From Thunder Bay Bandwiki
Crocks goes out of business BY PHIL ANDREWS THE CHRONICLE JOURNAL 1996-06-13
A long-established Northwestern On- tario stopping point for Canadian musi- cal acts travelling cross the country may have heard its swan song. Frank Loffredo, the owner of Thun- der Bay's Crocks N Rolls bar, said his business' last night of operation was Monday. "The longer it's closed the more peo- ple will say how important it was," pre- dicted Loffredo. "This means there's nothing between Winnipeg and Toronto for a lot of bands." Loffredo said closing his 13-year-old business was a bitter pill for him to swallow -- and it's still bothering him. He said a drop-off in patrons killed the business and cited the boom of bars selling "cheap beer and dance music" as one of the factors in Crocks' demise. Loffredo said several people were em- ployed at the bar. But he didn't offer a specific number of people who would be left out of work as a result of its closure. "I really enjoyed what I did," said Lof- fredo, during a phone interview Wednes- day night. "It was pretty exciting for a long time. It was a way of living for me . . . It sure beat digging ditches." Crocks operated out of a building at 24 S. Cumberland St. since it opened in 1983.