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Published Monday, January 7, 2008
Last call for Houndstooth
By Adam Jones Staff Writer
TUSCALOOSA | In a few years a handful of graduate students and alumni will spins tales to new University of Alabama students about the “old” Houndstooth, or the “original” Houndstooth, because tonight is last call for the bar in its current form.
At 2 a.m. Tuesday morning, The Houndstooth will close for about six months and re-open in a new, larger building on the same spot.
“The building is so old, it’s falling apart,” said General Manager Jon Alford Monday afternoon, as regular patrons began shuffling in the door.
The building won’t be razed until Jan. 15, but Alford said he needs a week to pack up the Crimson Tide sports memorabilia that fills nearly every available inch of wall space.
The bar’s temporary closing has not been advertised, but word-of-mouth has spread the news. Alford said he didn’t want to advertise because regulars already knew what would happen, and the Mondays before the spring semester begins on Wednesday is usually crowded anyway.
Although the floorplan will stay basically the same, the new building will be larger, extending to the property line on the west side, which is currently a small, side parking lot. The patio will be enlarged, and there will be more TVs outside, a Houndstooth hallmark, Alford said.
To make the expansion possible, the Tuscaloosa City Planning approved combining two lots that the Houndstooth owns into one, since current building code doesn’t allow building over lot lines, said John McConnell, deputy director of the city’s planning department.
But many of the changes will go unnoticed by the customer, making working there more manageable, Alford said.
He wasn’t sure of the exact date for re-opening, but said the bar will be ready by football season.
“A lot of people are excited about us re-opening, but right now they are sad,” Alford said.
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