From the outside, Blondie's Sports Bar in Tempe looks as though it's open for business. The lights are all on, the illuminated beer signs on the walls are still glowing, and the Internet jukebox is still hawking three songs for a dollar.
Too bad the Mill Avenue jock joint hasn't served any customers for the better part of a week, as it closed for business as of last Friday.
While no official notice of Blondie's shuttering has been posted on either its website or Facebook page (save for some shocked reactions from its regulars), employees at such neighboring bars as The Big Bang and Crave that spoke with Chow Bella confirmed that it's no longer in operation.
Take a look through its windows and you'll see further evidence of Blondie's closure, like the fact there's nary any liquor behind the bar and every one of its 50-plus HDTVs have been removed from the walls.
The cheerleader-themed sports bar, which is located at the intersection of Fifth Street and Mill Avenue below Hooters and the Rooftop Lounge, first opened in 2010 as a spin-off of the original Blondie's Sports Bar in Las Vegas. It proved to be a popular destination for both the usual Mill Avenue party crowd, sports fans, and students at nearby Arizona State University, which is why is seems kinda weird that the place would be shuttered in the midst of football season.
We called the Sin City location for an explanation regarding the sudden closing of the Mill version of Blondie's, but employees and managers declined to comment on the matter.
The sudden shuttering of the Mill Avenue sports bar may have come as a surprise to some of its staff, and one Tempe resident named Brady Feiereisel (who claimed to be an employee) posted the following on Blondie's Facebook wall: "I wish I could find out about Blondies closing in another way than checking the facebook. You know, since I have worked there for over a year."
