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Dave McKean, left, and Chris Kraus conduct the trivia contest every Monday night at Happy Dog on Cleveland's west side. The investors behind the bar, restaurant and venue plan to open a second location at the storied Euclid Tavern in University Circle. That business - Happy Dog at the Euclid Tavern - could open in spring 2014.

(Plain Dealer file)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A shuttered Cleveland music institution will reopen in the spring, thanks to a West-moves-East deal with the investors behind a popular hot dog restaurant and venue.

The owners of Happy Dog, a West Side bar known for its toppings, tater tots and trivia, have committed to bringing a second location to the Euclid Tavern. Their lease, signed this week, will revive a historic Cleveland club snuffed out by foreclosure litigation and a pile of unpaid property taxes.

Real estate records show that University Circle Inc., a neighborhood development group, bought the three-story building in May through a court-appointed receiver. After paying $350,000 for the property, the nonprofit started renovating the upper floors for offices or residences and searching for an anchor tenant.

Enter Happy Dog, a Gordon Square destination that serves up hot dogs, vegan dogs, tots and fries. Since 2008, when Sean Kilbane, Sean Watterson, Eric Williams and their partners took over the corner bar at 5801 Detroit Ave., the business has won over hipsters, families, musicians and nerds with its list of 50 toppings and an eclectic programming mix.

The Euclid Tavern, which opened in 1909 and operated until 2001, reopened in 2008 and closed earlier this year. Nonprofit development group University Circle Inc. bought the building in May and just signed a lease with Happy Dog for the first floor and the basement. The upper floors could hold offices, residences or both.

Cleveland Orchestra musicians perform there. Professors from Case Western Reserve University have made the trip west for a heady speakers' series called "Life, the Universe & Hot Dogs." Now the restaurant's owners see an opportunity to further blur the East Side-West Side divide and link two growing city neighborhoods.

"If business is good and the public wants your product, it only makes sense to test the market and expand your audience," said Williams, a local chef and co-owner of Happy Dog. "University Circle, especially the Euclid Tavern, is a perfect opportunity for us to expand to a second location. The colleges are there. It's the hub for most of the arts in Cleveland. ... We think that it will do very well."

First opened in 1909, the Euclid Tavern became one of the city's best-known clubs. Performers from Chrissie Hynde to Green Day to Cleveland blues band Mr. Stress took the stage. In the late 1980s, Michael J. Fox and Joan Jett filmed the rock drama "Light of Day" there.

The club closed in 2001 and reopened, under new ownership, in 2008. But even as the economy improved and apartments, townhouses and retailers popped up around it, the Euclid Tavern struggled. Court records show that a lender initiated foreclosure proceedings on the building in 2010.

"It was, let me say it this way, financially distressed," said Chris Ronayne, the president of University Circle Inc. "We didn't want to see the legendary 'Euc' go by the wayside. So we bought the building to stabilize it."

Happy Dog might be the new ground-floor tenant, but the old Euclid Tavern won't disappear. The name -- and the classic sign advertising food and liquor -- will stay. Watterson, another Happy Dog co-owner, said he and his partners might move the stage. But longtime patrons shouldn't expect major changes.

"People will recognize it as the Euclid Tavern when they walk in there," Watterson said. "We're not going to slap up wood paneling and some pink neon and try to replicate the Happy Dog."

The core of the menu will be similar, though Williams plans to offer different sauces and toppings at the two locations.

Watterson and co-owner Kilbane, who handles the music, aren't worried about finding enough events and bands to fill both spaces. And just as they've shuttled people east for orchestra concerts, they imagine setting up cross-town trips to the Cleveland Public Theatre and other venues.

"We want to continue to give East Siders reasons to go west and visit Gordon Square," Watterson said. "We want to get West Siders to go to the Euclid Tavern, to experience that space and explore everything else around University Circle."

Ronayne said University Circle Inc. will provide 15 dedicated parking spaces for the Euclid Tavern just across Euclid Avenue, on the former site of the Cleveland Food Co-op. The nonprofit recently demolished the co-op building and, until another development comes along, plans to turn the land into a parking lot.

University Circle leaders announced the deal at the group's annual meeting Thursday.