Like some omen from the heavens, a simple desk calendar can take the credit for naming Cleveland's latest addition to its gay-club scene.
Brian Kaufman-Butler opened
Club Argos (2032 West 25th St.; 216-781-9191) with an invite-only grand opening on Nov. 16 to show off the $100,000 he dumped into the place to make it an "alternative sports bar." (Translation: It's a club for homos who happen to have far more than the minimum daily adult requirement of testosterone and wanna watch football). The investment resulted in a lodge-like lion's den, complete with 11 TV screens, a fully stocked bar of high-end booze, and a Chippendale-inspired dance troupe, the Argonauts.
But our curiosity veered toward the bar's name. Why Argos? Turns out, he bought the place on June 14. The next day, his business partner told him that the caption for the day on his calendar had something to do about the Greek god Odysius and his dog, Argos. Odie — as we now call the good Grecian — went off to fight in the Trojan War and left his pooch behind. Twenty years later, the battle had been fought and won, and Odie returned home.
"There was Argos sitting at the door waiting for him faithfully," says Kaufman-Butler, recounting the tale as if he'd just watched the last episode of
All My Children. "I am always looking for signs that I'm doing the right thing, and I took it as a sign."
Now we're just waiting for a sign that tells us exactly why, being a man and all, Kaufman-Butler's last name is hyphenated.
— Cris Glaser
