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What’s the word about the Hogs and Heifers bar located across the street from Downtown Grand? The place was closed and boarded up when we went by in mid-June. I know they were having landlord problems before the COVID outbreak. Is their closed status temporary or are they closed for good?
Temporary, we believe. Our Stiffs & Georges researcher, Elizabeth Meadows, says a hearing pitting bar owner Michelle Dell and landlord Downtown Grand against one another was scheduled for Dec. 17 but has been postponed. (Bar owner Michelle Dell told her patrons it would be in early 2020.) The disruption of civic affairs caused by the Coronavirus pandemic will not make the wheels of justice move any more swiftly. Indeed, they have almost ground to a halt, with court employees working from home whenever feasible.
The Downtown Grand’s beef with Hogs & Heifers stems from complaints by casino ownership that the bar is just too rowdy, even by Vegas standards. Court filings accuse Dell’s establishment of having “created an unsafe environment that has consistently spilled into the common areas surrounding H&H’s bar without Landlord’s permission … numerous police and incident reports [including indecent exposure] have been filed documenting the dangerous events (and sometimes encouraged) by H&H.” Dell’s employees also stand accused of blasting the Third Street air with vulgar language, amplified through a megaphone.
Dell insists she’s an upstanding business owner, trying to give back to the community. Her bar, she says, is defined in its lease “by colorful gratuity, boisterous and raucous … in-your-face female bravado on a bullhorn. It couldn’t be more clear.” Even so, she was served with an eviction notice last October. It also tried to impose a gag order on Dell, insisting that she was defaming the casino-hotel through social media and in news interviews.
The Grand got the back of the hand from Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez, who enjoined the eviction, ordered the parties to return to court last winter and quashed the gag order. The last Dell was heard from was an upbeat posting to her clients and fans, dated Nov. 19. At that point, she looked forward to a hearing early this year. Then Coronavirus intervened, rendering justice not only blind but immobile.
LVA was unable to contact Dell and the Grand is sticking by its consistent ‘no comment’ policy on the litigation. However, LVA heard from Eighth Judicial District Court clerk Daniel Kutinac that “The matter is set for Trial on a 5 week Stack beginning 11/16/20. The parties will receive a set Trial date at their Calendar Call on 11/10/20.” So Dell will have her day in court, even if she had to wait a year for it.