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Sweet marketing music

Tanner Montague came to town from Seattle having never owned his own music venue before. He’s a musician himself, so he has a pretty good sense of good music, but he also wandered into a crowded music scene filled with concert venues large and small.But the owner of Green Room thinks he found a void in the market. It’s lacking, he says, in places serving between 200 and 500 people, a sweet spot he thinks could be a draw for both some national acts not quite big enough yet for arena gigs and local acts looking for a launching pad.“I felt that size would do well in the city to offer more options,” he says. “My goal was to A, bring another option for national acts but then, B, have a great spot for local bands to start.”Right or wrong, something seems to be working, he says. He’s got a full calendar of concerts booked out several months. How did he, as a newcomer to the market in an industry filled with competition, get the attention of the local concertgoer?

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by Beth Ewen
March 2003

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Jason McLean of the Kitty Cat Klub on starting over and stirring the pot

You can call it a resurrection or a comeback, the fact that Jason McLean has opened the Kitty Cat Klub in the Dinkytown neighborhood by the University of Minnesota. The colorful McLean presided over The Loring Bar & Café for 16 years in Loring Park, including its spectacular closing last summer. That was after McLean lost his lease, picketers marched against the big bad landlord (never mind that McLean had missed more than a couple of payments) and 12,000 signators protested his ouster in favor of Richard D’Amico’s swank new Bar and Café Lurcat.

But McLean simply calls the Kitty Cat Klub his new home, overstuffed with sculpture, art, a beautifully carved wooden bar, and it seems a couple thousand more objects to recreate a romantic community gathering place. (No, it’s not a strip club, despite the name, the credit for which goes to McLean’s seven-year-old daughter, Olive.) McLean’s mission as a restaurateur is not to just serve good food and beverages, but to get a diverse group of people together and stir the pot. He talks about what he lost, and what he’s re-creating.

“I like a place to show its age, with its structure to be revealed. You start with that and then you can accessorize. The Loring was never bought off the rack. It was personal to me. As a result you don’t trash it. ‘Spare’ was never a word attached to our restaurant.

We were like the snail with our house on our back until we found a new location. I didn’t know where that would be. It was not some grand plan. I was dealing with the moment. It was rather Zen-like.

I don’t come from a business background. I come from an artistic and theatrical background. I view it as a home, and as an artistic creation. I had great parents. My mom had a little business called Ma Crab Inc. It was in our house. The production line was in our basement. She made decorative plaques, ‘Wipe your feet,’ things like that.

I think it was right to fight for the Loring. It meant things on an emotional level to the community. Things that are an ingrained part of a community, I don’t think should go lightly. We started a theater. We used a successful bar and restaurant to underwrite that activity. It was never cookie- cutter, never safe.

I think that’s why it became a community cause of sorts. My role in that was quite small. I just informed a few people in the press that the lease was in danger of being lost. We amassed something in the vicinity of 12,000 signatures. I found myself in a state of amazement. I was brought to tears at times with the sentiment, some of the most exquisite testimonials in 30 or 40 words.

The story is difficult, complex and unfortunate. We had a rough year before we closed. We were chronically late with the rent right after September 11. It was difficult. September 11 pulled the rug out of it. Overnight we lost 30 percent of our business. By January we were OK. We had the situation under control, but by that time the landlord’s mind was made up.

My gut thing is don’t try to be the hottest thing of the moment. If you’re trying to be the hottest thing, you’re going to burn out. If you can moderate that and stay true to who you are you’ll come up with better long-term success. I don’t try to read what the community wants. I think about what I would enjoy.

The Kitty Cat Klub is a community gathering place. It’s a spot that makes people feel warm and comfortable and easy with each other. Like somebody made it; like you’re coming to my home. Through our musical programming, our artistic sense, the art and sculpture, we use that as a bridge. That’s the key thing here, to employ the power of the various art forms.

I think that’s magnetic to people. I think that’s what drives people to be comfortable. It’s kind of sexy but it doesn’t come off as trying to be sexy. I think more romance has come out of the Loring than most places.

It’s a spontaneous combustion that occurs when people are happy in an environment that celebrates the artistic. The deliberate feng shui thing — I have no time for that. I think it’s about doing what feels right.

My take on a university is, it’s supposed to be a universe. It’s a spot that galvanizes people of all backgrounds and swirls them all together. We just add a little dose of wine and song and things start percolating. That’s the whole mission of it all.

Let’s not forget the culinary arts, the alchemy of the restaurant. Most people in the restaurant business are utterly clueless about the atmosphere. They say, my restaurant is going to be about a particular flavor, but where’s the turn-on? There’s a helluva lot more to a restaurant than that.

My mission is to touch more corners of people’s lives than simply good food, good service and good beverages. I’m after something that’s got my tentacles in more places in people’s lives.

Perforce I must pass by the old restaurant on my way home to Bryn Mawr, where we bought a house. We just go, ‘hello.’ My seven year old is acquiring a frightening mission to acquire it back someday. Richard D’Amico, watch out (laughs).

I don’t spend any time pining for it. I’m happy to be here. Dinkytown is happy we’re here. It’s great and vital, because it’s waking up and we have a part to play in that.”

— Interview by Beth Ewen

Contact:

Jason McLean

Owner of the Kitty Cat Klub and the Loring Pasta Bar down the block in Minneapolis: 612.331.9800