April 6, 2018

The Log Cabin has been closed since the owner died last month, but a friend is trying to save the neighborhood bar.

Dusty Foltz and his wife, Julia, want to lease the building at 1515 W. Burnside St. and open a bar with the same name in memory of Jerry Adams.

“It’s The Log Cabin,” Foltz said. “You can’t change that. That would be bad.”

They are working with the property owner, CD Investments, and the city to get the land zoned properly, he said.

“It was there for 88 years, but … it’s zoned residential.” A conditional use permit would allow the property to be used as a bar.

Julia Foltz has applied for a beer license, which also would need the City Council’s approval.

If everything is approved, Foltz, who would serve as the manager, hopes to have the bar open by mid-May.

He met Adams over a decade ago through his business, and the two became friends, he said.

“I would go down there in the morning and have a Diet Coke and visit with him while he drank coffee and did the books,” Foltz said. “And then sometimes I’d go down there at night.”

Adams built a community at the bar, Foltz said.

“The place has a reputation that it’s a rough place, but it’s not,” he said. “I’ve never seen a fight there.”

A Facebook group, Save The Log Cabin, has been started to drum up support for the rezoning effort. Several posts mention that while the bar looked rough it was filled with friendly people.

In the meantime, nearby Jono’s has started opening earlier to accommodate the morning crew that gathered at The Log Cabin.

“Those that work the swing shift have their happy hours at 7 and 9 in the morning,” Foltz said.

Jono’s owner Renae Sefrna said she’s trying out the new hours for a few months.

“That was where they’d gather, and that got taken away from them,” she said. “It’s an opportunity for them to have a place to go.”