Developer opening bar, meeting center on Shawnee

August 14, 2008 11:45 pm

— A Muskogee investor has two distinctly different entertainment and activity venues planned for opposite sides of west Shawnee Bypass.
Carlton “Dallas” Horner Jr. said he plans to open a 6,000-square-foot meeting and convention center at 2316 W. Shawnee Bypass before Labor Day.
He said he and Tulsa bar operators Shannon and Kisha Mendenhall plan to open a new Melon’s Bikini Bar at 2003 W. Shawnee Bypass “no later than Friday,” meaning today.
“The Activity Center will be like what they have at the Muskogee Civic Center,” Horner said. “We can have it for private parties, weddings, family reunions, class reunions.”
He said the center will have no curfew and can be rented or open on a 12-hour or 24-hour basis.
“We’re updating everything in the building: New furniture, a flat-screen plasma TV, a pool table,” he said. “It will be a Class-A facility.”
The facility is located in what used to be a state employment office, which closed in 2003, he said.
Horner’s father, Carlton Horner Sr., said the facility also will have 80 parking spaces.
The younger Horner said the center will cater to the rising number of hotels going up in western Muskogee.
Shannon Mendenhall, who operates the Melon’s Bikini Bar at 31st Street and Sheridan Road in Tulsa, said the Muskogee bar will have a beach theme, complete with surfboard and fishnet decorations.
“It will be like a beach club you’d find in Florida,” said Mendenhall, who also has owned clubs in Florida.
And the name?
“Melon’s is a name I had since sixth-grade,” he said. “I was a melon-head.”
He said the bar will serve 30 to 35 types of beer and will serve beer and wine coolers only “for the time being.”
The bar also will feature a white dance floor with laser-generated lights projected on it.
He said waitresses will wear bikinis. There also will be bikini-clad dancers on platforms.
“But this is not a strip joint or dance hall,” he said.
Horner said the bar is located on three and one-half acres, which will allow them to open a patio bar and a venue for outdoor concerts.
Reach Cathy Spaulding at 918-684-2928 or Click Here to Send Email

Photos

Shannon Mendenhall points out some of the lights and other amenities of Melon’s Bikini Bar to Kisha Mendenhall, left, and Carlton Horner. Horner and the Mendenhalls hope to open the bar this week on West Shawnee Bypass.