CARMEL — Not many bars get to experience a second grand opening.
“It is a ton of fun, I love coming here,” said Carmel City Councilor at-large Jeff Worrell. “We just have to walk that fine line of being respectful of the neighbors and being a good neighbor.”
In 2020, the Greatest of All Taverns, also referred to as The G.O.A.T, opened in downtown Carmel.
Opened during the COVID-19 Pandemic, The G.O.A.T, was one of the few bars in the greater Indianapolis that were operating at capacity.
“We had some issues with crowd control,” said the bar’s spokesperson Dan McFeely. “Broad Ripple was shut down, most of Indianapolis was shut down, we were the place to go and place to be.”
The size of the crowd, lead to some issues outside of the bar.
“It was mostly the intensity of the activity,” said Worrell. “Lots of people, lots of Ubers, lots of trash being left behind, and lots of people who needed to use the restroom, and there were not restrooms available inside. They then had no other choice but to use outdoor facilities, which meant using someone's lawn to urinate.”
Fredrick Grief lives a few houses down from The G.O.A.T, he experienced some of these problems first hand.
“A lot of people were going into the neighbor's yards and throwing trash into the yards and just being unruly,” said Grief.
According to the G.O.A.T, the city of Carmel made them shut their doors in 2020 following an overflow of complaints from the surrounding community.
Over the next four years, the bar worked directly with the city to find a path reopen.
As part of the re-opening, the bar needed to be re-zoned which came with a set of commitments agreed upon by the city and the bar’s owner, Kevin Paul.
The commitments include: expanding the building, limiting outdoor bar and food service, establishing and maintaining a 'neighbor hot-line' for neighbor concerns, refrain from partaking in 'grab and go' alcohol service, and end alcohol sales at 11:30 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 12:30 a.m. on Friday, Saturday, and Holidays. The bar is to close 30 minutes after alcohol sales end.
The document also states the owner commits to use no outdoor speakers.
Worrell says that those commitments could be lifted, should the bar operate with no issues.
“If we don't have reasonable complaints, then those we should look at those commitments again,” said Worrell. “(Then we could) bring them more in line with some of our other businesses and maybe change the hours.”
McFeely expressed a new dedication to the bar’s customers.
“We will do everything we can to make sure that our customers have what they need to have a good time here,” said McFeely. “Then make sure when they leave, they're responsible enough to leave and they don't cut through yards or anything like that.”
WRTV reached out to many neighbors in the area. Grief said many are excited for the opening of the bar.
“I really don't think we're going to have many complaints,” said Grief. “I can't wait to get in there. This place is going to be it was fun for me before. But I think with all this stuff being indoors, a lot of the people are going to be much more comfortable and with it.”
The G.O.A.T is set to host a grand re-opening on Saturday, May 4. They have invited the public and all public officials to come celebrate with a ribbon cutting, live music and a live goat.
