Oops, there goes another one: Suede closes its doors

[UPDATED 10pm] The rumors floating around the street last weekend were almost too good to be true - Suede was closing their doors on Saturday evening for the last time.

Sources all over Lower Greenville - and a few inside the bar - told BD Suede was already on a month-to-month lease, operating under the not-so-steady hands of Joe Avezzano and his son Tony. The deadline for this month's lease was Tuesday, but they decided to throw in the towel. By Thursday afternoon, some of the kitchen gear was making its way to restaurants all over Dallas.

According to sources inside Suede, employees were not even given the courtesy of being formally notified that they were out of a job. One manager arrived at work on Wednesday afternoon, only to find the doors had been locked by the owner. And none of the former employees BD spoke to are confident they will ever see their last paycheck.

The property owner contacted BD on Thursday to say that no one was taking over the space in the immediate timeframe.

To describe Suede as a five-year pain in BD's rump would be putting it mildly - this is, after all, a family website, and we cannot use those words in writing. Thank god for great photographs like this to make our feelings so easy to express.

In BD's website search engine, Suede pops up 79 times - loud rooftop bands, extortion claims, Joe Avezzano, Matt Mankin, dance violations, noise complaints, smoking in restaurants that are really bars, and personal but very subtle threats on BD and his family.

Like a bunch of spoiled kids, they kept trying to tell everyone they were right and we were wrong.  Be we ever so humble as to say, Hey Joe, don't let the doors hit your ass on the way out!

If they ever tried to operate as a real restaurant - the way Mankin and others promised back in 2003 or so - they might have made a positive contribution to the neighborhood.

BD feels sorry for the 25 people who lost their jobs due to bad management and poor judgment, and the investors who found their money going into a grease trap. But believe me, BD will never ever miss Joe Avezzano, Matt Mankin or any of the other fools who truly believed the garbage they dished out about the neighbors who could not stand their noise or bad attitude.

Other updates - The former Firehouse location is being renovated into an Italian restaurant, to be called D'Terras (not sure about the spelling yet). The former Stout location is being studied for a sports bar location (head to head competition with the yet to open National Sports Lounge in the Red Jacket location). Avenue Bar and Grille will reopen as a restaurant, 180 Degrees Dallas, in about two weeks, operated by the same folks who just opened Ibero in the former Ali Baba location.