Mugshots, a centerpiece bar of last year's undergraduate social scene migration to off-campus venues, has undergone a transformation this summer into the new Cafe Diablo, a restaurant-club with a Latino theme.
Saturday night's salsa and meringue at the Ninth Street haunt have replaced Tuesday night's hip-hop "perpetual groove," and in lieu of the traditional bar fare, there is now a full menu of South American cuisine.
Fergus Bradley, Cafe Diablo owner and former Mugshots owner, said the transformation reflected his wish to create a business based on the success of its food, as opposed to the late-night traffic that bar-hopping Duke students brought in.
"We got lots of late night business, but that's not what we wanted to maintain us," Bradley said. "My goal over there was to create a restaurant... and whatever students we got was extra."
Bradley said he felt student business was one factor that remained consistent throughout the year, and partially attributed the need to close Mugshots to inconsistencies with the kitchen staff.
Ben Franks, Trinity '02, who worked as a dee-jay at Mugshots several nights a week last year, agreed that the failure of the restaurant aspect of the business prompted a change in strategy, but Franks also pointed to underlying factors that necessitated the club's closure.
"To have a bar on Ninth Street, a high percentage of sales has to be in food," Franks said. "The restaurant side of Mugshots completely failed, but not because the food was bad. Duke students--the main clientele--saw Mugshots as a bar and didn't want to eat there... but [Mugshots] needed that to legitimately open themselves as a bar."
Franks listed high rents on Ninth Street and a declining popularity among students as the true culprits behind Mugshots' failure.
"You have to be packed consistently several times a week in order to meet overhead," he said. "That was definitely happening at the beginning of the [fall] semester, but it wasn't happening regularly enough."
Bradley, who also owns the James Joyce pub on Main Street, denied Franks' claims and held that he changed the business in order to incorporate a theme.
"James Joyce is an Irish pub; you walk in there and you feel that you've stepped into Ireland," Bradley said. "Mugshots never had a clear identity and that's what we're trying to create with Cafe Diablo."
Still, Franks said the uncompromising identification checks at Mugshots contributed to its closing more than the lack of a theme.
"Ideally the best way to keep the business alive--and this isn't realistic--would be to say everyone's allowed to come here, no one's going to get in trouble, the bouncer won't be mean to you," Franks said. "As soon as the Alcohol [Law] Enforcement saw Mugshots was getting really popular, they had a presence there. [Mugshots] had to follow the rules, and I think kids started getting discouraged when they weren't able to get in."
Sophomore Katie Fay agreed that the club's diminishing popularity was due in large part to increasingly tight regulations not present at other Durham nightspots, such as Cafe Parizade.
"They got really strict on IDs and had a police officer always at the door," Fay said. "Mugshots was popular--there was a dance floor outside and inside. But Parizade had that too and they were not as strict on IDs."
With Cafe Diablo, Bradley said he hopes to draw in more members of the local community.
"I think [Latino dance night] will bring in a certain part of the Duke populace, but also Latinos living and working in the area," Bradley said. "Obviously I embrace the Duke business--that's part of what makes Ninth Street a good location. I just don't want to do it exclusively."
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