Tavern town

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

1

This is the sign in the window of the newest bar coming to Ashvegas. It’s called Whiskey Tavern, as you can see, and it’s located on Broadway where the old Music Zone used to be, just down from the offices of WCQS and across the street from the masonic lodge.

We’re hoping this place makes a good go of it, because the history of the location isn’t all that great. The old building was first reconstituted in the mid 1990s as the Bar Code nightclub. It was run by a dude who didn’t know what he was doing, and the Bar Code was one of the last places that Amber Lundgren was seen before she went missing in June 1997. Her case has never been solved.

The club closed, then reopened as the Asheville Music Zone. The club was pretty hot for awhile, but once again fell victim to bad management.

Can’t remeber if the place was the Bar Code or the Music Zone when its owners/managers got busted for serving alcohol to minors. ALE officers went to the club undercover, including one cop who posed as a handicapped person in a wheelchair equipped with a video camera, and caught people having sex on the dance floor. Good times, my pretties. Good times…