EVENTS ON TAP
On the immediate schedule for Canal Street Tavern: Celebrating the Art of Belly Dance With Bronwen’s Beauties at 7 p.m. today; the weekly Musicians Co-op on Tuesday, and the Future Laureates with Evolution of James and Mike Mangione & the Union on Thursday.
There are plenty of places to catch live music in Dayton but few clubs with the legacy of Canal Street Tavern. That’s why social media was all a twitter this past week when news broke via Facebook that Mick Montgomery had quietly sold his music venue to Bill Daniels, owner of Pizza Factory and South Park Tavern.
Montgomery, a former musician and school teacher, opened Canal Street Tavern in 1981. Long before Riverscape or the Schuster Center were built and long before the Dayton Dragons set up shop a block east of his club on First Street, Montgomery’s intimate listening room was a frequent destination for discerning music fans and a regular stop for established performers such as Arlo Guthrie, the Asylum Street Spankers and Fairport Convention.
The prospect of this major change in ownership upset plenty of longtime patrons and area musicians who took to the Internet and expressed their fears over the future of their beloved Canal Street Tavern. Montgomery assures them there is nothing to worry about.
“There have been a lot of rumors flying around,” Montgomery said. “It’s very important to me for people to understand we’re all trying to be very optimistic and push in the same direction. Bill and I have been friends for years. He remembers the glory days of Canal Street as much as anybody does. He has the same ideas about what it should be like as I do.
“We basically came to the conclusion that it’s win-win for both of us,” he said. “For what they’re paying for the club, they’re probably getting their money’s worth, and I’m getting my money’s worth by selling the building, the liquor license and basically the stock and the bar itself.”
Same as it ever was (only better)
The deal includes retaining Montgomery as the exclusive booking agent for the club for the next five years.
“It would be foolish of me not to draw from his experience and contacts,” Daniels said. “We’ll deal with the operational side of things, and that will give Mick the confidence and ability to get more national acts in here. What people don’t understand is it’s going to start being more of Canal Street than it has been in a long time.”
While the venue’s dedication to music will remain, some upgrades to the business will be implemented soon. A new heating and air-conditioning system and the ability to accept credit cards for the first time in Canal Street Tavern history are first on the agenda. Other possible changes include a patio out front, a proposed green room for performers on the second floor, and even — gasp — a new kitchen, lunch hours and a few big-screen TVs.
“It’s going to be about entertaining people and enhancing the customer experience,” Daniels said. “We’re not going corporate. It’s not going to be a chain place or anything like that. We’re going to do important things like replacing the air-conditioning and heating system, but it’s going to change at a slow pace.
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Ron Thomason, a former Dayton area resident now living in Colorado, can attest to the uniqueness of Canal Street Tavern. He brings his internationally renowned bluegrass outfit Dry Branch Fire Squad to the club each January for a pair of annual shows.
“There are a lot of cities that don’t have a venue like Canal Street where you can go and know things on the cutting edge are going to happen in this intimate little spot,” Thomason said “Having it there so long is a great thing. People don’t realize how hard that is.
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Reunited and it feels so good
This new business arrangement isn’t the first time Montgomery and Daniels have worked together.
“In 1994 and 1995, I was trying to create a day job for myself because I was about to get married,” Daniels said. “My wife is a Dayton City School teacher. I knew I’d never see her if I didn’t have a day job, and Mick was kind enough to let me rent the kitchen space out at Canal Street. I was able to serve the bar, deliver out of the back and build up the day business for my pizza shop but then after a year-and-a-half I outgrew the space.”
Daniels turned Pizza Factory into one of the area’s most-successful locally owned pizza delivery businesses. He opened South Park Tavern on Wayne Avenue in 2007. It was an economically uncertain time to launch a new restaurant venture, but Daniels and the tavern’s manager Shaine Sullivan made it an overwhelming success. The duo hopes to repeat the accomplishment at Canal Street Tavern.
“I’m GM of both places now with managers under me, and that was my goal,” Sullivan said. “It’s a little bit scary, but it’s going well. Most of Canal Street’s staff is staying, which is what we wanted.”
For Montgomery, 68, the sale gives him an exit plan and assures the club’s legacy will continue when he leaves.
“I’m not getting enough money to retire, so I need a job,” he said. “I don’t want to go be a greeter at Walmart and I’m more than happy to turn over the selling of alcohol and dealing with the day-to-day business part of it to someone I trust.”
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