Neon's, the club whose success sparked an entertainment renaissance along Main Street in Over-the-Rhine, has closed its doors.
The club and its liquor license will be sold at auction March 29 in what sources say is a move by the owner to head off foreclosure. The business' contents - bar equipment, tables, chairs and other items - are for sale in an on-line auction.
Neon's, opened in 1988 by Terry Carter, was the first club to attract young professionals and rock 'n' roll partiers to the 12th and Main area. Its rise was complemented by a hip late night restaurant just down the block, the Diner - now Vinyl's - which had opened in the early '80s.
The success of Neon's spurred other entrepreneurs to take a chance on the strip, renovating old spaces into bars and nightclubs that by the late '90s had become the most happening club scene in Cincinnati's core with more than a dozen clubs in the district catering to a diversity of clienteles.
"Neon's was really important to Main Street. It is the iconic property. When people think of Main Street, they think of Neon's," said Dan Dell, a bar and restaurant consultant who caught the wave when he opened Rhinos in 1992.
The closing of Neon's is the latest in a five-year decline that has seen at least eight other clubs move or go out of business along the strip. Owners trace their declining fortunes to the April 2001 riots. It became harder after that, they said, to "rock the suburbs," convincing middle class club-goers that it was still safe to come to the inner city.
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