A busy Saturday night usually means seating 150 people. We sat four full dinners, or around 300 people. We had about 300 more people who came through to the bar. We made $22,000 and tipped out $4,000.

CT: So no sadness?

CB: No. It was awesome. We had Mama Digdown’s Brass Band show up at 3 in the morning and play until 5. We definitely didn’t fade away.

CT: Let’s switch gears. The train, had it gone ahead, would have been in Madison by 2013, its station a few blocks from Velo Bahn. You didn’t waste any time pulling out of the downtown site. Why?

CB: Because the very first thing on the agenda of the Scott Walker administration was to kill the train. I knew they would be willing to sell out the state and sell out (voters) all for the political gain of clipping union jobs and for killing off an initiative that would have made the Obama administration look good in the long run. They did it to be punitive against Madison. Because of that, I am a small business guy that killed a great idea.

CT: What should Madison do?

CB: This is a time to be proud of Madison and to fight for it like a city-state.