Red Rock Saloon, which will occupy the location of the former Logan’s Madtown Restaurant and Bar, was granted the city’s first 18-plus entertainment license Wednesday to open a live country music venue in 2014.
The venue presented an 18-plus entertainment license to the Alcohol License Review Committee, the first application seen under the requirements outlined under the Alcohol License Density Ordinance.
Red Rock Saloon plans to have live entertainment three nights per week and video DJs two nights per week. The venue will also operate as a restaurant and bar and have a mechanical bull for customers to ride. The three co-owners, Drew Deuster, Joshua Janis and J.J. Kovacovich, also run a Red Rock Saloon location in Milwaukee.
Janis said the focus of their establishment was the “music and the menu.” He said the performance space will be high quality and will host a variety of national and regional country acts.
“We have good lights, good sound,” Janis said. “It’s like going to a concert hall. It’s not an average corner establishment that has an acoustic guitar playing.”
The Red Rock Saloon in Milwaukee has hosted live acts such as Josh Thompson and Love and Theft in the past, he said.
Janis said the venue already balances the role of restaurant and entertainment venue by making the establishment more intimate on nights without live music and opening more space for entertainment. Janis said the restaurant will also host themed events for a variety of customers, including businesses and bachelorette parties.
Janis said some nights will have “high energy karaoke,” which would create a lively atmosphere. The owners also said Red Rock Saloon would encourage other entertainment activities such as country line dancing.
“We’re passionate about what we do, and we put energy behind it,” Janis said.
He said the establishment will serve a wide age range of customers, from the 18-to-21 crowd to seniors. Janis said this is because country music, the genre the venue strictly adheres to, appeals to a wide variety of people.
Mark Woulf, Madison food and alcohol policy coordinator, said when ALDO was created, staff had trouble outlining the requirements for entertainment venues. Woulf said it was unlikely the city would ever see another concept that would provide entertainment to the underage crowd.
“I feel strongly that we got lucky that we have an operator coming to Madison that follows our ordinance,” Woulf said.
Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said the applicants were experienced in managing a establishment, as demonstrated by their venue in Milwaukee.
Red Rock Saloon will be a better and “more respectable” business than Logan’s, the establishment that previously occupied the site at 322 W. Johnson St., Verveer said.
Verveer added he was pleased to see a genuine entertainment venue moving into the downtown area.
“These gentlemen are the real deal,” Verveer said, “They are respectable. They are Wisconsinites.”
Red Rock Saloon is currently working out the details of the lease agreement for the space, but the owners said they plan to open early next year.
