Johnny Mac’s owner changes concept for former Adriatic
Gay bar shifts to 'gay-friendly' restaurant, with a 28 foot boat on roof-top deck
Plans for a bar serving a gay clientele at the former Adriatic restaurant site have been changed to a “gay-friendly” restaurant, owner John McGillion said this week.
The Candy Bar, at 1409 Kingsley St., was originally conceived as a bar to attract a gay demographic. McGillion wants to operate it as a restaurant instead because the state rules governing liquor licenses prohibit one person from owning more than two bars without food in the state, and he’d like to keep his options open, he said.
McGillion also owns Johnny Mac’s on Main Street, and several bars in New York City, some of which are bars catering to gay patrons. He owns the YMCA building on Main Street as well. He plans to restore that building in several years, possibly incorporating a bar.
The Candy Bar will no longer be a gay bar, McGillion said, because he feels it wouldn’t make sense to operate a restaurant catering specifically to the gay community. His “gay-friendly” restaurant differs from a typical restaurant because it will have an open-minded, liberal atmosphere, he said.
The staff will be “liberals, just like Asbury Park, entertainers and so forth,” he said, “as opposed to a hard-hat bar kind of thing.”
McGillion is in the process of finding someone to head up the kitchen, he said. The restaurant will have a casual feel. He hopes to have it open by Memorial Day.
Patrons will be able to eat outside at the Candy Bar year round because of heat lamps in the front exterior area, he said.
He also plans to open a hostel on the upper floors of the Candy Bar eventually, but cannot start development yet because the building is located in the waterfront redevelopment zone. An empty, abandoned building contiguous to the Candy Bar will also be part of the hostel, he said.
McGillion also wants to build an outdoor roof-top deck with a bar on the second floor overlooking the ocean and Bradley Park. That open area would include a five-to-10-ton, 28-foot-long boat for decoration, which would have passageways for patrons to walk through, he said. Those plans would require city approval, McGillion noted.
