For Love of Country : Dance Hall Draws Urban Cowpokes--but the Fun May Expire With the Lease

Call it a sentimental journey out of the fast lane.

Hundreds of real and wanna-be cowboys and cowgirls are flocking nightly to In Cahoots, a new country saloon and dance hall in the Glendale Fashion Center that is trying to carve a niche in Los Angeles’ busy entertainment scene.

It’s no place for Madonna. And the atmosphere is a far cry from the “meat market” singles’ mentality of discos and Top 40 clubs.

Here, you can dance with, or without, a partner or just slap your knee to the latest hits from Memphis and Nashville. You can straddle a bar stool under a full-size replica of a rearing pinto, or try your luck at pool or blackjack, but just for fun.

“This is a trend, not a fad like ‘Urban Cowboy,’ ” said Mark Jason, the saloon’s director of creative services. “It’s honest. Down to earth. It’s a place you can bring your parents and still have fun.”

The Glendale location, which opened last November, is part of a chain that also includes clubs in San Diego, San Bernardino, Pittsburgh and Columbus, Ohio.

But like the short-lived performance of a bucking bronco, the dance hall, at 223 N. Glendale Ave., could be gone within months.

Owners of the shopping mall are planning to substantially remodel the center, built in 1966. The anchor department store, Robinson’s, will close by the end of this month. A wing of buildings, including In Cahoots’ cavernous home, is expected to be torn down by summer to make room for a larger parking lot, said Lee B. Hoffman, a partner in the center.

Suzanne Wales, vice president of Houston-based Safari USA Inc., the operating partner of the In Cahoots chain, said owners are hoping their newest saloon will be able to stay at the remodeled center. They are not yet seeking a new location.

But Hoffman said there are no plans to retain the nightclub.

The facility, which has housed several previous nightclubs, was last known as Excess, a teen-age hangout that was riddled with crime problems, Glendale police and Hoffman said.

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In Cahoots assumed the lease, which expires in April. The saloon’s operators said they were aware of the center’s remodeling plans when they took over the building, but large facilities in a central location are hard to find, so they took the gamble.

Since November, the owners have spent about $150,000 to convert the 15,000-square-foot building into a thriving country and Western haven. Customers range from blue-collar workers to executives. Their ages are generally 24 to 54, but some patrons are in their 60s and older.

“We get a lot of off-duty police from Glendale and the LAPD who drop in after their shifts,” Jason said. “This has to be the safest club in town. We haven’t even had a fight in the bar.”

The club features two bars, one more than 50 feet long. False roofs over the bars hang from a two-story ceiling. A rearing horse is on top of one bar roof, next to a stage. Walls are decorated with sun-bleached steer skulls and with cowboy hats once worn by such country stars as Garth Brooks, Dwight Yoakam and Clint Black.

Rows of album covers feature more stars: David Allan Coe, Patty Loveless, Tanya Tucker, Randy Travis and Doug Stone. Three red-felt pool tables are in a separate room.

A wooden dance floor is in the center of the saloon, surrounded by a bar railing and stools. Overhead hangs a mirrored disco light.

Louise Husted of Glendale, a hairdresser who has frequented the saloon since it opened, said that on a crowded night, it sometimes takes her five minutes to get from the dance floor back to her table. She was there recently with a dozen other hairdressers to celebrate a co-worker’s birthday. The women freely joined the dance lines without partners.

“I used to dance in the Valley,” Husted said. “But it’s nice to have a club here in Glendale.”

A stage is used for seating private parties and also for live entertainment on Sundays, showcasing promising local talent. The club plans to introduce more live entertainment this year, including some nationally known stars, Jason said.

Free dance lessons are a nightly feature from 6:30 to 8 where beginners can learn the Tush Push, Texas Two-Step or line dances.

“What we want to create at In Cahoots is a country entertainment complex where people can come and dance, see and hear the hottest new talents, have a nice dinner, shoot a game of pool and relax,” Jason said. “It’s an environment you don’t have to worry about.”

Attendance generally averages 750 nightly, making In Cahoots one of the most popular clubs of any type in Los Angeles in terms of patronage. The popularity of the saloon has resulted mostly from word of mouth, club officials said.

Most nights, BMWs and Volvos dot the In Cahoots parking lot along with the pickup trucks. Attire ranges from pressed jeans, turquoise and silver belt buckles, cowboy boots and fringed rawhide jackets, to sequined cocktail dresses. Many customers show up the first time in suit and tie, then switch to jeans and drop in two, three or four times a week, Jason said.

The In Cahoots chain, which started two years ago, is among an estimated 1,200 country dance hall/saloons that have emerged nationwide and in such diverse areas as Seattle, Chicago, Dallas, Phoenix, Kansas City, Buffalo, N.Y., and Orlando, Fla., according to the Country Music Foundation in Nashville.

Although rock still dominates the music industry, with over 36% of total sales, the most significant growth over the past two years has been in country music, which has jumped to 12.5% of total sales, according to Billboard’s Top 200 Album Chart.

In Cahoots’ customers are savvy to the latest releases and quick to push out the old. Already, Billy Ray Cyrus’ hit, “Achy Breaky Heart,” just nominated for a Grammy award, is on the way out, according to Jason. Fans look for new releases with upbeat, positive music and lyrics they can understand, he said. And they like the so-called “new country” music that sends a message that things, despite the recession, are not so bad and are going to get better.

“Country music has created a totally new audience base,” Jason said. The fans “want a lifestyle that is free of drugs and the hustle and bustle of the city. There are a lot of people who don’t want to be in the fast lane anymore.”