Rendezvous reopening Saturday at new location

By Harry Loomis

Those celebrating St. Patrick’s Day this weekend will have another bar option.

The Rendezvous House of Rock will reopen tomorrow at its new location — 817 Francis St.

The initial plan was for the bar to be ready by the start of March. While that didn’t happen, they are ready for this weekend and the upcoming Elite Eight at the Civic Arena.

“We were definitely hoping that we’d be open this weekend,” said Keith Dudley, owner of Rendezvous. “We got the inspection done this week and we were able to get our license from the state, so we’re good to go.”

The Rendezvous’ claim to fame has been live music, so their new location will feature a stage that is visible from the front door, unlike their past location on Felix Street.

“When we had an opportunity to buy a building, I wanted to make sure that you could see the stage from pretty much anywhere in the bar,” Dudley said. “If you’re setting the bar, you couldn’t see the people playing. So that was one important thing for us.”

The Rendezvous now sits next to Club Geek and Geneo’s on Francis Street, and Dudley has already begun working with them.

“We’ll have (Geneo’s) QR codes in here, so you’ll be able to order Geneo’s Pizza in here at the Rendezvous and get it brought over to you,” Dudley said. “It’s important for Downtown businesses to work together so we can just draw more people down. Helps all of us.”