To Perrin, the concept of Dizzy's is not a new one. His midwestern college education was funded by three different coffeehouses he established in the 1960's. "They were basically what Dizzy's is now, a collective for artists, musicians, films and theater people, as well as gathering places for people who had opinions about things," he says. "The feeling of empowerment that ran through that is what I've tried to recapture."