Arcade Bar Building

[bartock]

That sounds cool. I'm cautiously optimistic, but the recent "club" openings downtown have me a little nervous. I know this is a jazz club, but until we see it catering to a crowd that doesn't spray bullets into crowds, then I'm going to be cautious. Imagine if a bunch of shootings started to occur outside the B-C.

Well, the biggest problem, if it's called the McNamara, will be affording the seven cover charges you'll have to pay just to get in the place.

rimshot.

[stinkytofu]

Article also mentions owner of McNamara owns a bar "two blocks away". I'm not sure what bar that is referring to, but if somebody knows that may give a good indication of what to expect out of McNamara.

[j to the jeremy]

Article also mentions owner of McNamara owns a bar "two blocks away". I'm not sure what bar that is referring to, but if somebody knows that may give a good indication of what to expect out of McNamara.

Something on Lower Woodward? Or SkyBar?

[stinkytofu]

Something on Lower Woodward? Or SkyBar?

My google attempts at the owners' name have failed.

[mikeg19]

I drove past the site a few days ago on my way to Slow's. I think I kinda liked it better with the building there.......

[Doma]

Compuware, Detroit partner sprout 'edible landscape'

Detroit — A small slice of downtown Detroit is experiencing a revival of sorts with the construction of a half-acre garden and the transformation of a dilapidated building into a jazz club.

The garden, on the former site of the historic Lafayette Building at Michigan Avenue and Shelby, is the result of a partnership between the city of Detroit and technology company Compuware.

"This was sort of a perfect site because the Lafayette Building had just come down, and it sort of created a hole in this downtown corridor," said Meg Heeres, Compuware's manager of community gardens. The site, on property owned by the city, will be home to more than a dozen raised beds that will grow tomatoes, onions, herbs and plums.

"It's an edible landscape," Heeres said.

The public will be able to relax around the gardens and even volunteer to tend the beds.

Adjacent to the garden on Lafayette is a former arcade bar being transformed into a three-story jazz club to be called the McNamara.

Deone Larkins, the co-owner, owns another bar two blocks away and saw the potential of the location.

"There's a lot of foot traffic at night with the baseball, football and hockey games," Larkins said. "That's like built-in advertising."

The club will have a bar on the first floor and a stage on the second floor for live performances, Larkins said.

"There's very few places downtown that have live entertainment," he said.
Larkins is partnering with Compuware to help create an outdoor patio for the bar in the garden.

Scott Justin, who has owned a tobacco shop next door to the garden site on West Lafayette since 1976, said he is optimistic about the new projects.

"I've seen some things that have been developed and not maintained," Justin said. "I've been here for 35 years and I don't count my chickens before they hatch. But I'm hopeful."

From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20110726/...#ixzz1THMJHynG

[EastsideAl]

Well, this turned to shit. What a den of iniquity. I walked out of Lafayette's with my carryout a few nights ago to find one of the denizens of this pit [[I saw him come out of the bar as I went into the Coney) head deep in someone else's car [[with Ontario plates). When I yelled for him to stop he split straight into the bar. By the time I ran in there he had disappeared. Then I looked around and, yeeesh...

Of course, no one in there knew [[or seemed to care) where he had gone, and I was suddenly not in a mood to hang around and seek further. When I got back outside the couple of drunkish Canadians confirmed that nothing had been stolen as far as they could see, and hurried off towards the tunnel.

[Hypestyles]

so... what's going on with this building now?

[gnome]

Well, this turned to shit. What a den of iniquity. I walked out of Lafayette's with my carryout a few nights ago to find one of the denizens of this pit [[I saw him come out of the bar as I went into the Coney) head deep in someone else's car [[with Ontario plates). When I yelled for him to stop he split straight into the bar. By the time I ran in there he had disappeared. Then I looked around and, yeeesh...

Of course, no one in there knew [[or seemed to care) where he had gone, and I was suddenly not in a mood to hang around and seek further. When I got back outside the couple of drunkish Canadians confirmed that nothing had been stolen as far as they could see, and hurried off towards the tunnel.

thanks for doing the right thing.

[MrMichigan]

This was the Bathtub Pub, correct? I used to go there from time to time but thought it had closed.

[EastsideAl]

This was the Bathtub Pub, correct? I used to go there from time to time but thought it had closed.

As far as I can tell, it seems to open and close sporadically. Inside it's very dark and sort of weirdly unfinished, like that basement rec room project my hopelessly alcoholic uncle was always going to 'get to, someday soon.'

[MrMichigan]

As far as I can tell, it seems to open and close sporadically. Inside it's very dark and sort of weirdly unfinished, like that basement rec room project my hopelessly alcoholic uncle was always going to 'get to, someday soon.'

It's a great location. Would like to see someone renovate the bar and build residential above it.