UPDATE: Balcony Club in Lakewood/Dallas in peril of closing on Sunday

Updated 04:11 p.m., September 30, 2009

by Teresa Gubbins

DALLAS — UPDATE: Balcony Club remains open. Manager Todd Buckley (with a B) says that a benefactor came through with an infusion of cash to keep the club afloat.

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The Balcony Club, the loungey second-floor perch at the Lakewood Theater, may possibly be closing on Sunday unless it can avert a problem with the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission.

Its Facebook status reads as follows:

According to manager Todd Buckley, the club is in a bad way with the Texas Comptroller and the TABC to the tune of $11,000 owed in mixed beverage taxes.

"The situation right now, is that last night, the Comptroller and the TABC both showed up around 9 p.m. and confiscated all the money we had, every bit of cash, and said they're coming back Monday," Duckley said.

The club has been in debt since June, when a fire marshal showed up to perform a routine inspection on the Club and the Lakewood Theater. The Balcony Club is on the same fire alarm panel as the theater, and Buckley said that the company managing the theater was either unable or refused to perform the test, so the fire marshal shut down whole building.

The ensuing eight days of unsteady business combined with the high fees ($60 an hour) for a fire marshal to be on site on an interim basis put the club into a hole from which it hasn't been able to dig itself out.

"Any of a variety of things could occur," Buckley said. "They could lock us out. Or revoke our liquor license. Or they could freeze our bank accounts."

So, cross your fingers and maybe go see Red Dread Jazz who play the Balcony every Sunday night.

"We’re in a pickle but we have a couple of resources to see if we can borrow the money," Buckley said. "We hope we can squeeze through, since we'll be having our 20th anniversary this December and we were hoping to throw a big party to celebrate."

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