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Ashland’s Tale of Two Bars By Morgan Rothborne May 14, 2022 09:26 PM A A 3 View all photos Morgan Rothborne / Mail Tribune Curtis Hall, left, and Ronnie Morairty, two of the owners of the new Trap Door Lounge, outside the former Vinyl Club. New owners hope to erase the name — and the reputation — of the city’s infamous Vinyl Club After three years of excessive police calls and one severe incident of violence, state and local officials in 2019 closed down the Vinyl Club, the only nightclub in Ashland with a dance floor. As soon as it closed, two men with a different idea bought the space. City officials and neighbors, who had been through the Vinyl Club days, reacted with suspicion. Now, the Trap Door Lounge is poised to open soon at the same address, 130 Will Dodge Way. “That was the spot in Ashland for bad behavior,” Ashland police Chief Tighe O’Meara said of the Vinyl Club. Trap Door co-owner Curtis Hall said the community should know that their intention is to distance the new club from the Vinyl Club’s shady legacy. “We’ve dumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into this business to make it not the Vinyl Club,” Hall said at the April 19 Ashland City Council meeting, where the council was considering whether to approve the club’s liquor license request. “I want to expressly repeat that, we are not the Vinyl Club,” Hall stressed. Initially, some neighbors and many in City Hall paled at the possibility of a repeat of recent history. Two neighbors wrote anonymously to the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission opposing a new liquor license for the site. When the Trap Door will open is unclear. Hall and his partners hired staff when they believed they could open six weeks ago. Now Hall said his employees are slowly finding other work. The Trap Door is waiting on the liquor license it applied for in November 2021, just before Thanksgiving. “Until we receive approval from local government, we can’t do anything,” OLCC spokesperson Bryant Haley said. Haley said that an address can develop something of a reputation, and 130 Will Dodge Way in Ashland has what OLCC called “a history of serious and repetitive problems.” “It’s hard to get the juju out of a place,” Haley said. The club changed owners multiple times between 2002 and 2019. It was under former owner Mike Leslie that the Vinyl Club garnered that bad juju. In 2017, there were 139 calls to Ashland police asking for response. Many were not unusual calls for a nightclub. Intoxicated males arguing with bouncers, fake IDs, hospitalizing the overly intoxicated, and a plethora of noise complaints. But there were a high number of calls for violence. Patrons fighting or attempting to start fights in the alley. Altercations between bouncers and patrons. The most serious case was Nov. 25, 2018, when Vinyl Club bouncer Marc Bokish was in a confrontation with patron Logan Kistler. Kistler suffered a shattered nose, fractured cheekbone and chipped teeth. Surgery to repair Kistler’s nose resulted in an altered sense of smell. The victim’s father sued Bokish. The civil suit is still ongoing. The next month, Ashland City Council directed O’Meara to write a letter to OLCC asking that the Vinyl Club’s liquor license not be renewed. OLCC served Leslie with a notice that he could surrender his license for 28 days or pay a civil penalty of $4,620. Leslie chose to close the business and sold the space to Hall — the former manager of the nearby Irish Pub — and his business partner Joshua Langworthy. There is now a third business partner, Ronald “Ronnie” Morairty. Within months of the purchase, the COVID-19 pandemic locked down the world. Hall said he believed it was irresponsible to open a small space like theirs during a pandemic, so they postponed plans to open the new club. As the partners waited, they decided to remodel the space. Hall said their intention was always to elevate the sordid past of 130 Will Dodge Way to what they describe as a lounge and a high-brow cocktail bar. Sitting in his office at police headquarters, O’Meara admitted he was originally resistant to the new business because of the old one. But O’Meara said after talking with Hall and his partners, he believes they have acted in good faith, and while the address had problems with a liquor establishment before, “I don’t think that should mean that spot is cursed forever and nothing good can go on there.” Morgan Rothborne / Mail Tribune Suede chairs surrounding tables add to what the owners of the Trap Door say will be a high-brow cocktail bar feel ... far removed from the days of the Vinyl Club. Hall and his partners responded to local worries by opening the doors to their remodeled space, and having frank conversations with concerned parties. One previously concerned neighbor, Doug Irvine, said his initial fears are gone. “I think it will be a perfect addition to the neighborhood,” Irvine said. Other neighbors were ambivalent or even happy about the possibility of a new bar at the address, including Josh Dorcak, owner of nearby MÄS restaurant. “I think it’s awesome,” Dorcak said. “Young guys going in, starting a business.” Dorcak said that while it has been a luxury to not have vomit and cigarette butts covering the alley, he believes opposition to a new bar in the old space would be unfair, that the space should be used. A waiter walking into the kitchen overheard his boss and said, “Yeah, it’s not like it’s haunted.” Ashland fire Chief Ralph Sartain remarked at the April 19 City Council meeting that he was particularly won over by the extensive remodel to the space. There is new lighting and an improved entrance and exit, a new kitchen, a custom-built bar made of locally sourced madrone wood, a metal door with thick sound-proofing, new HVAC so the establishment would no longer be leaving its door open to let out heat, along with noise. The space was remodeled for a deliberately low occupancy, no more than 59 people. When asked about the remodel process, Hall said, “It was one problem after another.” For instance, when they attempted to replace the old soda lines, they found that the lines went an estimated 45 feet into the walls and up into the ceiling, and the lines were filled with black mold. The remodeled Trap Door now has swiveling suede chairs around small wooden tables, a few vintage games sit in a corner, the lights are low but with an almost romantic quality. Hall and Morairty are proud of the business they hope to soon share with the city of Ashland. Morgan Rothborne / Mail Tribune The Trap Door’s floor is tiled with pennies. Curtis Hall and Ronnie Morairty, who laid the floor themselves, said it’s the third-largest of its kind. Morairty pointed out the sparkling penny floor they made themselves, saying it is the third-largest of its kind in the world. The lounge will hold events working with the LGBTQ coordinator for Oregon, from Dancing Queens to classic burlesque to small music shows with potential big names. The owners were secretive about potential music artists. They are eager to maintain an air of mystery for their clientele. What they will commit to is craft in food and drink. “I focus on craft mixology, and I’m moving into molecular gastronomy. The goal, once I have a little more time with it, is to bring something new and different to the valley that people haven’t really seen before,” Morairty said. At the meeting to decide the fate of the Trap Door’s liquor license April 19, City Council members engaged in what Mayor Julie Akins called a lively discussion. First, council members wanted to consider the license delicately, in light of concerned neighbors who were scheduled to speak but did not appear. Councilors debated approving the license with restrictions, similar to restrictions imposed on the Vinyl Club after years of what was described as violence and filth. Restrictions considered included limiting the size of the jigger, the measuring cup for making cocktails, limiting when music could be played, and prohibiting the serving of drinks past 1 a.m. Councilor Tonya Graham said she would be uncomfortable limiting a business that is as yet unproven, based on restrictions earned by what she called “the club that shall not be named.” Councilor Shawn Moran said he wanted to support local business, but that a gauntlet had been thrown down — absolutely none of the old behavior would be tolerated from the new establishment. The council voted unanimously to approve the liquor license request with no restrictions, which is now waiting on OLCC approval. When OLCC approves a license, Haley said, it must always try to balance a business owner’s right to operate with public safety and community opinion. Now that the city of Ashland has signed off on the license, OLCC is determining whether the agency wants to pursue what it calls a criterion report, which would address the serious and persistent problems associated with the location. “We don’t just rubber stamp these things,” Haley said. “We want to be thoughtful.” Reach Mail Tribune reporter Morgan Rothborne at [email protected] or 541-776-4487. Follow her on Twitter @MRothborne.