Pal owner bucks downtown move
Iconic bar to close in January
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/10/2015 (3880 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
You will not see Andrew Ladd, Blake Wheeler and Bryan Little line dancing across the street from the MTS Centre this hockey season.
Cary Paul, owner of the Palomino Club, has decided against moving his iconic country music concept into the old 4Play location on Portage Avenue. His plans have not changed, however, to close the 27-year-old club Jan. 2.
“In my gut, the (4Play) space didn’t have a Palomino feel,” he said.He had plans to put a pub on the main-floor level and move the “Pal” into the lower level, but after hearing from his many customers via the club’s Facebook page and not being comfortable with the numbers he was shown, he’s putting further plans on hold.
A couple of weeks after shuttering the Palomino Club, he will travel for three months.
“I might look for my own building with free parking to get a similar feel to the Palomino Club,” he said.
Paul said he doubted whether he would be able to overhaul the space — likely at a cost of about $600,000 — and be ready for anything but the end of the Jets’ season.
“I can’t sign a deal now and be ready to go in the first week of February. Then in April or May, whenever the Jets are done, (essentially) shutting down through the summer, which is not active downtown,” he said. “Even if it was a great location, it didn’t make sense to start off with a bang and then go quiet for five months. It would be better to open in September and have the entire hockey season. It didn’t feel right, so I walked away.”
Paul said the changing nightlife habits over the past five to 10 years have made it difficult for nightclubs to remain profitable, particularly for a place as big as his and that’s off the beaten path. The Palomino is currently located at 1133 Portage Ave., far from the hub of downtown.
When he first christened the Pal back in 1988, the city didn’t have many pubs or lounges and major chains such as Earls, Joeys and Moxie’s had yet to establish a huge presence in town. Now that suburban pubs enable many people to walk and not worry about drinking and driving, the market simply isn’t as big as it used to be.
Paul said this doesn’t mark the definitive obituary of the Palomino. He has people scouring the city for other locations.
geoff.kirbyson@freepress.mb.ca