Sugar House loses its liquor license...permanently

The house that former pimp Scottie Ewing built -- better known as the Sugar House -- is gone for good this time. The swingers' club by night, burger joint by day (as the Alameda Grill) had been closed since February, when new owner Kelly Bailey, the former manager, was served...

By Patricia Calhoun

May 3, 2012

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The house that former pimp Scottie Ewing built -- better known as the Sugar House -- is gone for good this time. The swingers' club by night, burger joint by day (as the Alameda Grill) had been closed since February, when new owner Kelly Bailey, the former manager, was served with a notice of a liquor-license violation.

The first hearing on that violation was slated for mid-March, then postponed until April.

And now a far-from-sweet chapter in Denver club history is done.

On May 1, having reviewed the recommended decision issued on April 17, the Denver Department of Excise and Licenses determined that "the temporary permit to operate a hotel and restaurant liquor license, as well as the previous approval of a hotel and restaurant liquor license, issued to Khameleon Group, LLC, doing business as Sugar House, 1395 West Alameda Avenue, Denver, Colorado, is hereby revoked."

When we last talked with Ewing, he was in California, contemplating a move to Las Vegas, where he plans to build a new Sugar House. Bailey said she'd asked her lawyers if she could talk with us about what happened at the club; we have not yet heard back from her.

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Patricia Calhoun is editor-in-chief of Westword, the alt-weekly she co-founded in September 1977. She’s been inducted into the Colorado Press Association Hall of Fame, the Association of Alternative Newsmedia Hall of Fame and the Colorado Restaurant Association Hall of Fame. She’s also received dozens of local, state and national awards for writing, including first place for feature writing and first place for column writing with the Society of Professional Journalists. Patricia is a weekly commentator on Colorado Inside Out, PBS 12's public affairs roundtable, which has won two Emmys.

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