By Mark Squibb/April 14, 2022
Like the cod fishery and Jellybean Row, the kitchen party is a thing entwined with Newfoundland culture. The image of a couple of fellows at the kitchen table playing up a storm, while folks dance, mindful of the wood stove, is stamped on the collective imagination.
“It’s authentic,” said Sean Sullivan. “That’s Newfoundland culture, singing in the kitchen, if you ask me.”
Sullivan should know – he’s been at it his whole life.
That’s why in 2017, recently retired from Bell Alliant, and with time and a two-story summer home in Calvert (either a salt box or a biscuit box, depending on who you ask) on his hands, Sullivan decided to turn his talent into a business venture.
“We’d generally be singing on Saturday nights anyway,” said Sullivan. “So, I got bold and decided to start a business.”
Folks looking for the traditional kitchen party experience can find it in Calvert.
“It’s small, it’s intimate, it’s up close, there’s no microphones,” said Sullivan. “It’s pretty well as if we came into the house on a Saturday night and we were singing for you.”
Sullivan hosts the party and plays guitar. Sheldon Thornhill plays the accordion, Rob Slaney plays guitar and mandolin, and Denis Sullivan plays guitar. All men contribute their voices.
Dean and Thornhill went viral back in 2017 when videos of them hosting a kitchen party during a layover at Toronto’s Pearson Airport found their way online.
“Sheldon is liable to haul out an accordion anywhere,” said Sullivan. “We’ve done that before in airports over the years.”
The video amassed millions of views across the globe.
“If we had known how popular that was going to be we would have worn our Sullivan Songhouse t-shirts,” he joked.
Sullivan received the Cultural Tourism Award last week during Hospitality Newfoundland and Labrador's annual awards gala.
“It’s quite humbling to win a nice, prestigious, provincial award like that,” said Sullivan. “It’s humbling, very humbling.”
The award goes to an individual or business that recognizes and promotes the pursuit of cultural expression within the tourism industry.
“Right away, it seemed to grab people,” said Sullivan of the business. “They would say, ‘There’s nobody really doing anything like this at the moment. You can go to a hall for a concert or go to a club to hear people singing, but to actually go to somebody’s real kitchen, there’s not many people doing that.’”
True to from, the Calvert native actually spends his summers at the song house, so it really is his kitchen table that him and boys are singing at.
Like many a tourism operator, Sullivan is approaching the season with cautious optimism, as government restrictions surrounding COVID-19 have been removed.
“We’re going to open, we’re going to give it a try,” said Sullivan. “There really are no restrictions at the moment, but obviously some people are going to be apprehensive.”
