The last time we checked in on 700 S. 20th St., a little over a year ago, word had just come out the building was under agreement with the owners of Loco Pez, which meant that decades old Robert's Twi-Lite Lounge's days were numbered. This did not come as a surprise. The owners of Twi-Lite recognized that the neighborhood had changed, and the property had been formally and informally available for years, though the asking price was always beyond what anybody was willing to pay. But the neighborhood continued to improve and liquor license prices soared, so eventually the market caught up to the asking price and the property traded at $600K toward the end of last year.
There's been very little activity at the property since Twi-Light closed last fall. Every now and again, readers have reached out to us, wondering when construction would get started and worried that the deal had fallen through. Over the last week or two though, people finally started noticing workers inside the building, indicating that something is finally happening here. We walked by yesterday and saw that the interior has been completely gutted. Having been inside Twi-Light a couple times over the years, we recognize that this was probably necessary. To avoid being needlessly creepy, and in an effort to not breathe in some truly nasty construction dust, we took our photo from across the street.
Earlier this year, the owners got a variance from the ZBA to built a second story addition here, which makes all kinds of sense given the fact that the building sticks out like a sore thumb at its current height. Also, as you might intuit, larger bars and restaurants with greater seating capacity tend to sell more product. We're pretty sure that outdoor seating is also in the cards, but if memory serves that could require an ordinance of City Council which sounds like an incredible headache. Then again, please refer back to our previous statement about more seats generally leading to higher sales numbers for bars and restaurants.
Given that the work is just getting started as we're more than halfway through September, we can't imagine that the doors will be opening before 2017. But with every potential Taco Tuesday between now and then, we'll be patiently waiting and salivating.