The Show nightclub on Tchoupitoulas. (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)
The bar faced charges of maintaining a nuisance and allowing illegal conduct, and was first brought to the attention of the city Alcohol Beverage Control board in April. In June, New Orleans police raided the establishment, arresting one man on a marijuana possession charge while state agents cited the bar for several counts of narcotics and minors inside. Police said at the time that they had investigated a previous shooting there and found employees attempting to move the crime scene outside. A few weeks later, a man was wounded in a shooting just after leaving the bar.
Attorney Shannon Bourgeois appeared before the alcohol board Tuesday afternoon to ask that the case be postponed another month, because the bar’s lead attorney, Frank DeSalvo, had been unexpectedly summoned to federal court in Ohio on Monday and could not be present. City attorneys noted the five previous delays granted to the case, most recently in August when DeSalvo took over the case from another attorney. At that time, the bar agreed to remain closed until the hearing was held, but it reopened for another event (identified by Bourgeois as a baby shower with no alcohol served), said city attorney Dan MacNamara, and the alcohol board voted to refuse the request to postpone the case again.
Bourgeois and the city attorneys then conferred for about 20 minutes, after which time the hearing resumed with Bourgeois assenting to a “voluntary revocation” of the license. Officials asked bar owner Eldon Anderson if he understood the terms — that the bar would be closed, and that both he individually and the location would be prevented from obtaining a liquor license for a year — and he agreed.
The building at 1755 Tchoupitoulas is owned by Robert S. Maloney, according to city records, and Bourgeois stressed that she did not represent him and could not vouch for his agreement to the prohibition against another bar there. City attorneys, however, said that the year-long moratorium against a new liquor license after one has been revoked at a location is part of the process, and that Maloney’s presence at Tuesday’s hearing was thus not needed.
In unrelated action at Tuesday’s hearing, Uptown bars Cooter Brown’s and Snake and Jake’s Christmas Club Lounge both agreed to pay $200 sanctions after being targeted in the state’s ongoing tobacco-control stings around the city.
