Visitors to the Southtown bar Gimme Gimme can now drift over to an adjacent space where they can dig for vintage vinyl records to their heart’s content.

The owners of Gimme Gimme have transformed their next door wine bar concept, A Perfect Day, into a second location for Friends of Sound, a store that sells, buys and trades used records.

Friends of Sound founder David Haffner hosted a grand opening party on March 7, including DJs spinning records all day and night.

Bar co-owner Aaron Pena recalls having coffee one day last year on Fredericksburg Road near where the team at Friends of Sound was busy relocating their neighborhood shop.

“I’ve known Friends of Sound since The Squeezebox days,” says Pena, referring to the bar and live music space he owned on North St. Mary’s Street for seven years until he closed it in 2024. “I’ve had a rapport with them.”

Pena says he and his business partners mulled the idea of converting A Perfect Day, the wine bar that opened alongside Gimme Gimme, a musically inspired bar, in summer 2023.

At the same time, Haffner and his partners were looking around San Antonio for a potential second location of Friends of Sound. Pena and Haffner got to talking and the rest is history.

Friends of Sound in Southtown is accessible from South St. Mary’s Street, but during Gimme Gimme’s business hours, bar patrons can simply enter the record store via a back hallway.

“There’s not a bar in San Antonio that has a record store in it,” says Pena. He also adds that he has heard lots of good feedback from customers who have visited the new neighbor. “Friends of Sound already has a following, but there are people in the bar who don’t realize there’s a record store now. It’s a cool surprise for them as they wander inside."

Haffner calls the Southtown location of Friends of Sound “a natural fit” because an independent record shop can help complement the surrounding neighborhood. Visitors to the record store, Haffner says, can hang out and socialize in addition to listening to music and doing business there.

“It’s literally a community hub because we try to form a community around the store,” says Haffner.

According to Haffner, Friends of Sound in Southtown will install a high-fidelity audio system later this spring to better accommodate presentations, poetry readings, and other activities inside the store.

Haffner says he has opened several stores and businesses over a couple of decades, and he feels like he has a firm grasp on what will bring in customers and keep them coming back.

“I feel like we’re honing in on what works and what doesn’t work,” he adds. “But for the new store, the feedback has been amazing.”