The Venue, a live music bar local to Morehead, has new owners and a new lease on life.
The previous owners said they decided to sell the business and lease the building earlier this year, but it’s taken a long time to find the right people to take over operations.
Lori Fries and Patrick Dawson currently live in Las Vegas but heard about the opportunity through family connections in the area. Fries has previous experience managing a bar, and Dawson had his own live music venue in the past, making the two a perfect fit for The Venue.
“We are excited to come into Morehead and be part of the community, and have fun, get to know people in Morehead, help people in Morehead, make it a destination for people to come to see live music, and we want to be part of something bigger than us,” said Fries.
Frise said it was love at first sight, for both The Venue and the city of Morehead overall. She said she and her partner plan on making just a few adjustments to the bar before officially re-opening.
“We are going to make some cosmetic changes to The Venue, make it a little bit more of our own personality. But, we want to make sure that we keep a lot of that heritage, that history, into what we do with it, but put our own personality and style into it for sure, make it more of our own,” said Fries.
Fries and Dawson are planning to move to Morehead in December and said they hope to have the bar operational by early February of 2024, but no official opening date has been set.