Denied liquor license, Canopy to open as dry bar

Brandon Arbuckle by Brandon Arbuckle, Jamie Perez

MADISON, Wis. — Canopy owner Austin Carl has announced that the Madison nightclub will open as a dry bar after it was denied a liquor license Wednesday.

According to a post from Canopy’s Facebook page, “future plans are happening” and the nightclub will be opening soon.

At Wednesday’s Alcohol License Review Committee meeting, Carl said he originally wanted Canopy to be a cafe/lounge but city ordinances and his lease prevented him from doing so. Carl said he changed his business plans to open as a nightclub until he could work out an agreement to open as a cafe/lounge.

Despite months of controversy over his plans to open Canopy in the former Prism and Plan B Nightclub building on Willy Street, Carl is “excited to invite the community of Madison to enjoy themselves at our venue to connect, share and experience the world of Canopy.”

In a statement Carl said, “The process of starting and running Canopy has been fun, albeit long, and eye opening. There were mistakes made along the way that where unavoidable due to our accelerated timeline. The old Plan B/Prism owners had left some bad blood that was absorbed by our entity. Had we known that a nightclub/café/lounge would not be received well at that location, I would not have signed the lease.”

Carl said that getting so much public attention strained his efforts on coming up with a better business plan.

“It was very hurtful for me to sit by while something so pure and beautiful to me, was degraded and tarnished. Due to all this publicity, Canopy had many staff members leave after promising to do work, which of course only added further stress to the business. One of which being, not only am I a veteran, and a DJ, I’m a full-time electrical engineering student that is also taking business classes. It was very frustrating to see members at the ALRC undervalue my achievements.”

Carl said that despite the challenges he faced, “I will most definitely be looking to open a café and lounge in the future.”

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