IRS Seizes Linda’s Melrose Jazz Room for Back Taxes

Linda’s, the spacious restaurant and jazz room on Melrose Avenue that’s been home to numerous pianists and singers, has been seized by the Internal Revenue Service for nonpayment of taxes. The room was closed by the IRS on Wednesday.

“I was trying to sell my business, and we were about to go into escrow earlier this week when this (seizure) happened,” said singer Linda Keegan, who, with her partner, Douglas Dyer, opened Linda’s in 1986.

Keegan will be able to reopen immediately if she can pay the IRS $10,000 in back taxes, she said. “And I have about $2 in my purse,” she laughed ironically. “But I have calls out to a number of people. Perhaps someone will come to my aid.”

According to Jan Gribbon, IRS public affairs specialist, Keegan and Dyer’s business can be sold--at auction or via sealed bid--as soon as 10 days after date of seizure to pay back taxes. “But it’s usually more like 30 days,” she said.

Linda’s was the musical home to many area jazz artists, including Keegan, who sang almost nightly. Others who frequently appeared were pianists Jimmy Rolls, Alan Broadbent and George Gaffney and singer Pinky Winters.

Keegan noted she doesn’t own the property and estimated that what the IRS could sell--the fixtures of her business--would be worth about $4,000. “It doesn’t make sense to do that,” she said.

Keegan blamed the extended Writers Guild strike of 1988 for a general slowdown in business. “I was doing fine until that came along,” she said.