Alice's Champagne Palace not keeping regular hours </MCC HEAD>

Story last updated at 8:48 PM on Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Alice's Champagne Palace not keeping regular hours

Iconic Pioneer Avenue establishment open for special events

BY MICHAEL ARMSTRONG
STAFF WRITER

After reopening in the summer of 2007, Alice's Champagne Palace, the longtime Homer landmark on Pioneer Avenue has closed again this summer as a bar with regular hours. It remains open for special events and concerts.

"I wanted it to be a bar," said manager Tiny Nolan. "I wanted it to be a community place. The bar thing didn't work out."

Photo by Michael Armstrong

Back on the street The Alice's Champagne Palace sign is back in place at the bar on Pioneer Avenue. An exact date for the reopening has not been set, but Alice's is planned to be open by June 14, when Ellis Paul plays -- including his song, "Alice's Champagne Palace."

Musicians from around the world have played at Alice's. Singer-songwriter Ellis Paul wrote a song about it. Alice's was formerly known as the Club Bar. After it burned down in 1976 and was rebuilt, a Brad Hughes sign with nude figures caused a community uproar -- and was written about in Joe McGinniss' "Going to Extremes."

Former owners Dave and Trudy Ritchie closed Alice's for the winter in 2004, and sold it to the English Bay Corporation in 2005. After remodeling it, English Bay rented the bar out for events like KBBI's Jazzmania.

Nolan, who with his wife Lisa Nolan owns Fat Olive's, has a long history of transforming businesses or buildings into new enterprises, like the Homestead Restaurant and Caf Cups. He said many of his businesses have been experiments whose success is partly due to timing.

"We just can't go out and single-handedly force things to happen," Nolan said. "It happens on its own."

Nolan did a further remodeling of Alice's in 2007, adding touches like distressed metal siding. He added a new menu he called "gourmet grease" and exotic drinks like the Costcotini, a martini made with a Costco's brand of gin.

With a no-smoking policy, the reopened Alice's appealed to an older crowd. Nolan said that might be why the new Alice's didn't do as well.

"People's drinking patterns have changed," he said. "I think all the people who hung out there and loved it don't hang out at bars anymore."

Since closing with regular hours, Alice's has been open for special events, like a recent 70th birthday party for Irwin Ravin, the Homer man made famous for challenging Alaska's marijuana laws and decriminalizing pot use by adults in the privacy of their homes.

"I just knew a lot of old timers would show up," Nolan said -- referring to himself as one of the old timers. "They were having fun. They knocked down a bunch of beers. That was a great night for Alice's."

Alice's can be rented by the night for events like birthdays, fundraisers, wedding receptions and employee parties. Rates run from $150 to $400 a night. Catering can be done through Fat Olive's or in-house at Alice's. For more information, call 235-6909.

Nolan said although for now Alice's does not have regular bar hours, he's open to something else if the timing works out.

"What's going to happen to it? It's going to take on a life of its own. It happens every time," he said. "It's whatever people want it to be."

"I think there's more to Alice's," Nolan added. "To be honest with you, I don't know what it is. I like the idea of not knowing. It's kind of a challenge."

Michael Armstrong can be reached at michaelarmstrong.@homernews.com.