Some two months after the initial announcement that City Tavern owner Josh Florence and a crew of investors had signed a lease on Club Dada and hoped to have the venue open near Halloween, the venue's opening has been delayed due to what Florence calls "red tape" and misinformation received from city officials.
Meaning? Well, first and foremost, that the scheduled first show to take place at the new Club Dada--a Parade of Flesh-booked show featuring Kurt Vile & The Violators, Purling Hiss and Dallas' own just-signed-to-Kemado-Records act, True Widow, that was set to take place on Friday, November 19--has been officially moved from Dada to Florence's other establishment, City Tavern. So too, it appears, will other shows booked to the space that come and go before the club can re-open.
"The reason for the holdup," Florence says, "is that we're having to fight through more red tape in opening a venue in Deep Ellum than we ever anticipated."
Specifically, that "red tape" involves acquiring both a Specific Use
Permit and a Certificate of Occupancy form from the city. Without the
former, Florence says, the business cannot obtain the latter. And,
without the latter, construction can't take place as planned within the
building. Florence blames misinformation received from both the city and
his landlords for the confusion--he was under the impression that both certificates were in order before signing a lease--but still plans on Dada being
re-opened by the end of 2010, if all goes to plan.
"The truthful answer," Florence says with a sigh, "is that we just don't know for sure when we'll be open."
But, once Dada does open, Florence warns, it won't be in the fully restored vision he and his partners originally had.
"This is gonna delay us from opening the kitchen right away," he says. "But we're gonna go ahead with the venue anyway, just to get the music out there."
We'll have more on this situation as it develops.
