Snapped this morning: that new butterfly roof on the new second story of what used to be the Pig Stand, at the corner of Washington Ave. and Sawyer. Going in: The Sawyer Sports Restaurant and Bar, from the owners of The Drake nightclub.
Another view sent in by the same reader, from yesterday:
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- The Pig’s New Gig: Sawyer Sportsbar [Swamplot]
Photo: Swamplot inbox
I just can’t wait until the Dragon Shirt boyz start populating this every evening. My home is a block away and I’ll bet the music from the upstairs are will be awesome.
Sorry to be a curmudgeon, but we don’t need more bars on Washington, especially by the same creeps who run Drake and Pandora.
Excuse me … ‘DragonShirt’ … more like, Affliction shirt, thankyouverymuch.
And, if I can fall asleep to the sounded of muted Techno Thumping set to the backdrop of a train horn blaring, then you can too!
N, I’m sure I will get used to the cacaphony. I wonder what will be in all these buildings in 5 years?
“Dragon Shirt Boyz” – hysterical.
I’ve always called them the Shiny Shirt Brigade…
There are these wonderful neighborhoods for curmudgeons who need nice quiet surroundings, they’re called “suburbs”. I think you can still get lattes there.
Great point Scott B.
I though Washington Ave and much of this area was the new urban core that was full of life. Now it’s supposed to be quiet? Also, the rail was there much longer before the old residential portions ever existed. The trains, heavy trucks, and industrial activity is big part of the existing environment. You buy into when getting a new home in the area.
I have tracks about 4 blocks from me in the Cottage Grove. I’ve grown quite accustomed to it and actually like it now. Of course I did have a dorm room and apartment adjacent to an extremely busy railroad that hauled pine to a saw mill while in college.
The bars along Washington aren’t of the kind that forms the Richmond Strip west of Uptown. The crowd is different and many don’t live far from the bars at all.
That whole intersection can become a great focal point for the east end of all the Washington Ave redevelopment. Sawyer needs to be widened to four lanes from Target to Washington since the traffic has gone a up a bit.
RIP Pigstand.
I miss the old barrio. It had flavour.
I just love having bar goers throwing up in my front yard and peeing in the street. And oh, pleasuring yourself on the trunk of a car, that was one of their more priceless behaviors, guess they didn’t pick anyone up that night. The fights, yelling and screaming – yeah, I forgot that’s why I bought in the neighborhood 15 years ago. I’ve just been waiting for this kind of bad behavior.
1. Drake and Pandora have different owners who are very different type of people.
2. ‘People’ generally want more life in the inner city but never want to live near the nightspots. Nothing new here.
3. Pigstand has been closed for business for some time, now. “R.I.P.” is too little, too late.
I live spitting distance to a certain blues bar. First, they worked extensively to do the best they could to insulate their building. They couldn’t keep all the sound from escaping, particularly the bass, but in time, I have gotten to where I don’t even hear it. When I have guests over, they notice it but I don’t hear it at all. I have never had issues with their patrons. There is, however, a bar down the street out of hearing distance which is much more of a nuisance by their customers often ending up nose first in our ditches. I call the police everytime and they have yet to take any of them to jail. If you have anyone peeing on your yard, having sex in public, or any other nuisances, report it immediately. When it is time for them to renew their liquor or beer/wine license, you can protest the renewal and the number of nuisance calls can help expedite that.
There isn’t much argument against the fact that Washington Ave has always had a mix of residential, retail, restaurants, and bars, and that this combination can add positive attributes to an area.
The issue is that patrons of certain bars like Pandora have been repeatedly and excessively rude and disgusting. It’s one thing to leave a bar and go home and do whatever you want. It’s a whole different story when you’re fighting, yelling, littering, peeing, vomiting, having sex, and drunk driving through/in front of peoples’ homes.
^edit – through the neighborhood/in front of homes..
I agree Lauren. Call the police with every loud voice, puking idiot and the police will get sick of it too. Then they start parking right in front of the culprit establishment and that scares off those particular customers at best and at worst the police are there to arrest them on the spot. It is work, but it works.
When I am walking on my street at night, if I see headlights, I get away from the street. I have literally come out after hearing a crashing noise and found a car nose first in a ditch (three different times). They should have died on impact, but alas they were drunk. So be careful! That barowner lost his license this summer because we stayed on them and protested his license.
We do call the police, and there is an off-duty police officer patrolling the neighborhood, paid for by the nightclubs who know there is a major problem, but by the time the police get there the pants are zipped, the vomit is already out, and they are gone. A fight 10 days ago brought 5 police cars at 3am, but yelling and screaming continued until it was under control. There are police hired by the clubs standing in front, but the arrests are limited. The number of DWI arrests have increased, but it doesn’t stop people. Over-serving happens routinely, gosh darn it, if you paid $300 for a bottle of booze/table service, wouldn’t you drink it all before you left? These are not cheap drunk, they are driving expensive cars with daddy’s money.
I wouldn’t say it’s daddy’s money since the number of young people in the area that have good paying jobs is astounding (and the number that try to appear that way is even more astounding).
These are definitely big problems and actually it is to a big extent the bar’s fault. The cops hired by the clubs won’t ever go that far since they getting side pay for working at the bar. Would you kill your extra income?
kjb and Scott, those are cute comments, but I have lived inside the loop since 1966. I’ve lived in almost every damn neighborhood there is always easy of Westcott/Kirby. I LIKE the urban mix of Washington Avenue, I don’t mind the train, I like tacos from Guadalajara Bakery or Laredo, etc. I bought cars from the used car guys while going to high school in the early 60s. So, don’t act like I moved down here for some peace and quiet… I didn’t.
What I do not like is bars that draw the worst FROM the suburbs. A**holes who come down here to puke, fight and piss on our streets, have wrecks, and generally treat this area as their own vomitorium. This is not progress, this is not fun, this is crap.
I meant to type “always east of Westcott/Kirby”… need spel chek.
The off duty privately paid police officer is just that, he is paid by the clubs. Here is some information I don’t think you are aware of. There don’t have to be arrests or any other evidence for nuisance calls to matter at liquor license hearings. The number of citizen complaint calls is what matters. You and all your neighbors should always call whether there will be an arrest or not. I am not saying to call randomly when somethign is not really going on. That is not only just wrong, it is also illegal, so you only want to call with real facts.
But call regardless of the outcome. Our current Sheriff, Adrian Garcia, gave us that nformation when he was our council member.
If you can hear the music, call and complain. Anything that is a nuisance, call. It gets recorded.
I think KJB is so against regulation that he would even get rid of police patrol.
I don’t care how legal or profitable something is, if the people find it does not work for them, they have the right and the responsibility to protest.
Seems like more people are opening businesses on Washington Avenue that require TABCE licenses. WHy can’t other businesses go there? Just like the PigStand, how long was it vacant? As much as I don’t like the owners of The Drake, opening up on that piece of property will pretty much increase the surrounding properties’ values.
Would you rather see a lot of vacant property surrounding you with a lot of vagrants walking around or would you rather have opened businesses that increase the value of your propert — but have to deal with increase traffic.
I am sure you will take the lesser of two evils.