Glazer: Westport’s Hell Bar Hosting Johnny Dare’s Reunion Friday

Suppose they gave a reunion and the guest of honor didn’t show?

That’s likely to be the case Friday at Westport’s new Hell Bar in the space formerly occupied by Johnny Dare’s. Johnny will not be showing up, but his "Reunion Party" will still go down. Yes sir, in the original spot.

I converted the former Stanford & Sons into Johnny Dare’s in 2004. It got national media attention. Mostly because of Dare being a DJ with his own bar named after him. Stanford’s also had a national rep, 30 years of comedy and flower pot bread. Two household names in the midwest. Front page news in the Star and a mention on "Good Morning America." 

Pretty cool.

Well, between Westport’s many issues and too many owners  who all had different ideas on the joint, it lasted just a year. But oh, what a year it was. In the beginning you couldn’t get near the place it was so busy. We had bike parking in front, Dare’s original motorcycle spinning on the roof, flashing lights with his name and an open window front bar area.

We had Beyond the Thunder-Dome metal fixtures in front (big bucks there) and a ton of autographed photos of Hard Rock bands like Kiss, Kid Rock, Velvet Revolver and Metalica. The waitresses wore Catholic School Girl outfits and even less on weekends. Two huge mud flapp nude women figurines were mounted on the roof. It was a sight.

We got complaints about it being lewd from the church groups. The top floor was converted into a trailer park with a real trailer. And we sold Johnny Dare t-shirts, hats, even underwear. Fun times.

The loud bikes kept the hip-hop kids out of Westport. Yep, it was all going great.

Then we found out the landlord wouldn’t let us keep the comedy club or the dance club and pool room. So we were screwed. It just wasn’t big enough to work. We even built a radio station in the main bar wall for Dare.

What a shame. All for naught.

The girls – Christ – if the walls could whisper, man-oh-man.

Of course, I was married back then and a loyal husband.  Don’t give me that, I was.

A year after we closed I saw two of our hotties working at a strip club in Warrensburg. You know the ones where the girls are totally naked upstairs on beds. Of course I never went up and did that, hummm.

So this Friday around 9 p.m. or a little later, the former manager of Johnny Dare’s, Jennifer Beckerman, is hosting a reunion event. I hope all the hotties that worked there come.

Let’s see, they were 18-21 in 04/05, so now they’re about 25-30. And I’m single now. That works!

P.S. if this isn’t your cup of tea, check out the party at the Jones Store pool downtown. I’ll be there as well.

Summer is starting. Yes.