It's increasingly looking like last call for the Texas Mickey Bar after 10 years.
While preparing for the final Thursday-night student bash of the season, Mickey owner Jen Casavant is trying to save her business. She says the economic downturn has reduced her clientele by 50 per cent this year.
Casavant has a last-ditch plan but it's sure to face opposition. To draw enough customers to pay overhead for the 370 person-capacity building and her 20-member staff, she wants the ability to hold performances by strippers.
"I'm at the point where, either this is my last year, or if the town approves me for adult entertainment, I'll do another couple years here. But I can't survive on just one busy night per week," she says.
"Right now, I'm out of ideas and I don't know what to do with this bar."
She has applied to the town for a site-specific amendment to the land use bylaw. The change would add "adult entertainment establishment" as a permitted use to the property her business operates in. It's currently zoned Central Commercial (C1). As a site-specific amendment, such a change would only apply to that specific piece of land.
At its April 11 meeting, council gave unanimous first reading to the amendment and set the public hearing date for May 9 at 1 p.m. at the town office.
This debate isn't an unfamiliar one. Chief administrative officer Norm McInnis says residents were "loud and clear" years ago about not having adult entertainment in the Uptowne core. The Mickey does sit adjacent to a street with residential land use. As well, it's been suggested such an establishment would not fit the character of the area.
But in light industrial districts, adult entertainment is a discretionary use, meaning the municipal planning commission decides whether to approve development applications.
"I think it's more of a moral issue than it is a legal issue or a land use planning issue. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms says we cannot legislate morality but we do have tools to control things of that nature in certain ways," McInnis says.
In Casavant's opinion, stripping is harmless fun and can be done tastefully. Nudity is not a bad thing, she says.
"I think it's anybody's own preference. If you don't like it and look down upon it, then don't come to the bar. I've seen a lot of bars that are very successful due to it. I don't think it starts any fighting in the bar. I think some people look upon it as beautiful."
Casavant says she didn't realize she was contravening the bylaw when the Mickey hosted exotic dancers in the past. She says she applied to the town in 2008, seeking permission to hold such acts legitimately and was denied.
If her application is successful this time around, she'd be able to file a development permit to add "adult entertainment establishment" to the property.
She doesn't know how frequently strippers would be featured at the Mickey. But even once a month would help keep the business afloat, she says.
Casavant also says performers would be protected.
"There won't be any touching and the men can't do anything with them," she says. "There isn't going to be anything going on in our back doors. No, I'll make sure of it. The cops can come and regulate this place. I'm just trying to run a bar the best way I can."
Known as a "college bar," the venue has held a variety of themed parties over the years, ranging from togas, beach wear, tinfoil costumes, '80s night, to Playboy Bunnies over Easter weekend. The Mickey has also had a mechanical bull, held pole dancing competitions, midget wrestling, Elvis impersonators, live bands and the Olds Idol singing competition.
"I just don't want to fail," Casavant says. "I always want to bring something new. That's what a lot of people liked about the Texas Mickey; there was always something new."
Casavant, who has worked in the hospitality industry for 20 years and is also a single mother, says she hasn't considered any future plans. She's continuing to operate the Mickey until the end of the month, when the bar shuts down for the summer.
The public hearing date will come after. That's when she'll find out whether the bar is merely taking a seasonal break to prepare for another year; or, if it will be closing time for good, leaving nowhere to go and nothing to see.
"I think it's anybody's own preference. If you don't like it and look down upon it, then don't come to the bar."JEN CASAVANT TEXAS MICKEY BAR OWNER
