Deuces Lounge owner Jerome Cherry, right, runs the new club with his son, Jerome Cherry Jr., left, and Jatavious Calloway.
PHOTO BY LISA PROVENCE

Before the Outback Lodge on Preston Avenue closed last year, it wasn’t unheard of to find it in the news when fights broke out and gunshots fired. The new owner of what’s now called Deuces Lounge is trying to turn that image around.

“We want to let people see the Outback is dead,” says Jerome Cherry. “They don’t have to be afraid.”

Cherry opened Deuces Lounge in September to handle a variety of musical genres— except hip hop. “We want hip hop,” he says, “but we don’t want the violence.”

Instead, the club has jazz night, metal, salsa, and a different take on karaoke that Cherry calls “Be Seen, Be Heard” on Wednesdays. “It can be karaoke, it can be poetry, it can be stand-up comedy,” says Cherry.

Another legacy of the Outback affects Cherry’s ABC permit. He only serves beer and wine, and the ABC stipulated that the club stop serving alcohol at midnight. Cherry, who doesn’t drink, believes the lack of hard liquor will draw a crowd more interested in music than drinking.

The interior has been spruced up, booths added, and the stage enlarged.

“This is the biggest stage outside the Jefferson and Southern,” says Cherry, who sees the upstairs of the two-level venue as a lounge, with the downstairs as a club.

And to further nourish a more family friendly atmosphere, Saturday afternoons are for teen bands to rock out in a place where parents can come see them play in an alcohol-free zone. Cherry is a bass player, and this is his first go at running a night club.

“This is my dream,” he says.