Mobile bar linked to 100 police calls over past year faces potential shutdown

A Mobile late-night sports bar that police say has been a chronic source of crime could soon lose its business license.

Phat Tuesday Sports Bar on St. Stephens Road has been the subject of 100 police calls in 12 months, involving shootings, fights, drugs, domestic disputes and more, officials said. Tensions peaked on August 31 when a Mobile police officer was nearly shot in the head during a confrontation at the bar.

“Pretty much it’s every weekend, my entire squad is there from about two in the morning until we get off at five,” said Lt. Rusty Hardeman. “When the rest of the bars in Mobile shut down, that’s when his crowd picks up.”

Mobile police say the trouble has intensified since 2022, with spillover crowds filling adjacent parking lots and creating what officers describe as an unsafe environment. At a Tuesday public hearing, the Mobile City Council weighed whether to revoke the bar’s license.

“It looks like Broad Street on Joe Cain Day,” Hardeman said, referencing the crowded Mardi Gras celebration that draws over 100,000 revelers to downtown Mobile’s parade routes each year.

Lt. Tilford Saunders of the Mobile police narcotics unit said arrests for drug use have taken place on the bar’s property. He said agents have also met “numerous individuals inside the club we suspect are drug dealers.” He added that alcohol sales regularly continue into early morning hours.

Rick Johnson, who owns Phat Tuesday, has said the activity outside the bar is out of his control. His attorney, Josh Briskman, denied all drug allegations and accused police of presenting hearsay without evidence.

“We emphatically deny drug use and sale at this business,” Briskman said. “It has not occurred. You’ve not seen any allegations other than hearsay allegations.”

Briskman added that he was unaware of the city’s complaints until they were recently brought to his attention.

Rob Lasky, the city’s executive director of public safety, said his office started investigating complaints within the past six months which culminated to an official request to revoke the club’s business license.

The City Council will vote on whether to revoke the business license next week.

Briskman said Phat Tuesday employs five private security officers and three off-duty police officers on weekends. He acknowledged the bar stays open late but said the unruly behavior is from underage crowds who gather off the property.

“We do not have unruly patrons in our bar,” he said. “However, it’s an after-hours establishment.”

Hardeman said the surrounding problems stem directly from the bar’s late-night hours. Of the 100 police calls, he said more than 80 came between 1 a.m. and 6:30 a.m.

“It shows the frequency of calls there at night when the club is open,” he said. “We are always there.”

Despite the ongoing issues, Johnson received praise from some council members and residents for his record as a responsible business owner elsewhere in Mobile.

However, Phat Tuesday remains the outlier.

“It’s like a spider web,” Hardeman said. “If the spider wasn’t there, the web wouldn’t be there.”

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