Strip Club To Reopen As Historic 25th Street Sports Bar

1/13/2011 10:35:35 PM

OGDEN -- The name will stay, as will the historic sign, but the Lighthouse Lounge is moving out and moving on from operations as a strip club.

Club owner John Chevalier said the Lighthouse Lounge will close its doors at 315 24th St. on Jan. 28.

But one week later, on Feb. 5, they will open again -- this time as a sports bar -- at 130 Historic 25th St.
"It's going to be a different deal with us changing our genre, going from a strip club to a sports bar," Chevalier said.

Chevalier said the name will be the Lighthouse Sports Bar, and it will be filled with seven 60-inch televisions, a 100-inch projection system, four pool tables and shuffle board. He said about 10 of the 16 people who are currently employed at the strip club will move to the new location.

"Some of the dancers are going to be cocktail waitresses," he said. "They are excited to do something different and quit dancing. It's a sports bar theme around cute girls, but they have to be dressed in clothes."

Tanith Cox, who has worked off and on at the club for six years, is one of those who will move to the new sports bar. A DJ and bartender at the current Lighthouse Lounge, Cox said she will continue bartending at the new sports bar.

"I think it's a good change," she said. "Unfortunately, a lot of people are disappointed that we aren't a strip club. It's probably scary for some. We have a clientele as a strip club. We don't have clientele as far as a sports bar."

The new sports bar will occupy what once was Angelos, a bar that closed several years ago. Chevalier said the bar is one of the oldest on 25th Street.

"We kept the history of the bar, and did a lot of repainting. We are keeping the old bar."

He said at 3,600 square feet, the new location is nearly double the size of the former location.

A zoning ordinance passed enacted in October 2009 banned all sexually-oriented businesses in Ogden. Chevalier fought the ordinance and the closure of the bar, saying it was illegal for the city to close the business without allowing the club to recoup its original investments.

But Chevalier said the city planning commission has worked well with his business, and they have reached a solution that will hopefully benefit Ogden and the business.

"We feel the money we would have spent in a lawsuit would be better directed to opening a new bar rather than being tied up in court for the next five years," Chevalier said.

The bar is still waiting on the state to approve its liquor license, Chevalier said. If the approval doesn't go through before the opening date, they will operate as a beer-only establishment.

The old Lighthouse Lounge location will be part of the $2 million remodel of the Berthana Building, which could possibly bring a night club and other restaurants, along with being utilized as an expansion for the Ogden Eccles Conference Center.