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Oh, no! Will fans react to SRO closing as they did when the Texans lost to the Patriots in January?: Johnny Hanson : 29-95
It's just the kind of announcement I hate finding on Facebook.
Owner Carol Neatherton says (via Facebook):
"It has been a great ride! From the bottom of my heart, I want to thank all my past and present employees who have been like family to me and all the customers who have touched my life over these 27 years. To all my alumni groups that helped make all those years possible, just know that when your teams play I will still be cheering right along with you!"
The owners of SRO are native Houstonians and are proud to have been a part of the Houston business community for so many years and are proud of this wonderful city!
The bar went out on a melancholy note. Sunday night, Feb. 23, it hosted the Norma Zenteno Benefit and Tribute Concert, which drew hundreds of fans, friends and family of the 60-year-old local musician who died Friday evening of breast cancer complications.
A candle burns near a photograph of Norma Zenteno during a tribute show at SRO.: Mayra Beltran : 29-95
"It was bittersweet," Neatherton said of Sunday night when we caught up to her by phone.
Neatherton said with the Highway 290 widening project impacting the future of Northwest Mall that it "was just time" to close. The bar relocated the west end of the mall in July of 2001.
SRO was known for its size, its diverse clientele and the way it catered to alumni groups. The bar, which anchored the west end of Northwest Mall, was the unofficial headquarters for dozens of alumni groups, including Georgia, Kansas State and Ohio State.
Of any future plans, Neatherton said, "I'm going to take a deep breath. Twenty-seven years is a long time. I'm just going to see what doors open up."
It's not surprising with so many new places are opening. I always ask myself "how long will it last?"
Oh, well.
This happens to be some sad news to a lot of fans who watches non-stop football, and this happened to be the place to do it. Where they plan to go-Beats me.
I don't think they plan to go anywhere. This is the third location that has gone away abruptly (the other two having been at Westheimer/Gessner and FM 1960/Cutten Road). It is possible that the losses from those locations was still impacting their profitability at the NW Mall one.
The 290 construction/future of NW Mall makes no sense, because the mall is still operating, and the construction has had minimal if any current impact on businesses on SRO's side of the mall. If concern for the mall's future was the motivation behind closing, one would think that it would be handled much differently, with notice to staff and customers, and fulfillment of outstanding obligations (such as hosting the Elvis concert that was supposed to be tonight as a memorial to long-time customer Bob Overholt). And of course if the problem was just with the location, one would have a new one lined up.
The "lost our lease" scenario that is being floated is a bit more credible, but again isn't something that happens overnight, unless it's shorthand for "we stopped paying the rent and the landlord is turning off the utilities/evicting us tomorrow". Given the mall's loss of tenants and perceived vulnerability to the 290 construction, it's hard to believe a landlord with a paying tenant/thriving business would be trying to replace that tenant.
Other than landlord action, why do businesses shut down with no warning? Because they see they aren't going to make payroll, or they're losing so many vendor contracts because of nonpayment that they won't be able to service their customers. On November 28, 2012, in the middle of what one would have thought was a strong revenue stream generated by college and NFL football, the NTN/Buzztime trivia system that had brought and kept many players as regular customers for years was yanked by NTN/BT because SRO wasn't paying that vendor bill. Prior to my learning the truth, the players (including myself) were strung along by SRO and led to believe that the problem was NTN/BT's failure to timely repair the system, not SRO being in arrears. As a former Chapter 11 business bankruptcy/reorganizion specialist, I at that point predicted SRO would be sold or closed whenever the Super Bowl revenue ran out--and that was right on target.
It is a shame because my husband spent many great nights and met many wonderful people at SRO, and when we learned of their financial difficulties, we offered to help--but no one can help a company that simply denies it has a problem and/or blames it on something else, be it trivia companies, landlords, or construction projects. The many long-time, loyal customers and staff deserve the real reason SRO closed--and I'm quite sure we haven't gotten anything like it yet.
Come on out to The Spot Club we do karaokie with a new guy and Gal on Tues and Thurs. I will do the best I can to get your Trivia!!!!
Lynette
I used to work for S.R.O. and even though I left before they closed I still visited. It was the best bar in it's day. With that being said I now work at The Spot Club on 18th. I love it there I am the Mgr. and I invite anyone who reads this to come and have drinks with us. We have karaokie with Court on Tues. and Thurs. and Friday night usually a great band. We host two of the bands that played at Norma's Memorial on a regular basis. Anyone who hasn't been to The Spot in awhile should stop in and see the changes I and Rose Jones (Owner) have made to The Spot Club.See yall there!!!!!
Lynette McCormick
Manager
The Spot Club Houston