The Utopia Restaurant may open this week in the former location of Johnny's on East Midlothian Boulevard.
sounds new age / vegetarian? Do you know what type of food they will serve?
A resturant by day, and gay nightclub by night. Interesting concept, just don't know if community will support it.
They support the Bull and Bear Tavern don't they. Sounds like same concept lol.
Good point, but B&B went bankerupt and was only turned gay as a last ditch effort to suck money from the gay community as well as the naive partners that bought into that scam trying to extend the life of the business during the leaner winter times when concert revenue was at a low.
I have visited the new Utopia, nice atmosphere, good location, good food, pricey for the market they are trying to serve. There going to have to build a bang up restaurant clientele to maintain operations and overhead especially with a full service restaurant. That level of business and investment cannot be supported in this area strictly by the "gay" community. There is no such thing here or anywhere else as a gay family friendly restaurant by day, and a gay bar by night. History will indeed repeat itself, in the past 7 years there have been no less than 7 gay bars open in a variety of locations, including Boardman/Poland, each one now closed. The Mixx, Sophies, The Blue Note, Someplace Else, Pages, Chamber, Caswells, and the B&B just off the top of my head. The very of best of luck to the 4+ partners of Utopia! You see the reality of it is gay folks want a place of there own, not a mix, and certainly don;t want to be the subject of a spectator sport! Perhaps the concept should be "straight" but gay friendly makes more sense from a business prospective.
What happened to Utopia Resturant and Bar. I was down on E. Mid today and the recently opened business was boarded up. There is nothing left in the plaza now.
As of today, August 19, the restaurant is not boarded up. A sign on the front states that the club/restaurant is under new management.