Dirty Laundry Bar’s owners decides to permanently close its doors

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- The Dirty Laundry Bar in East El Paso announced its closure Monday. The bar reopened in May after a judge granted a court order stopping the business from operating until it met security and training requirements.

The Dirty Laundry Bar, located on Montwood and Trawood Drive, had a temporary restraining order in March against it to shut down due to hundreds of police calls and a deadly crash connected to the business.

Several local and state agencies investigated and found "a pattern of habitual criminal activity," including employees facilitating several cocaine sales, officials said.

May 4, a district court judge granted a court order with new requirements the bar had to follow in order to operate again. Those orders included a new safety manual, checking all customer's identification before serving alcohol, meeting with El Paso police, new security cameras and other rules.

In a statement, the bar's owner said:

After careful consideration, I’ve made the difficult decision to permanently shut down Dirty Laundry.

Dirty Laundry was originally illegally closed using an ex parte Temporary Restraining Order. In plain terms, I was never given a real chance to stand up and defend against the inaccurate data that was put forward.

I tried working with the County. I genuinely tried to understand why they would take such extreme action against a location that was only averaging two cases per month.

We’ve always put security and public safety first. When clear numbers exist that show how many cases are actually tied to a specific place, it should be simple to go after the real problems — not the business that was already operating with almost no incidents. The numbers don’t lie. The way those numbers get presented, and the story that gets told around them, can do real and lasting damage that the data itself never justified.

The average number of cases and calls to this location stayed consistent with what it had been long before the County stepped in. What changed was the perception. And that perception destroyed everything we had built.

Our revenue collapsed from about $150,000 down to less than $10,000. The same damaged image made it nearly impossible to hire good, credible people. When you lose both your customers and the ability to staff the place the right way, there’s nothing left to save.
I’m now looking at every legal option available to address the severe economic and reputational harm this process caused. I will continue fighting to protect the rights of the people who worked here and the investment we made in good faith.

To our staff, our regulars, and everyone who stood by us — thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

Dirty Laundry is closed effective immediately.