Downtown Bars: A History

[marksjax]

Thought this would be a good time to talk about the once vibrant Downtown nightlife scene.
I can remember only a few from when I was much younger.
Perhaps Stephen or others can chime in with names and better memories than mine.

Here's some from the 70's

1) Howard's Bar: @ Main & Bay I believe. Tough reputation & topless to boot if you can believe that in this day & age.

2) O P's (think that is correct) was a notoriously wild gay bar on or near Main St (or nearby I believe).

3) Old Orleans: that is the name of the restaurant I worked at the renewed Hotel Robert Meyer (Holiday Inn City Center). The nightclub below the restaurant in that hotel was top notch & very swank. This was very early 1980.

4) Someplace Else: on the Southbank was the number one singles bar in the early 70's.

That's it from my limited memory, lol!

(Later I want to do one for the beach bars as most are long gone now.)

This is fun to learn about our history and to show that we did, at one time, have a very rich and popular nightlife segment in Downtown Jacksonville.

Please feel free to add to the list!

[Jaxson]

Any good information or pictures from the old revolving restaurant at the Universal Marion Building?

[Tacachale]

I can't speak for anything much before, but many other metrojaxons will attest that the great downtown venue of the 90s was the Milk Bar. For those of us too young to remember it, it was open I think from 1990. In the late 90s it merged with the Paradome on 618 W Forsyth in LaVilla and they called it "the Milk Bar at Paradome". They later changed the name to just 618. It was great as a teenager because it was all ages and my mom would let me go After it closed it became a hip hop club called Kartouche, which has since also closed. The original location on Adams is now De Real Ting Cafe.

The best venue of the early 2000s was Rock and Roll Pizza. Good pizza, good (and cheap) beer, and awesome shows. It was originally called the Imperial. It closed in 2004; Cafe 331 is in that building now.

London Bridge on Ocean and Adams was also a great bar for many years when it opened. It eventually fell off and then closed; Fortunately Burro Bar has opened in that space.

That's all I got for now.

[fieldafm]

Void Magazine has a small piece on the music venues of the last two decades(I saw some of Stephen's pictures in there)

Crawdaddys, Crab Pot, Milk Bar, Einsteins, Pappa Joes and The Edge will all hold very fond places in my heart.

I remember when the only time you wanted to go to the beach was to buy drugs(not that I bought them)... but the beach was really run down in the 80's and even into the early 90's, nothing like it is today

Any good information or pictures from the old revolving restaurant at the Universal Marion Building?

Embers
It would rotate once around 360 degrees in about the time it took to eat lunch.  It's view was far better than the food.  Honestly, Skyline Cafe blows away Ember in the fact that you can eat lunch very cheaply with a better view... and rent out the place for private parties very inexpensively.  Embers was overpriced.

[Jaxson]

I can't speak for anything much before, but many other metrojaxons will attest that the great downtown venue of the 90s was the Milk Bar. For those of us too young to remember it, it was open I think from 1990. In the late 90s it merged with the Paradome on 618 W Forsyth in LaVilla and they called it "the Milk Bar at Paradome". They later changed the name to just 618. It was great as a teenager because it was all ages and my mom would let me go After it closed it became a hip hop club called Kartouche, which has since also closed. The original location on Adams is now De Real Ting Cafe.

The best venue of the early 2000s was Rock and Roll Pizza. Good pizza, good (and cheap) beer, and awesome shows. It was originally called the Imperial. It closed in 2004; Cafe 331 is in that building now.

London Bridge on Ocean and Adams was also a great bar for many years when it opened. It eventually fell off and then closed; Fortunately Burro Bar has opened in that space.

That's all I got for now.

Amen, Tacachale.  I remember when I first turned 18 and 'graduated' from Einstein-a-Go-Go and went to the Milk Bar for the first time.  I am glad that I had the Milk Bar when I turned 21 and got to purchase my first legal hooch. 

I am thinking, though, that marksjax is looking for memories of downtown Jacksonville's nightlife way back in the day when places like Bali Hai and the Rainbow Room were still around, right?

[marksjax]

The Milk Bar being 20 years ago certainly puts is in this category.
But even then we had already lost that spark (although the Milk Bar was the best example of being a start of a potential comeback) Downtown. By then the one's I had mentioned were long gone.

I was also wanting to go back to try and understand what happened. Why did the nightlife dry up, (no pun intended).

Was it the loss of retail and the regency mall? No more peeps staying in the downtown hotels? 
Perhaps there is something to be gained in finding out what happened and use that info to help us regain the momentum of what was evidently a rich and vibrant core in the 40's  and at least up to the early 80's.

I do remember the Old Orleans having difficulty getting residents to come down and dine there. This was a very nice dining room with full french table service, salads made at the table, chateaubriand, flambe bananas foster, etc.

So, perhaps it is the same today: the residents don't support (in great enough numbers) to make it successful. Is that harsh?

Jaxson: The Rainbow Room and Bali Hai? Any info on those would be appreciated.
 

[Tacachale]

It's the same thing that happened to downtown in general during the period. The people left, the employers left, the retail left, the life left.

This happened to virtually every downtown in the country; the real question is, why have we made so little progress in revitalizing Downtown Jacksonville when other cities have succeeded?

[urbanlibertarian]

The Bali Hai was in the Hotel Robert Meyer:

http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2010-dec-remembering-the-hotel-robert-meyer

[comncense]

I remember in the early 2000's that the spot that used to be Sinclair's was the Voodoo Lounge. It was VERY small and cramped but for some reason I enjoyed it. I remember that there always would be a line of people waiting to go inside.

As far as downtown nightlife goes, did the Beaches and 'mega-clubs' kill Downtown as a nightlife destination?

[urbanlibertarian]

The Rainbow Room was apparently in the George Washington Hotel:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_George_Washington_%28Jacksonville,_Florida%29

[urbanlibertarian]

The Ambassador Hotel had a popular bar below street level.  I know a little about these places on Julia St. because my Dad worked at the Federal Reserve Bank which is now the Fire Rescue Headquarters building.  I remember Howard's being called Howard's G-String Lounge and also a place called the Comic Book Club.

[duvaldude08]

Wasn't Leopard Lounge Downtown as well. Back in the early 2000's??

[duvaldude08]

Here are a few of my favorites.

1.  Metropolis.   This was on Monroe Street in between Main and Laura.  The owners had been former bartenders at Docksides in orteg/avondale and the opened up this very cool place with Neil Levitsky.  They ended up leaving the building and opening the Milk Bar.  Neil then went on to become one of the founding partners of the original Club Five, and afterwards opened up Starlite Cafe, which is now Birdie's in five points.

2.  MotoLounge.  I absolutely loved this place.  Owned by Lisa Leuthold, it was hipster swing heaven.  On Adams Street just a little further up from the Milk Bar.

3.  The French Quarter.  This was a black draq queen bar on Main Street.  Screaming Drag Queens, over the top fabulosity and campy nonsense on three floors of gay mayhem.  It was naturally demolished.

And lets not form The Ambassador. Im older friend always tell me about it.

[duvaldude08]

3.  The French Quarter.  This was a black draq queen bar on Main Street.  Screaming Drag Queens, over the top fabulosity and campy nonsense on three floors of gay mayhem.  It was naturally demolished.

Yess Stephen. I heard French Quarters was quite a hoot.

[marksjax]

The Ambassador Hotel had a popular bar below street level.  I know a little about these places on Julia St. because my Dad worked at the Federal Reserve Bank which is now the Fire Rescue Headquarters building.  I remember Howard's being called Howard's G-String Lounge and also a place called the Comic Book Club.

Oh yes Howard's G-string Lounge! That was the name!
And I forgot about the Comic Book Club. Not sure where that one was.
Thanks for these names!