Hearne: Gusto Lounge Turns Over Not-So-Seedy New Leaf In New Westport Home

Leave us not mince words….

The Gusto Lounge and its forbear, the Lava Room at 3810 Broadway in Midtown, were joints of highly questionable repute. Without a doubt the hood on Broadway – especially at night – can get a little seedy.  A lot seedy at times.

Some of the online customer accolades over the years helped to tell the tale. Describing the Lava Room as "creeptastic," a place that "looks like the last stop before hitting rock bottom or a prep room for convicts."

After Gusto grabbed the Lava Room’s soiled baton two years back and reopened with a knock off Schlitz Beer logo, area hoodsters crossed their fingers, eyes and toes and hoped it might attract something approaching a kinder, gentler crowd.

Fat chance.

As evidenced by a comment added to an online Pitch item about the Gusto:

"Wow! I’m shocked at this place. Doorman took my beer from my hand as he chanted "n–ger move on, n–ger move on". Absolutely despicable for 2010. I’m still shaking from the shock of hearing that (surreal to hear the n-word). Gusto doorman also called some other blacks "spics". I dont know what that means or what he was trying to get at… I’m still in awe…I’m sickened by this place. Please don’t ever judge KC based on this ignorance and racism. disgusting. disgusting. disgusting."

All of that said, Gusto management wanted to clean up its act, the Pitch reported two months back

"No more tweakers buzzing around the bar. No more crackheads passing out in the corners upstairs."

To which the Gusto shot back on its Facebook page: "in your face Pitch… you suck"

So much for that future Pitch ad sale…

Finally now the Gusto has moved to the former longtime home of Stanford & Sons at 504 Westport Road. In recent years the building operated as Johnny Dare’s, a failed urban-themed bar called Karma and for a scant handful of week’s last summer, The Hell Bar.

Gusto 2.0 reopened last weekend with an "Angels vs. Devils Halloween Blowout" slash "Battle Royale."

The kinda crowd Westport nightclub nabob Bill Nigro expects it to draw?

"The same crowd that’s going to Union, Riot Room and the Record Bar," Nigro says. "They’re taking those steel bars that Craig Glazer put up for Johnny Dare’s down and restoring the building back to its original historical origins. They took out all the stuff inside – the sheet rock, the copper – and stripped the place down to the brick."

The $64 million question: will the classy, new new Gusto (still?) offer pitchers of Long Island Iced Teas and/or shatter its record for "most femmes in the ladies room"?

Stay totally tuned….

http://www.mb-kc.com/
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6 Responses to Hearne: Gusto Lounge Turns Over Not-So-Seedy New Leaf In New Westport Home

  1. Hearne's Fiat Mechanic says:

    no me gusto
    will they still be offering overpriced, stepped on cocaine? Perhaps I see brand synergy with the Glazers.

  2. So sad says:

    Times have changed
    I used to go to the Lava Room around 12 years ago. Used to be an OK crowd back then

  3. harley says:

    westport/kellys are making a comeback
    sat and had drinks down there this weekend…its’ like the old days…but maybe now that they got rid of glazes hip hop b.s…
    and hopefully that pub place closes then maybe westport will come back. I spoke with some owners and they said
    things were looking up…especially saturday nights…
    and if the places had hostesses/owners like colleen kelly they’d be making millions….the next genertion of kellys kids are doing
    a great job….hop[e to see kellys return to its greatness…but i’m a little old for that crowd but every time i’m down there
    i remember my running days there….wow……….

  4. Westport Resident/Business Owner says:

    “No Me Gusto” is RIGHT!
    Yes, please… Keep your shitty blow out of Westport. Everyone knows the people opening/running/ruining this shitty bar is going to fuck everything up in Westport. These are the same idiots that thought they found a loop-hole in the liquor laws and tried to run a “members only” club that served late night booze!! They charged something like $400 a membership and then closed their doors!! Oh, ps. Fuck Bill Nigro and the hooker I caught him with oh so many years ago! You ALL are ruining Westport.

  5. Ryan Shank says:

    I know all of the doormen who worked at Gusto. NONE of them would have said those things. Haters will hate, but don’t listen to them. Check the place out for yourself.

  6. Hearne Christopher says:

    Too old? Kelly’s has always had a sizeable geezer constituency – make yourself at home!

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