Deep Ellum establishment<\/a>, explained how the Free Man had to work through the changes and what that meant for the musicians getting a reasonable, living wage. The same went for Jason Roberts and Amy Wallace Cowan, the co-owners of the Bishop Arts establishment, who had to go through similar headaches, but ultimately had to remove their cover charge.<\/p>\nAll of their Facebook posts opened up a discussion among our readers. Personally, I think it\u2019s a bogus rule considering the cover charge goes directly towards the musicians they book. Removing such a dedicated income stream is a blow to any working musician, especially in times like these. They aren\u2019t being treated fairly, and we lose the spontaneity of dining in and enjoying live music.\u00a0<\/p>\n
You can read some of our reader comments below. Afterward, plan a night out in Deep Ellum or Bishop Arts and tip our musicians. This city needs our culture and live music.<\/p>\n
Amy, Revelers Hall co-owner, on Facebook:<\/strong><\/p>\n\nCan someone please tell me how \u201cmaintaining public safety and neighborhood livability\u201d is impacted by a cover charge?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
In response to Elizabeth\u2019s question about adding a table fee, the Free Man owner wrote on Facebook:<\/p>\n
John on Facebook:<\/strong><\/p>\n\nWhich would be fine, and we are considering that on weekends, you have to be careful, because like Footloose where dancing is forbidden, saying anything with the words \u201cband, music, musicians, pay, help, donation, keep music alive\u201d is illegal, you have to do a lot of winking, while you do the same thing, but just don\u2019t say or print the words. \u00a0 Which is funny, they told us we can do that, just don\u2019t say or advertise the words, because\u2026. that\u2019s what the paper they have in front of them says. \u00a0 It\u2019s clown town.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Alicia on Facebook:<\/strong><\/p>\n\nReally what a stupid law. Businesses should be allowed to host live music and charge a ticket price or door fee to pay the musicians at any time and any place, as long as there is egress for fire safety and the noise level isn\u2019t disturbing a neighborhood (which should never be a problem in an \u201carts\u201d district). So many of the recent problems\/general climate we\u2019ve been having in Deep Ellum would resolve with MORE live music going on, not less!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Mike on Facebook:<\/strong><\/p>\n\nShould just let the market sort this out.\u00a0 If people don\u2019t want to pay a cover they will go somewhere else<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Sarah on Facebook:<\/strong><\/p>\n\nThis place is such a gem. I can\u2019t even comprehend the pea brain that would look at this establishment and think \u201cyeah let\u2019s give them a hard time\u201d. I hope this all gets sorted out. Email city council reps and let them know Dallas needs and appreciates these type of businesses.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
John, the Free Man owner, on Facebook:<\/strong><\/p>\n\nI am not sure if I commented here already, but when the City of Dallas came into the restaurant with 4 representatives and had an hour long meeting with us they literally said \u201cYou can not charge a cover, but you can put a music fee on their tabs\u2026. like Revelers Hall does\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So that\u2019s why this is so wild. We decided not to for now, because we already do a mandatory 20% gratuity. And we didn\u2019t want like a long list of sh*t on the end of everyone\u2019s tabs.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Glen on Facebook:<\/strong><\/p>\n\nIsn\u2019t this how these venues stay afloat while ensuring the musicians get paid? I\u2019m confused as to why the city would do this.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
JP on Facebook:<\/strong><\/p>\n\nI like free cover as much as the next cheap bastard. But who in the hell does the city think they are limiting the venues\u2019 revenues? The city is not losing any revenues with all their permitting and special use permit bullshit. But, they lose revenue when these venues go out of business. But, alas, they\u2019ll make some more when the next venue opens in the same place and suffers the same fate.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Dougal on Facebook:<\/strong><\/p>\n\nMore proof that Dallas doesn\u2019t care about any sort of organic culture. Everything has to be curated corporate drivel that old white men in suits can feel good about.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Free Man Lounge and Revelers Hall need our continued support. Mike Brooks Earlier this week, we ran…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":335336,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,63653,1596,24726,14838,358,132131,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-335335","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-bishop-arts","10":"tag-dallas","11":"tag-deep-ellum","12":"tag-local-music","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-touring-artists","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"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115444329653288515","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335335","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=335335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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