International Bar Update

When I saw light trickling out from the paper-covered windows and heard the whine of a table saw, I knocked on the door of the International Bar to be welcomed inside by new owners Molly Fitch and Shawn Dahl -- third partner Mark Suall was offsite at that moment.

Molly, in protective goggles and Robert Plant muscle-T, was cutting wood to patch holes in the floor. A longtime regular at the old place, she told me she'd read the conversations about the International's reopening on this blog and was glad to take fans' two cents into account.



"We're salvaging as much as we can," including a painting of a woman fainting, a photograph of original owner Michael Petruno (the Sacred Cowboy), and wooden boards graffitied with messages like "Fuck the bastards."

They hope to open in early April. "It'll be the reopening of the International," they said, "but it can't be exactly the same. Like we're making the bathrooms cleaner and bigger. That's what happens when girls take over."