Owl Flies the Coop on the Westside

Owl, the restaurant and bar from Stephan Galdau, abruptly closed on Sunday. Galdau wrote on Facebook that gaming regulations are causing his landlord to find a new tenant who can get a gaming license for the bar.

Last November, Galdau was denied a gaming license. He explains that the former bar in the location, Hammer & Ales, held a license, but since he was denied one, he cannot go before the Gaming Control Board again until next November. But the law requires that the bar needs to get its license within 18 months, otherwise it cannot get a license. Hammer & Ales closed on April 30, 2016.

“We are NOT closing because OWL is not popular. We are NOT closing because OWL is not profitable, stable and consistent. We are NOT closing because our reviews have been anything less than near perfect. We are NOT closing because the people of this City and countless other countries and states do not love OWL. We finally turned our first profit in March and we were attacking all debts, bills and vendors.”

He goes on to write: “Save the pity party. A lifetime of reckless dangerous infantile behavior put me here. The consequences of a life time of actions humbled me these past 15 months, I have to pay the price and suck it up. I'm good at what I do. Hold up, I was getting great. Every failure of OWL was always mine, not anybody or anything else. We are humming these days doing between 1600-1700$ in F&B sales these past few weeks and it's all gone, just like that. And why? Because of Stephan Michael Galdau.”


He says Owl will re-open by January 2018 at a location on the Strip or in Downtown Las Vegas.