[Echoes]

Crazy Cactus expected to reopen downtown for New Year's Eve

Alex MacPherson, Saskatoon StarPhoenix
Published on: December 29, 2016 | Last Updated: December 29, 2016 1:32 PM CST

Six months after announcing plans to move downtown, and slightly later than anticipated, the brothers who own one of Saskatoon’s best-loved bars are racing to finish renovations in time for the year’s biggest party.

The Crazy Cactus, best-known for serving beer and tequila in green plastic cups, will open its new location at 269 Third Avenue South for a massive New Year’s Eve party on Saturday, said co-owner Blue Clegg.

“I could have picked a more lower-key day, I guess,” Clegg said with a laugh. “But you might as well go with the biggest night of the year … We’re just a couple of jackass bartenders, so we might as well continue the theme of the Cactus.”

The opening — which Clegg said costs $30 to attend — will also be an anniversary celebration of sorts: The Crazy Cactus opened on Melrose Avenue in late 1996. Clegg and his brother Bo bought the place in 2012, after legal troubles forced its previous owner to sell.

Over the next four years, the brothers transformed the gaudily-decorated neighbourhood pub into a popular destination, complete with Mexican food, a battered pool table, and countless “Gringos” served in green plastic cups.

Clegg acknowledged that two decades is an eternity in the nightlife industry, where bars rarely survive longer than a few years. However, he is at something of a loss to explain the Cactus’s continued success.

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http://thestarphoenix.com/business/l...-new-years-eve