cool beanz

by Bing Futch

The UC-7 Plaza is at the corner of University Boulevard and Alafaya Trail. It is a haven for UCF students, a good number of whom are from out of town and have no desire to drive long distances in our swampy little burg. Everything you could possibly want out of a collegiate experience exists in this little square–a McDonald’s sets the cornerstone on one end with a Miami Subs providing the balance. Seven movie theaters center the property which includes two live music venues, a hair salon, arcade and a 24-hour Kinko’s. A liquor store provides adequate opportunity to booze up, but not before picking up some music or visuals from Magic Beanz, a unique little splash of artistic oomph run by a guy named Doug who answers to the moniker “Big Daddy”.

Formerly known as the Record Vault, the store opened in June of 1998 and provides a mouth-watering assortment of new and used CD’s, videos, books and magazines. Upon entering the deceptively spacious store, a most delicious magazine rack catches your attention on the left hand side. Local rags share space with hip reads and obscure pulp. Under glass at the counter, a collection of Alan Ginsburg poetry cozied up to a boxed set of Ministry CD’s. A listening station sits nearby and several lurid show posters adorn the walls.

Local band Zoom! has an eye-catching display featuring magazine covers and info about their new release. A good amount of loving care has been devoted to spotlighting these artists. Big Daddy presides over this cool cave with an air of quiet authority, always there with an answer or a sincere attempt at one. Rowdy kids get a gentle rebuke even as they utilize store stock as makeshift weapons. “Hey! You want to buy that?” he tosses lightly at them. They stop the rough-housing. You just never want to mess around with cool people, because they’re cool.

Cool.

Big Daddy had always wanted to have his own business and happened to know a friend, Matt Russell, who was looking to invest. Taking over the lease from the previous owners, the intrepid businessman set about building up his stock and creating a unique atmosphere that people would want to revisit time and time again. “I can’t compete with Best Buy or the Virgin juggernaut down at the other side of town,” Big Daddy says. “But what I can do is supply people with what they want.”

This includes not only music, video and literature–but fun-filled promotional events as well. For the release of Korn’s new CD, Magic Beanz held a creamed corn wrestling match in the store utilizing a kid’s swimming pool. For the midnight release of the Beastie Boys’ new disc, Doug had D Smooth spinning wax inside and raffled off a huge water pipe from Mystik, also located in the plaza. Both of these events were huge successes and still get mention from week to week. What’s on the short range goal list for the store? “A new sign,” says Big Daddy. “So I can stop writing ‘formerly Record Vault’ on everything.” On the long range tip, more locations–perhaps one downtown or maybe in Gainesville. When asked about the name of the store, Big Daddy credits Russell with the notion of “‘The Jack and the Beanstalk’ story of taking something really small and watching how it grows.” One senses the sincerity in such a statement, but one look at the storyteller’s face will tell you that there’s another story to tell.

He laughs, “We got the store for a cow.”