The owners of Cheer Up Charlies say they were briefly locked out of their Red River Street bar Wednesday after a snafu with their latest rent payment.<\/p>\n
A notice posted outside the venue from DTLand, a commercial real estate firm, said the owners had more than $15,000 in back rent that was due Tuesday. But owner Maggie Lea told KUT they paid the rent last week, and the lockout was an “oversight” on the part of Cheer Ups’ landlord.<\/p>\n
“I showed them the payment and I showed them that it was cleared, and they said they made a mistake,” she said. “So everything is fine … and everything’s been cleared [and] we had been up to date on our financial obligations.”<\/p>\n
Lea said the brief lockout complicates the bar’s plans for SXSW. The space is hosting a slate<\/a> of unofficial showcases, drag shows and DJ sets for the festival.<\/p>\n “Now I have to go out and talk to everyone because all my clients think we’re closing,” she said, adding that the bar would be operating normally and would open at 4 p.m. Wednesday.<\/p>\n The venue has been yo-yoing in and out of insolvency over the past year. In August, the owners crowdfunded to keep the beloved LGBTQ-plus-friendly space open. Weeks later, they were in talks to sell to a Florida corporation, which was met with backlash online. <\/p>\n Last week, Lea and co-owner Tamara Hoover told a town hall<\/a> they were prepared to turn a new leaf, that they’d “learned” and set up more safeguards to keep the bar open and financially solvent.<\/p>\n