The Blue Light, a nightclub at the Chattanooga Choo Choo complex on Station Street, announced via Instagram that it will be open for business Friday and Saturday.
It closed last weekend after a three-an-half-hour meeting in front of the Chattanooga Beer & Wrecker Board, which heard four of six cases involving alleged violations of city codes at the club. On Friday afternoon, the bar's Instagram page announced, "We're baaaacccck," with the dates Nov. 12 and Nov. 13 flashing over a video clip of the bar itself.
Calls left this week for Blue Light owner Brian Joyce and for officials at the Second Story Properties, which manages the retail portion of the Choo Choo for owners NorthPond Partners, were not returned.
Last week, it was reported by neighbors of the bar that the landlords at the Choo Choo had padlocked the venue. Joyce was quoted by WDEF-TV 12 on Wednesday as saying that he had voluntarily not opened the venue last weekend after the beer board meeting, which ended with two of the four violation cases to be heard later because the city's court reporter had a prior engagement.
The bar was found in violation of four city codes regarding the sale of beer outside of its premises on Station Street on two occasions and for having an owner or member of the staff drinking or of being inebriated while on the premises. City code prohibits anyone who is officially part of a venue or organization from drinking or being inebriated on the premises.
It was also cited for operating a disorderly place for an altercation that happened outside of the venue. The Blue Light is typically open on Friday-Sunday each weekend. Each case was heard and voted on separately and the board voted to suspend the beer license for a total of four consecutive weekends beginning Nov. 19 and ending Dec. 12, and to include a letter of reprimand in its file.
Because The Blue Light also sells liquor, the violations could also be heard by the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission. The Beer Board and the beverage commission operate independently. The Blue Light can appeal the decisions.
The two remaining cases involve an altercation and several calls to police for incidents that occurred on Oct. 31. Officers told the board they had observed people wearing known gang colors throwing gang signs just before a fight broke out on the patio area in front of the Blue Light that spilled over to the patio area of the Comedy Catch.
Because Joyce was not given enough time to respond to those charges on Nov. 4, the board voted to delay those cases for two weeks.
Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.