Envy Apartment

Fred Allen, who owned the Drinkery for many years, died on Aug. 7. (Photo by Steve Charing) Frederick “Fred” Allen, the former owner of The Drinkery, a longstanding gay bar in the Mount Vernon neighborhood , died from natural causes on Aug. 7 at the age of 86, according to his granddaughter Amy Miller . Allen, who owned The Drinkery since 1972 and maintained an apartment above the bar for more than 40 years, transferred the Class “BD7” Beer, Wine & Liquor License to Miller this past Jan. 19. The Drinkery, situated on the corner of Park Avenue and Read Streets, made news when the Baltimore City Board of Liquor License Commissioners voted 2 -1 on May 19, 2016 not to extend the bar’s liquor license based on a petition from neighboring businesses and residents alleging rowdiness , excessive noise, drug activity and violence in and around the establishment. Allen, frail and wheelchair-bound, was among those who testified on behalf of the bar at the liquor board hearing . Two weeks l...

The former Comedy Café building on Brady Street could become a new arcade bar and restaurant. Des Moines, Iowa residents Joshua Ivey and Sam Summers are planning to open Up-Down MKE at 615 E. Brady St. Inside of Up-Down in Des Moines taken from Facebook page. The two have filed a liquor license with the city of Milwaukee and plan on opening the bar in February. Ivey started Up-Down in 2011 in Des Moines. He has since expanded to Minneapolis and Kansas City. According to its website , the bar features more than 40 arcade games from the 1980s and 1990s, pinball machines, skee-ball, Nintendo and Sega console gaming , life-size Jenga and connect four. All games are 25 cents. The bar also boasts “an extensive craft beer selection with 20 beers on tap and even more bottles and cans, as well as ‘80s and ‘ 90s inspired cocktails .” Ivey said he chooses his next location by going to cities and looking for a solid young professional base . He found that in Milwaukee. “Ideally we want 25- to 40...

A local strip club is suing two Ohio agencies to get back a $25,000 fine levied against it due to an alleged nudity violation that put its liquor license in jeopardy. WCI, Inc., which operates Cheeks Gentlemen ’s Club in West Carrollton , has sued the Ohio Liquor Control Commission and the Ohio Dept. of Public Safety in Dayton’s U.S. District Court . Cheeks’ attorney’s, Anthony Cicero and Luke Lirot, said the commission unfairly imposes “enormous and disproportionate fines” against gentlemen’s clubs for liquor license violations . SOCIAL MEDIA:  Follow  Mark Gokavi on Twitter or Facebook In March 2014, a performer at Cheeks was found to have nudity and sexual activity violations during a “private dance” for an Ohio Dept. of Public Safety Investigative Unit agent during a “ routine field investigation ” of which no surveillance footage was available. Court documents from the Tenth District Court of Appeals stated that, “While performing a private dance for one the investigators, ...