Jaden's Bust

Jaden's, the upscale restaurant and bar/lounge at the Knox Promenade Center off Central Expressway, was just pronounced dead. The restaurant went first, done in a couple of months ago by dining ennui. The owners kept the bar open, but everyone thought it was dead, too. So they killed it in honor of perception three weeks ago. The owners had $3.5 million sunk in Jaden's, so they're coming up with a new concept. "We've been doing demographic studies and everything else in the area trying to figure out what's needed so that we don't have the same catastrophe we had with Jaden's," says Dirk Kelcher, who along with his brother Mark operates Jaden's, Jack's Pub and the Top Rail Ballroom. Kelcher says the problem was the upscale food. Hard to disagree. So they're downscaling, most likely into sporty mode à la Cool River Café sans the pool tables. But this will mean sinking even more money into the place before reopening under a new name, maybe in August. "It's kind of a shame, because we spent so much to make it an upscale place, and then we have to spend money to bring it down." Our advice: Host a slew of Keystone Light wet midriff T-shirt contests all summer. You'll accomplish the same thing at a profit.

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