Last call: Longtime Tucson biker bar Bashful Bandit closes | Business News

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The Bashful Bandit, on East Speedway on North Dodge Boulevard, has closed for good Sunday but invites its fans to one last hurray from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. today for an L-shaped pole in 2008.

Jill Torrance, Arizona Daily Star 2008

In the good old days, not so long ago, tricky motorcycles with shiny chrome and leather saddlebags lined the front of the Bashful Bandit, Tucson’s famous gritty biker bar on East Speedway on North Dodge Boulevard.

For more than 40 years, the bar with its memorial wall for longtime customers, bras hanging from a ceiling pipe and known for a pub fight or two, was Tucson’s unofficial biker headquarters, a pub and a hangout for those who rode on on weekends and those on who rode for life.

But it all ended on Sunday June 13th when the bandit closed for good.

In the fall, Toby Kyte, who bought the bar this week, will open a grill restaurant that will take on the Bashful Bandit name in some form, he said.

But before he begins upgrading the $ 250,000.00 space that includes keeping the wraparound wooden bar and stools, creating an outdoor kitchen, enlarging the toilets, and redesigning the parking lot, Kyte opens the Bandit for one final hurray at Friday June 18.

The bar opens at 11:00 a.m. for one last, last conversation and to give customers who have photos or other memorabilia on the memorial wall the opportunity to take them home; Other memorabilia from the license plates, posters, and inflatable dolls are not included, Kyte said. The bar stays open until 9 p.m.

Sherri Cole and Cisco Rivera talk about motorcycles outside the Bashful Bandit in 2008.

Jill Torrance, Arizona Daily Star 2008

Kyte said he plans to maintain the building’s character and historic location in Tucson when he begins a major upgrade that he believes could take six months.

“It wouldn’t be on the same block without the Bandit,” said Kyte, whose family owns the Bisbee Breakfast Club and whose father owned and ran 40 Pizza Hut restaurants across the state for 65 years before selling them last year. “The bandit can have a new life; maybe it will last another 80 years. “

The Bashful Bandit was the third bar to occupy the 2,875-square-foot building Bertha Lester constructed at 3686 E. Speedway in 1947. Lester, who inherited her husband’s Rio Rita Bar when he died in 1941, moved the bar from East Speedway and North Tucson Boulevard after her lease expired in mid-1947.

According to divorce papers from her second husband, Lester bought the land on Speedway and North Dodge Boulevard and built the building that she opened as the Rio Rita on Christmas Eve 1947. She sold the bar in the summer of 1948 and it remained the Rio Rita until 1977 when Sherry’s Retreat took over the management for two years.

Opened in 1980, the Bashful Bandit attracted a mix of people from its midtown neighborhood, including bikers and some college students from the nearby University of Arizona. Kyte, a native of Tucson, recalled his first time at the bar when he was home for the summer after his freshman year at NAU. He was a minor and his pals challenged him to go to the bandit and order a beer.

“I think if you go to a bar that might look a little rough, if you go alone and sit at the bar, no one will bother you,” he said.

Bartender Rosemary Sales makes a drink for a regular at the Bashful Bandit, which was remodeled in 2013 by the Travel Channel’s American Roadhouse.

AE Araiza, Arizona Daily Star 2013

That was in the early 1990s, and the bandit had built his reputation after attracting more than his share of anger. The police were called for brawls and other public harassment and at least one murder: On July 11, 1981, James T. “Big Jim” Nolan, a member of the motorcycle gang Outlaws, shot and killed a bar patron friend in Bandit’s parking lot. Apparently, Nolan and the victim, John McQuillen, had an argument because, according to Star Archives, Nolan continued to play the same song on the jukebox.

Nolan was eventually acquitted in the process.

Stories like this have cemented the Bashful Bandit’s reputation and have deterred many people from wandering the bar over the years. However, Kyte said he hopes his plans to open a grill restaurant will change that narrative.

“My favorite thing about grilling is how it brings people together,” he said, sketching plans to set up an outdoor kitchen and dining room where customers could watch the miners at work. “When you think of outdoor grilling, I think the best burger I’ve ever had was on the outdoor grill, straight off the grill. Grilling is a shared experience. “

Bartender CJ Jamison plays some pool during a chill at the venerable Bashful Bandit in 2004.

Kelly Presnell, Arizona Daily Star

Kyte said he wanted to keep small bits of the Bandit’s aesthetic, including the L-shaped wooden pole with the names chiseled over the years. But he also wants to create a new, more accessible space, with dining inside and on the terrace, which is being expanded with the outside kitchen.

“I know how important the bandit is to everyone and he is to me,” said Kyte. “I want this to be a place that is accessible to everyone. It will be a different place. It will feel different, it will look different. It will change a lot. “

Dancing during karaoke night at Bashful Bandit in 2008.

Jill Torrance, Arizona Daily Star

Former star reporter Doug Kreutz has made many videos showing the beautiful natural surroundings of the Tucson area. Here are some to help calm your soul.

Contact reporter Cathalena E. Burch at cburch@tucson.com. On Twitter @Starburch

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