Closure News
Bar with troubled history on Dallas' Greenville Ave pulls plug after 11 years
A Greenville Avenue bar that's been a nexus of crime and discontent is pulling the plug: OT Tavern, located at 3600 Greenville Ave, is closing on July 5, after 11 years.
A spokesperson for the venue confirmed the closure, saying "it's just time."
The bar had been the subject of a longtime campaign by neighbors disgruntled by the crowd it draws and the accompanying noise and crime.
The trouble escalated significantly in the past two years, with a series of incidents including a high-profile shooting. In March, 20-year-old Cameron Ray was shot and killed in a fight outside the tavern, one in which Dallas Cowboys player Kelvin Joseph was a in the car from which the shots were fired. Two other men were arrested but his involvement brought international attention.
It seemed to get worse during the pandemic. To follow COVID capacity rules, the tavern limited the number of customers, and groups began loitering outside. A shootout occurred in October 2020 in the parking lot across the street, involving patrons of OT Tavern and Room 3606, a bottle-service bar in the same building, and another shooting occurred in the street in December 2020.
The city sat down with the management, who agreed to a set of guidelines including closing at 1:30 am to get patrons cleared out by 2 am, employing off-duty police officers on Sunday nights, turning off outside speakers, using a metal detector, checking for unauthorized weapons, and displaying "no loitering" signs around the exterior.
In August 2021, the OT Tavern reclassified itself as a restaurant so it could reopen.
While neighbors applauded the news of the closure, not all were happy to see it go: Organizers for an event called Trappiest Hour — who were the first to note the bar's pending closure on Next Door — called it a Dallas community staple and lamented its loss.
For the time being, Room 3606 is still open. "We're not sure what the plans are," the spokesperson said.
But in June, the Greenville Neighborhood Association's crime watch coordinator Darren Dattalo told Fox News that the community prosecutor filed a lawsuit against the landlord of the OT Tavern and Bar 3606 property.
The neighborhood association has been organizing protests with the TABC for Bar 3606, including formal protests filed by Dallas City Council member Paul Ridley, Representative Morgan Meyer, Senator Nathan Johnson, as well as nearby residents. The bar's renewal is July 5.
Before the OT Tavern, the space was home over the years to a variety of bars, some more problematic than others, including the NFL Sport Lounge, Ruby Room, the Red Jacket, Fish Dance, with the Bar 3606 space home to another bottle-service bar called Kinki's.
The Lower Greenville Avenue Neighborhood Association was created to deal with a variety of nuisance issues from the original Red Jacket.
"We don't oppose late night bars per se, but almost all of the ones in this location have been problematic for decades," Dattalo says.
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