including Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees such as Blondie, The Zombies, Cyndi Lauper, Cheap Trick, Buddy Guy, Joan Jett, George Clinton & Parliament-Funkadelic and the Dave Matthews Band.
“I get ‘em on the way up, and I get ‘em on the way down,” says Pires.
Though the Cork, which benefits from its large outdoor patio, is only open May through September, it manages to squeeze a lot of music in. Managing that is a full-time job for entertainment director/ booking agent Vikki Walls.
Advertisements for two memorable shows at the Cork in 1993.
“I booked 53 concerts this year,” says Walls. The official anniversary party will take place Aug. 14 with a Mr. Greengenes reunion — it’s been sold out since April. Other headliners this month include The Wallflowers (Aug. 11), the BoDeans (Aug. 12); and a sold-out performance by country star Niko Moon (Aug. 20).
In recent years, Pires has remodeled the Cork so much that its capacity slowly crept from 700 to 1,200. The stage, sound system and lighting system have all been expanded and tweaked.
The Cork opened way back in 1936 — and the building has an even longer history, as it was originally called Jack’s Place. In its early decades under owners Harry and Virginia “Ginger” Shaud (who were also the founders of a successful real estate company), the Cork had a kitchen, pool table and tables and chairs. Servers would bring patrons hamburgers. And Dixieland and swing were the sounds of the day.
Lewes native Ed Shockley can remember when his parents would go to the Cork when he was a youngster in the ’50s and ‘60s, back when it would stay open though the winter.
“It was a whole different scene back then,” says Shockley, the drummer-vocalist for local favorites including The Funsters and Jack of Diamonds. “They would get all dressed up to go there.”
There have been multiple owners through the years, sometimes with groups that have included silent partners such as politicians. A group led by businessman Jim Lavelle bought the club in 1969 and turned the focus to rock ’n’ roll. The jam was started in 1973 by disc jockey Joe Bak and his cohorts from the Washington, D.C. booking agency Nard’s Rock ’n’ Roll Review. It eventually became a tradition that whichever late-night band was scheduled that Saturday, it would arrive early and play a preview happy-hour set from 5 to 6 p.m.
Shockley says he first played the Cork “in 1975 or 1976” with Jack of Diamonds. The quartet witnessed a fair bit of debauchery during countless bookings in the ‘70s and ‘80s — and even wrote a song called “Johnny One-Way” about the upstairs dressing rooms (which eventually popped up on their live album recorded in Newark at the Stone Balloon).
Bassist Andy King introduces the tune by asking the crowd, “How many people like sex? How many people like the Bottle & Cork? Well, this song is about sex at the Bottle & Cork.”
“The memories of that event come back pretty quickly — man, what a time,” says King, who recalls being up on the roof of the building with several people and “giggling like idiots” at what was transpiring through a wide-open window.
After Jack of Diamonds disbanded, King spent several years playing bass with another Cork alumni, The Hooters (including their legendary set opening the Philadelphia portion of Live-Aid in 1985). King says young musicians who play the Cork these days are lucky.
“I’m jealous when I see the current pictures of the stage with all that room to jump around,” he says. “I always loved the Cork, but it was a tight space. I blame the eight-foot stage ceiling with 1,000-watt lights inches from my head for my hair loss; the follicles got fried.”
Pires and his partners in the Highway One Ltd. group — most of whom were summer roommates in group houses — bought the Cork in 1989 for $2.3 million. While the Cork had usually hosted one big rock concert each summer, Pires began booking dozens of touring acts. He also obtained the official trademark for The Greatest Rock ’n’ Roll Bar In the World, which is emblazoned on the wall behind the stage.
In 2025, Out & About spoke to Chris Maliszewski (alias DJ Chris Mal), who witnessed the jam’s metamorphosis in the ’90s and 2000s. He deejayed, mixed the bands, and now oversees the sound systems for Highway One’s various businesses.
At left: Dewey Beach landmark the Bottle & Cork, as it appeared in 1957. Photo courtesy Shaud Family Photo Collection.
“It’s more of a controlled chaos these days,” said Maliszewski. “The DJs used to have a lot of contests and games that were politically incorrect to say the least. It was a different time. It’ll never be like that again.”
Pires is a Boston native, and bought a Slingerland drum kit in high school at the height of Beatlemania. When he realized he couldn’t keep a beat, he became a teen concert promoter and rented halls to stage rock concerts.
Fast-forward to Dewey Beach, 1993. On July 9 of that year, Hootie & the Blowfish played for their last time (with free admission) after a melee took place between band members and the club’s bouncers; those details are perhaps best left to time, Pires said.
On August 26 of that year, a fledgling Goo Goo Dolls played to a sparse crowd, and acted as their own roadies; tickets were $5 in advance, $7 at the door.
On July 29, 1994, the Dave Matthews Band previewed songs from their forthcoming album Under the Table and Dreaming (with some customers complaining about having to pay a $5 cover on a Friday night, which was usually free).
On August 16, 1997, the Cork landed a show by an up-and-coming Matchbox Twenty, which was riding high on the Billboard charts with its debut single “Push.” The catch was that frontman Rob Thomas and his band insisted the Saturday jam be canceled so that they could set up their equipment and do a soundcheck in an empty room.
Pires vowed not to host any more Saturday concerts, but made a notable exception on Memorial Day weekend of 2004. That was when he was approached about hosting a comedy fundraiser for the military that would feature various cast members of the film The Wedding Crashers — who were on holiday break from filming the movie in Annapolis, Md.
Vince Vaughan and Jon Favreau were the ringleaders, and took the stage to reenact scenes from their previous movie Swingers.
“They rolled into town in a huge bus, and everyone was drinking,” says Pires. “Owen Wilson and Bradley Cooper stayed upstairs the whole time and didn’t come on stage.”
In the early 2000s, the Greatest Rock ’n’ Roll Bar in the World reached out to the booking agency representing the greatest rock ’n’ roll band in the world, and Pires found out you can’t always get what you want. The Rolling Stones are famous for finishing pre-tour rehearsals by playing surprise club shows, such as the 1,000-capacity Toad’s Place in New Haven, Conn. Pires offered the Stones a cool $1 million; their agent said Mick Jagger personally examined the bid — yet politely declined.
Last month movie star Kevin Bacon and his musician brother Michael Bacon played the Cork for what Michael playfully called “the millionth time.” The Bacon Brothers have made semi-annual appearances there for the past 26 years, often letting local singer-songwriters open the shows.
Another act that has become a fixture in recent years is the young British hard-rock quartet The Struts. Its performance in June which was its sixth since 2016. The group was in the midst of a lengthy hiatus to write and record a new album, but acquiesced and flew in to honor the 90th anniversary. (They added a pair of shows in New Jersey and Pennsylvania to sweeten the occasion, and Struts fans traveled from around the country for the shows.)
Walls and Pires let one of their regular weekend acts, the female-fronted Gab Cinque Band, open up and showcase their heavy original material.
“It was literally a dream come true; ever since we started playing the Cork we’ve heard about how Greta Van Fleet opened for The Struts there,” says Gabby Cinque. “It was definitely one of my favorite shows we’ve ever done, if not my favorite.”
There are pop acts, jam bands and yacht rock revues at the Cork these days. “But country still dominates,” says Pires. Walls has added a huge country presence, including shows by Miranda Lambert, Eric Church, Morgan Wallen, Old Dominion and LeAnn Rimes.
“Being in the business for such a long time, I always tried to keep abreast of trends,” says Walls, who booked clubs in the ‘80s including Tapworks in Dover and the Coyote Club in Wilmington. “Once I saw country turning towards a younger audience, it just made sense to go after that market because I didn’t see many country artists coming to Delaware. It wouldn’t have happened if Alex hadn’t trusted me and been open to bringing this genre to the venue.”
“I study the charts and take advice from agents on who is up and coming. And most instinctively, once I hear a song I think might be a hit, I find out who handles that act and go from there,” says Walls. “Like with Morgan Wallen, as soon as I heard ‘Up Down,’ I knew that song would blow up, or Miranda Lambert’s single ‘Kerosene.’”
Pires said his attitude toward the business is no different than when he was promoting concerts in high school.
“It wasn’t about making money,” he says. “The excitement of a show is unbeatable.”
