EVANSVILLE, IN (WFIE) -
The downtown Evansville bar and restaurant, Stoney's closed its doors Wednesday. Now we're learning more about why that happened, and what could take its place.
Stoney's had been leasing the space in The District from its owner, Casino Aztar. The Casino is already working to welcome a new business, or businesses, to The District.
The shut-down wasn't a huge surprise to General Manager Ward Shaw. He tells 14 News Stoney's parent company filed for bankruptcy in Las Vegas in September.
He says the bar and restaurant won't be reopening, though he doesn't necessarily see that as a bad thing.
"Stoney's, I think, has had its struggles and its really not attracted the demographic of customer that ultimately we would have liked to have seen over in The District," Shaw said.
However employees are still floored by their lack of notice. Alan Kissenger says he's one of 20 or more Stoney's employees out of a job and with no advance warning. "I mean, I understand it happens, yeah it'd be nice to have a notification, but I assume we knew just as soon as they did."
Alan says it was a surprise because the business had been busy. He was working just a few days ago as people celebrated the beginning of 2013.
"New years was amazing," he said. "We made quite a bit at the door. From 8:00 to 3:00 O' clock in the morning people just kept going."
Shaw says they've already had interest in the space from a couple of different venues, with different concepts, including splitting the building into several different spaces.
As for The District's future, six years in?
"The District, it's been developed and master planned so it could expand as needed," Shaw said. "I think with the current economic conditions that's probably not in the immediate future, but that's one that we've planned for down the road as the economy rebounds that could always be an option that we consider later."
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