Oswego Revival Grant: Alley Cat Dance Club To Reopen After 16 Months

by Matt Watling | June 20, 2021 6:49 am

OSWEGO – While many downtown businesses have been able to return in some capacity as COVID-19 restrictions were lifted over the course of the last year, the local nightlife has lagged behind.

Thanks to the COVID-19 Revival Grant Program,[1] Oswego’s Alley Cat received $5,000 which will assist the nightclub in a variety of things including some major renovations.

Over the last 16 months, a once thriving hotspot of partying has been dormant despite attempts to reopen. The bar, according to its manager and head DJ Mike Howell, wanted to open up through “seating, but that’s not what Alley Cat is.” Howell added that the finances associated with seating and food was not feasible for the club.

The extended closure’s financial burden is easily recognizable. Across the U.S. and even New York state, many bars have shut their doors for good; however, for the Alleycat staff, the emotional toll was rough as well.

“We lost 12 months worth of nights, and it just hurt financially,” Howell said. “It hurt mentally for staff. It just didn’t do any good, sitting there not being able to … provide for our family.”

While the City of Oswego has been praised by business owners like Evan Coy of the Oswego Comic Shop[2] for its ability to raise money and sales for its local businesses, Alley Cat could not benefit from these, according to Howell who said “nothing” could benefit the dance club given how the state mandated its closure through COVID-19 restrictions.

Now, with the state at a vaccination rate of 70% of adults and restrictions lifted, Alley Cat has its chance to reopen. The hard months of waiting are over, and now it is time to use the grant funding to revamp the dance club with new bathrooms, flooring and a TV package for sports, as it said in its June 4 Instagram and Facebook posts. 

“The grant is going [to those improvements], every little bit helps,” Howell said. “We are grateful for it.”

The bar does not have much time, however, to apply the grant, as it intends to reopen on July 4 weekend.

“We are aiming for the block party that is planned for downtown [July 4 weekend],” Howell said. “We are aiming for that. We have a lot of work to do. We are trying to reimage Alley Cat.”

The reimaging of Alley Cat includes outdoor seating for patrons to enjoy the warm weather during the summer months and up until “whenever it isn’t beneficial” to sit outside, which Howell expects to be in October or November. The outdoor space will include tables and chairs, spanning the front of the building.

According to Howell, the patio will be about 12 feet long and eight to 10 feet wide. This along with new dance lights and soda guns will combine to create a better Alley Cat, that Howell believes the city needs.

“With Old City closed and 2Cans gone, we really have to step our game up for our community,” Howell said.

The final amenity that Alley Cat is tinkering with is an appetizer kitchen for fried food, but first comes the long awaited opening that has been in the works for 15 months.

“The option is being explored to put in an appetizer kitchen,” Howell said. “We are going to redo those and get new drinks out, new combinations with different kinds of liqueurs … We are looking into [the kitchen], we have been talking about it. But right now, our goal is to focus and get open and take it from there.”

Source URL: https://oswegocountytoday.com/news/oswego/oswego-revival-grant-alley-cat-dance-club-to-reopen-after-16-months/

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