- Workers remove the sign from the old Mickey’s earlier today. Owner Mickey Briggs said the bar closed for good on Monday night.
Mickey’s, the six-year-old gay bar on Cedar Springs Road, closed for good on Monday night due to a substantial pending increase in the lease rate for the building, according to Mickey Briggs, the owner of the bar. Briggs said the owner of the property wanted to increase the lease rate by several thousand dollars per month in 2010, which he says he can’t afford. Briggs said he looked for another location for the bar but was unable to find one. The majority of the Mickey’s staff has gone to work for the new Brick, according to Briggs, and Mickey the deejay will be moving his Retro Sunday to the Brick beginning this weekend.
“I’m going to spend Christmas cleaning the building and repainting to hopefully get back my deposit,” Briggs told me earlier today. “It’s extremely disappointing to shut down a business that everyone tells me they enjoyed.”
Briggs said he fears the building will remain vacant indefinitely because the owner won’t be able to find a tenant that’s willing to pay the higher lease rate. “We’re going to have another empty building on the street,” he said.
Briggs, who says he needed to retire anyway for health reasons, added that he’s grateful he’ll at least be able to keep his popular Retro Sunday going. “It’ll be exactly the same, it’s just at a different location,” he said. “All the guests over the last six years, I feel I owe it to them to continue the show.”
Will miss Mickey’s. Hate for the inconvenience of having to go to Brick for Retro. It was so easy to start your Sunday in JR’s, skip to Mickey’s in the early evening and then stumble to TMC to dance the night away. What a great combo and will be missed.
So many memories here… sorry to see it go. These building owners seem to have lost their minds. Hunky’s is moving because their building’s owner wanted to increase rent too. And it’s also why we lost the Crossroads bookstore.
Haven’t these building owners been following what’s been happening to commercial real estate amidst this recession? Good luck finding long-term tenants by raising the rent. I guess we’ll all just deal with looking at empty storefronts until greed sets into reality.
I have worked at Mickey’s for over 4 years. We were all like a family. Plus, we treated our customers like family too. Even though the club is closed, I will hold the memories of my time there close to heart and have many stories to share forever. I have met so many people there & most have become very special to me. For those that wish to continue on with us…we (most of the staff of Mickey’s) will be working at The Brick/Joe’s. Located at Tollway and Wycliff next to Oishi & Sals Pizza. Come check us out! We will also be having our Retro Sunday! Hope to see you all soon! I will be on the Joe’s side. Stop in for some Hugs & Giggles!!!
I heard the same fate is in store for the Round Up as soon as early next year. Has anyone looked into whether the rumors of its impending closure are true also?
I was only employed by Mickey’s for a short time as the host of Retro Sundays and the Monday night “Skyy is the limit” talent night , about 3 or 4 months. However in that short time I learned a lot and made a lot of friends. Mickey’s was really like the “Cheers” of our local gay community and I truely appreciate the opportunity that was given to me by Mickey’s. The entire staff welcomed me and treated me like a part of their family. I have to say Mickey’s was one of the funnest and most memorable places I have ever worked. I believe I can speak for a large majority of our community and say Mickey’s will be missed dearly . You can still get a taste of Mickey’s at the new Brick located on Maple with our Retro Sunday concert ticket give away, come check us out, you will see lots of familiar faces. xoxo
Dominique O’hara Skyy
Who owns these buildings? Maybe the Voice could do a profile piece on these owners. Are they charging market rates or are they being greedy?
OH NO!!!!! Where am I supposed to get all my party favors before I hit the rest of the strip going forward. This was the best place to score my supplies for the weekend? Can I get them at the Brick Now?
@Carl Polk
Awwww man, that was rude.. since when did making snide inuendos and rude remarks about others become a party favor for you?
Do us a ‘party favor’ and turn off your computer.
I’m thankful that we have the new and improved Brick and look forward to them getting their dance license soon. The prices are reasonable, it’s easy to park, and the staff is friendly and awesome just like in the old BRICK days gone buy. I used to love going to the old one on Friday “indie” nights when the dj would play new dance tunes never heard anywhere else. It was the first place in the city where I heard the Vengaboys and now they’re using them in the Six Flags commercials..
Unfortunately, today, most of my shit kicker friends can tell you who’s Patsy Kline, but in their pathetic little daily ritual, they don’t even know who the heck Adam Lambert or Lady Ga Ga is. How sad is that?
Back then, I used to go there and dance by myself instead of going nuts to find other friends to join me. The following morning I’d hit Tower Records and order some of the cool stuff I learned about the night before. In the end, I met some really cool people there and I look forward to doing the same thing at this new location.
Sorry to see Mickey’s going…
But Rickey’s looking forward to good times to come at the new Brick. And hopefully the Brick will leave all the boring rap crap of today or the monotonous trance crap with no lyrics besides a few oooohhh and ahhhhhs for the rest of the looser joints playing the same old stuff each week.
Gotta THINK beyond the BOX !!!
I always felt like the new Brick looked more like an updated Mickeys than the old Brick. I’m looking forward to Sunday Funday at the new Mick… err… Brick, but bar hopping on the strip will never be the same.
Carl,
I don’t know what bar you were going to for your party favors, maybe you were confusing Mickeys with some other bar on the strip or perhaps ur own place of residence. But at least everyone knows now that CARL POLK engages in the ” party favors”. However your attempt at bashing Mickey’s just made YOU look ignorant .
I’ve said before and I’ll say it again, the demographics of the neighborhood have changed significantly over the past 10 years. The “gayborhood” is on the demise as most gay folks, including myself, have migrated/integrated into other neighborhoods in the metroplex. Give it about another 10 years, and I’ve pretty sure the Oaklawn we know today will be vastly transformed and probably unrecognizable.
Uptown is moving north and Oak Lawn is in its path. At first, it appeared it would just take in Lemmon Ave, but obviously its swath is wider than that. Ilume is also probably something driving the “I can get more . . . ” orientation of many landowners–it was already there a few years ago, just probably accelerated more now with Ilume getting closer to openning day.
The Oak Lawn that used to be was so interesting and exciting to be in, but with many of the former “anchors” now gone, the gay retail community is not what it used to be. Perhaps if “the gayborhood” real estate was “gay owned” rather than “gay leased”, things would be different? As Uptown expands, the uniqueness of “Dallas’ Gay Ground Zero” Crossroads Area will probably decrease from what it now is, and especially from what it used to be. Still, there needs to be a particular area where gay citizens can go to be around other “community” members for relaxation and enjoyment. Hopefully, the “New Oak Lawn” will still have that capability!
It’s easy to get into a “victim” or “doomsday” mentality on the changing of the Oak Lawn strip, but I hope this is a transition into something better for the gay community and Dallas. It would be a shame if Uptown’s northward progress swallowed-up Oak Lawn and turned it into “just another part of Dallas”. Hopefully, current retail anchors and clubs and restaurants can find ways to maintain their presence on “The Strip” into the future!
Why does there have to be a ‘gay’borhood? If we want equality, why don’t we open gay retail shops all over the metroplex? Why do we just need a neighborhood? I know most of you will say it’s a place to be ourselves, and not worry about being harrassed. I feel safer going to the “straight’ places than the gayborhood, and they are more accepting at these places anyway. Keeping a neighborhood is just keeping us seperated from the rest of the world. It’s been 20+ plus years since Stonewall, why are we still keeping ourselves in the dark? Spread your wings, open your establishments elsewhere!