{"id":323231,"date":"2025-10-22T07:19:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T07:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/323231\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T07:19:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T07:19:13","slug":"bishop-arts-venue-says-city-prohibited-them-from-charging-a-cover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/323231\/","title":{"rendered":"Bishop Arts Venue Says City Prohibited Them From Charging a Cover"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tRevelers Hall is a home for music lovers in the heart of the historic Bishop Arts.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Jason Roberts<\/p>\n

After The Free Man Lounge revealed that it\u2019s taking hits from every direction (construction, crime and new city rules), other venues are being affected by Dallas Code Compliance\u2019s restriction that they can no longer charge a door cover.<\/p>\n

Jason Roberts, co-owner of Revelers Hall jazz bar<\/a>, shares the same sentiments when The Free Man Lounge posted on Facebook, asking for support from the city to keep their business going.<\/p>\n

On Oct. 9, The Free Man Lounge shared a lengthy Facebook post<\/a> outlining its struggles to maintain the business<\/a> amid ongoing construction<\/a> in Deep Ellum. The City of Dallas made matters worse with a fatal blow: \u201cNo More Cover Charge. In a baffling decision, the City of Dallas recently arranged a meeting to inform us that we can no longer charge a cover fee,\u201d the post from The Free Man read.<\/p>\n

Roberts, who reposted a WFAA article<\/a> on the Deep Ellum restaurant asking for help, wrote, \u201cWe\u2019re in the exact same boat at Revelers Hall.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city of Dallas\u2019 Nightime Task Force suddenly came in over the past few weeks and have been extremely heavy handed out of nowhere. We presumed they existed to help grow and support nightime [sic] business, but immediately told us to remove our Music Fee\u2026which is how we pay the bands and have done so for over half a decade,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

Roberts also said they were instructed to close their doors at all times for concerns of noise violations.<\/p>\n

\u201cApparently, a rule exists saying restaurants aren\u2019t allowed to charge an additional fee. Unfortunately, a 1,300 sq ft room with a max capacity of 65 cannot make enough food and drinks to pay artists what they deserve. Anyone who knows restaurants, knows that we operate on very thin margins and a single bad month in sales can completely shutdown [sic] a space,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

He then shared how much the music fee benefits Revelers Hall and the bands they book to play there. \u201cFor us, that Music Fee brings in a little over $20,000 a month, which goes to the talent. With that gone, we simply can\u2019t afford to continue doing live music,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a gutting blow to hear that Revelers Hall, a place that captures the essence of New Orleans with live jazz in Bishop Arts, could possibly face harder times to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re talking with our council member and city officials now, but just giving everyone a heads up that this is effecting [sic] several venues right now, and we\u2019re not seeing any rapid response from the city on helping us overcome the issue. And if it\u2019s not resolved in short order, we won\u2019t be able to keep Revelers Hall open,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\"Facebook\"Jason Roberts shares his thoughts on The Free Man Lounge.<\/p>\n

Amy Wallace Cowan, also a co-owner of Revelers Hall, thanked everyone who reached out about the establishment\u2019s ability to have live music. She wrote on Facebook and Instagram, \u201cLet\u2019s rewrite the code in favor of our artists, Dallas.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI have worked and scrapped for 17 years to make Bishop Arts vibrant and desirable, and now, suddenly, the things we\u2019ve been encouraged to do \u2014 bring the arts to Bishop Arts, convince people Oak Cliff is safe, and make it boom \u2014 are under fire,\u201d she wrote on Facebook.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, 6 1\/2 years in, the city has decided we cannot collect the music fee, stripping about $250,000 from our income. We\u2019re allowed to be sneaky and hide it on your bill, calling it a service charge, but we\u2019re not allowed to say the word music or musician or band, nor can we have signs that are upfront and disclose to our guests that there is a fee to pay the talent. Doesn\u2019t that seem dishonest?\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n

\"FacebookAmy Wallace Cowan, adding her take on the no \u201cmusic fee.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Cowan sharing the letter she received from the City of Dallas.<\/p>\n

In a follow-up Facebook post, The Free Man Lounge said changing its permit to commercial amusement use would be impossible, negatively affecting its taxes and liquor license.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe opted, for now, to just not do a cover in hopes that increased business would make up the difference. There has definitely been an increase in food and drink sales. But those come at a cost, so as of now, we are only adding about one to two thousand dollars a week to our losses. It\u2019s not as bad as we thought it would be,\u201d the post reads. \u201cWith another increase in awareness of the no cover policy and people showing up it may actually work in our favor, especially during this downturn.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FreeThe Free Man clarified their initial post with a follow-up.<\/p>\n

A video posted on their Facebook<\/a> showed a packed room with patrons enjoying live music, backing up the bar\u2019s claim that this is the best place to see \u201clive music every night of the week.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe construction, yes it sucks, and yes it\u2019s hurting us really bad, and yes the City and our Landlords have done literally nothing to help. But yet, we persevere. And we will continue to.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Revelers Hall is a home for music lovers in the heart of the historic Bishop Arts. Jason Roberts…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":323232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1596,24726,10607,14838,10429,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,51561],"class_list":{"0":"post-323231","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-deep-ellum","11":"tag-jazz","12":"tag-local-music","13":"tag-oak-cliff","14":"tag-texas","15":"tag-tx","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa","22":"tag-venues"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115416608166373263","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}