AnÌý era that dates back four generations and included every popular musical fashion will end Aug. 14 when the Royal Grove Nite Club, 340 W. Cornhusker Highway, closes out with a show by Lifehouse.
The club will be closed for two weeks, then re-emerge as "Uncle Ron's," a country and western bar to be operated by former Coyote Willys partner Ron Tegtmeier, said Royal Grove owner Tom Jelsma.
The club has been in Jelsma'sÌý family since the 1920s, according to a history by Jelsma's daughter, Connie Jelsma Vicars.
During that time, Jelsma said, the Royal Grove became known as a fun place to go for a drink, and entertainment: rock ‘n' roll, hair bands, new wave and modern rock.
The club also cultivated a reputation for rowdiness: a petition circulated in 1971 wanted the club declared a public nuisance, due to its "history of fist fights, knife fights, nude dancing and sales to minors."
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In 1977, Jelsma had to go before the City Council to state the case why the Royal Grove should be allowed to keep a liquor license.
That reputation was the work of a few bad apples, Jelsma said, who were not a true representation of the Royal Grove's customers.
"Ninety-nine and nine tenths (percent) of them were very nice people," he said.
Jelsma, who was often able to nip trouble in the bud, either through his own peacekeeping or tips he'd learned from his boxer father Harold, said he sold to Tegtmeier because he's ready to retire.
Having worked there with wife Norma for 58 years, the last 40 as owners, Jelsma said he has no illusions he'll be able to let go easily.
"It's been our life for most of our lives," he said. "Of course we'll miss it."
While the Royal Grove hosted rock acts that are well known today, it has also been the site of less mainstream entertainment, such as bear wrestling, wet T-shirt contests and Thanksgiving live turkey giveaways.
"My dad was always very inventive and innovative about contests," Jelsma Vicars said. She's now the daytime manager at the Royal Grove; she said after the closing, she'll "see what doors open for me."
Jelsma also had ideas that were welcomed by the City Council (a beer garden) and some that weren't (a swimming pool).
Tegtmeier said he's planning to open Uncle Ron's by Sept. 1. The club will be remodeled, and will get new tables chairs, carpet, dance floor and a mechanical bull.Ìý He said after he decided to sell his interest in Coyote Willys to partner Bonnie Charlesworth and start his own place, he knew where to go.
"I asked Tommy ‘are you ready to sell your place?'" he recalled. "He was."
The pair acknowledge each other as longtime friends.
"Tommy was always into the rock ‘n' roll, and I preferred the country (music)," said Tegtmeier. "But his longevity and management techniquesÌýÌýÌý made him like a dad or an idol to me. Tommy ran a good operation and could control the place."
The smoking ban Lincoln voters passed last year, while it's caused some bar owners to complain of revenue losses, won't hurt Uncle Ron's, Tegtmeier said.
The Royal Grove has a large beer garden where smoking is allowed. "Lincoln people will still come in," Tegtmeier said.
Post-ban data at Coyote Willys showed that the venue didn't draw as many people from Omaha, Kearney, Hastings and Grand Island as before, but it was still successful, Tegtmeier said.
The Royal Grove building will look different and the music will be different, but the strategy will be the same, said Tegtmeier.
Uncle Ron's will bring in up-and-coming national acts, as well as top local performers. He said he's already booked some acts, but declined to identify them.
In deference to his clientele, Tegtmeier said, the strip contests the Royal Grove has hosted on Wednesday nights for several years will be discontinued.
Tegtmeier said he's aware that he'll be watched closely for how he treats the Royal Grove's legacy, and he plans to do it justice.
"Tommy wants to see the place in its heyday again," he said. "The numbers have dwindled in rock. Country is a very strong market right now."
The Royal Grove's history goes back to the Brown Derby, a bar that sat at 10th and R streets. Founders Henry and Christina Brown (Jelsma's grandparents) built the original Royal Grove at Northwest FourthÌý Street and Saunders Avenue in 1933, and moved to its current location on New Year's Day, 1967, after liquor by the drink became legal in Lincoln.
The club suffered serious heat and electrical damage in a 1987 fire, but rebounded almost immediately, Jelsma said.
The Royal Grove was inducted into the Nebraska Rock ‘n' Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.
Perhaps, Tegtmeier suggested, some of what Jelsma maintained will live on.
"Tommy had a niche in the community, and I want to follow in his footsteps," Tegtmeier said. "Consider me an adopted son."
Reach Rodd Cayton at 473-7107 or rcayton@journalstar.com. Journal Star archives contributed to this report.
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