3.08.2012

Johnny Luc's becoming The Living Room and Club Shadow possibly reopening


I don't have much on this, but it's enough to whet your appetite. Some serious investigative journalism (ie. me walking across the office parking lot, in the rain) has revealed that the Caroline Street bar formerly known as Johnny Luc's is reopening under new ownership as The Living Room.
Tiffany Albert and her husband Jonathan Albert, who own Putnam Den, are behind the project. They opened Putnam Den in the summer of 2009 and since then have attracted an impressive array of local, regional and national bands. I spoke to Tiffany very briefly this afternoon, really only to schedule a meeting for next week, but she said The Living Room will be a 1920s-style speakeasy.

Thank you, google images.
Thank you again, google images.
So, I hope to have much more on this for you next week after I meet with Tiffany.

The most tantalizing piece of intel I uncovered today came from phone calls with two separate sources (who I will not name here because they only spoke to me off the record): the Alberts also purchased and are planning to reopen the space formerly known as Club Shadow (upstairs from Johnny Luc's-turned-Living Room) as a club that will be very similar to Club Shadow. Of course, you remember Club Shadow closed last summer after a large brawl started in the club, spilled out onto Caroline Street, necessitated dozens of police officers to quell and resulted in four arrests and four injured cops. The club's liquor license was subsequently canceled by the State Liquor Authority. Rumors surfaced not long after that owner John Lucarelli was selling the space.

There you have it — a new bar for Caroline Street with what sounds like a unique theme and possible new life for Club Shadow. 

— Emily

Five Points Grocery under new ownership



Five Points Grocery at the intersection of Park Place, Lincoln Ave., Jefferson Street and Clark Street is under new ownership: Maura Pulver Millar is the new owner as of this week.
The store changed hands in October 2007 when Kim and Joe Helenek, who had been the owners for almost 10 years, sold the store to Jim and Kerry Morris.
We'll have more on this later today from Managing-Editor-turned-fill-in-biz-reporter Barb Lombardo.

Emily

UPDATE: Here's the full story from Barb about the new owner. Maura Pulver Millar was an employee of the story for 1 1/2 years before she bought the building.