Iconic Toledo club set to reopen, but owner keeps options open

TOLEDO – The Ottawa Tavern, a beloved and historic local nightclub in Downtown Toledo, has a new lease on life.

With their debut show post-reopening now on the books for Thursday, June 12 at 7 p.m. with Gyasi headlining following by Dagger Polyester and Leadfoot Granny, the OT is back in business after a delay early this month.

“I’m not fully sure what we’re doing with it,” said Broc Curry, the new owner of the OT, as it’s fondly called, in an interview. “We’re just playing it very slow.”

Curry has been promoting concerts in Toledo for more than 25 years, most notably at his other iconic club, Frankie’s in East Toledo. He promoted his first concert in his hometown of Bowling Green when he was just 14.

Curry’s track record and connections in the music world would easily pave the way for the Ottawa Tavern’s return to a vibrant music scene – if that’s the path he chooses.

He had planned to hold a pop-up emo concert at the renovated club on April 1 as a way “let people come back into the space,” but had to cancel the show at the last minute when the city’s health department said he needed to file for a new license.

Curry said he is taking “baby steps ” as he looks at all options for the building. “Which direction we go … I’m not too sure yet.”

He took the same slow approach with Frankie’s, which closed in 2020 and reopened in July 2023. At first, Frankie’s held just a few concerts a month. But the club on East Main Street has gained momentum, and Frankie’s is now hosting 15 or more shows monthly.

“We’re pretty much open half the month right now, which is way more than I expected to be open again,” Curry said of Frankie’s. “But people want to play shows. People want to come to shows. Touring bands want to make a stop in Toledo, and we’re definitely super busy now.”

The reason Frankie’s has been so busy and successful is simple: Curry’s love of music.

“The people that make it a lasting endeavor are truly music people. It can’t be about money. In fact, you can end up losing a bunch of money. It can’t be about anything but the music. I’m just that guy. Since I was a kid, getting my ZZ Top and Stray Cats tapes at Finders Records; I just freaking love music.”

It’s possible the Ottawa Tavern will follow the same slow-but-steady path to building up its live music schedule, but Curry wants to keep his multiple business interests in balance and his options open.

In addition to owning two clubs, Curry owns the record and media store Your Music Exchange on Laskey Rd. in Toledo, two other record and media stores in Ann Arbor, and is getting ready to open a second Toledo shop. On top of that, he sells the most records through his online sites.

“My normal job is my record stores; the concerts are still very much my side business. But we have a small, dedicated staff. They are pulled in all sorts of directions and work long hours, but they love what they do. So you know, when you love what you do it’s not like work, right?”

Uptown building cleaned and painted

Getting the Ottawa Tavern ready was an “all hands on deck” effort by his staff at Innovation Concerts, with the team pitching in to clean and “whitebox” the building by painting the interior a neutral light gray.

There are plenty of options now for the Adams Street building, which has the potential to be a concert venue, a restaurant, a combination of the two, or a retail store run by Curry or another local entrepreneur.

Curry is well aware of the Ottawa Tavern’s place in local history, especially its contributions to the local music scene. “I’ve heard stories over the years. I know it meant a lot to a group of people. It was kind of like the Cheers of Toledo, in a way, where everybody knows your name.”

The OT was one of the most popular clubs in Northwest Ohio at its original location, 1846 W. Bancroft St., near the University of Toledo. For decades it had a diverse clientele, ranging from college students and professors to golfers and tennis players dropping by after playing at nearby Ottawa Park. Monday night poetry readings regularly drew 50 to 60 people.

Originally built as the Commerce Guardian Trust & Savings Bank in 1929, it was transformed into a restaurant and renamed the Westmoreland Inn in 1934. A grand reopening in 1937 featured music by Whitey Walls and his Rhythm Boys, with Chinese and American food on the menu.

Renamed the Ottawa Tavern in 1942

The venue was renamed the Ottawa Tavern by Clarence Bihl, who bought the Westmoreland and held a grand opening of the OT on Jan. 17, 1942.

Its modern heyday as a music venue and social hotspot began in the late 1980s and continued through the mid-90s.

Owner Pat Hanley hired Therese King, who had run a number of restaurants and was plugged into the music scene, to manage the club in April 1991.

“It was very, very slow at the time,” King said. “That’s why he called me to manage it. I booked the bands, did the ordering. Pat gave me free reign to get it going again.”

She booked other top local and regional acts including the Homewreckers, Generra Pantera, The Flecks, Groovemaster, Pat Lewandowski, the Stain, and the Love Zombies.

National touring band the Dynatones played there, with Toledoan Walter “Shufflesworth” Salwitz on drums, and the famously eccentric singer Tiny Tim performed a concert at the OT in 1984, even getting an honorary key to the city presented by then-Mayor Donna Owens.

“We had the opportunity to back up Tiny Tim at the Ottawa Tavern,” recalled Steven J. Athanas, who was the lead singer of the Homewreckers. “That was a hoot. I remember Tiny Tim giving me a heart-to-heart about relationships.”

The OT had a fire-code capacity of 167 people, which it reached almost every night.

“I did a lot of promoting,” King said. “I’d go to the party in the park and do flyers. It’s so easy now with the internet and social media, but back then it was just handing out flyers. But I loved it.”

She said the Homewreckers played regularly and were one of the club’s biggest draws.

“People would call and say, ‘Are the Homewreckers there tonight?’ There was no internet then, so everybody would just call on the phone.”

Athanas, who fronted a number of popular bands and now is a columnist and cartoonist for the Toledo Free Press, said “it was always fun” to play at the OT.

“Our band was together twenty-bleeping-plus-years and we played the OT a good portion of that time,” he recalled. “They wanted us to be the house band and so did the Pub, which was down the street. They fought over us.”

With a horn section, the Homewreckers had seven or eight people on the stage. Just squeezing everybody onto the OT’s small stage was a challenge.

Holidays were epic at the OT.

“The Wednesday before Thanksgiving and on Christmas Eve people would be lined up out the door and around the building,” Athanas said.

King said there were nights when Generra Pantera was playing at the Ottawa Tavern and The Flecks were playing a few miles away at the Pub, once known as the Brass Bell, “and they would switch for a set. The Flecks would run down to the OT and Generra Pantera would run over to the Pub, play a set, and then go back. Can you imagine?”

The stolen stuffed-crow caper

King recalled some of the unique features of the OT, including a phone booth and a pair of stuffed crows.

“Someone stole one of the crows. Pat was so mad. He made up a wanted poster for the return of the stolen crow. I found out who did it and told him to just bring it back. One night there was a knock on my door and when I opened it, there was the missing crow.”

Hanley closed the Ottawa Tavern on June 30, 1996.

“I was distraught that night,” King said. “Everybody was so sad. People starting taking stuff off the walls that night – people who didn’t care about the place.”

The Bancroft Street building burned down on Jan. 14, 1999. Fire and police officials suspected arson. There was a strong odor of gas and an empty gas can in the basement, according to a police report.

Firefighters were unable to save the building, which burned in the early morning when the wind-chill factor was 30 below zero.

That was the end of an era, but the club experienced new life when accountant Tom Baird bought a building on Adams St. in Toledo’s Uptown neighborhood in May 2006 and found that the name Ottawa Tavern was available.

He tapped into the public’s nostalgia for the Ottawa Tavern when the new incarnation opened at 1817 Adams St.

King credited Adam Sattler for helping Baird get the OT going again as well as developing the Uptown area.

“It was an exciting time when they decided to open the club on Adams,” said King. “It was a very, very vibrant bar.”

The Uptown venue experienced some roller-coaster years until last December, when the former owner, Curry’s predecessor, shut it down with no advance notice.

Patrons and local musicians were left in the dark, stunned and disappointed and wondering what happened. Dozens of people vented their anger and dismay by posting comments on social media sites.

“I think it’s important to move forward and not dwell on the controversy,” Curry said, pointing out that whatever happened occurred before he bought the club. “I think people have forgotten about it, and they just want it back.”

King said she’s glad that the Ottawa Tavern has new life and hopes it becomes a thriving music scene once again.

But nothing will capture the magic of the original OT on West Bancroft, she said.

“So many different personalities brought that place to life. We didn’t know at the time that it was the club’s heyday, we were too busy working and having fun.”