Liam Beran
Red Rooster owner Timothy Payne at June 3, 2025 Common Council meeting.
Red Rooster owner Timothy Payne said the Dec. 7 incident left him 'sick to my stomach and sleepless for months.'
Madison’s city council voted unanimously Tuesday night to not renew the liquor license of one of the city’s few blues-focused venues, The Red Rooster, after an investigation into the death of a motorist by a drunk driver revealed several violations.
“In the 25 years that I've been the alcohol enforcement attorney before the ALRC, I read, obviously, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of police reports,” said Assistant City Attorney Jennifer Zilavy, who issued a May 22 complaint against the Red Rooster. “This was the first time in those 25 years that reading the report shocked my conscience.”
The venue, located on the city’s southeast side on Seiferth Road, must stop serving liquor as of June 30, when the license lapses.
Owner Timothy Payne could apply for a new license immediately, Zilavy told the council. Payne does plan to seek another license, he says in an interview after the council’s vote, though he’s still figuring out timing and he has “to look at finances and see if it’s actually feasible at all.”
He’s also looking into the option of running the establishment as a dry venue, potentially buoyed by community support through a crowdfunding platform like GoFundMe.
“I was under the assumption that I had to close. I learned today that I could stay open,” says Payne. “I would love to find a way to stay open because it's my mission to offer this sort of space in Madison. I hear that every day from the customers and bands.”
According to Zilavy’s complaint, on Dec. 7, bar manager Nicholas Nesthus and a bartender, alongside two non-employees, were drinking at the club after hours, a violation of state law and local ordinances. Nesthus and the bartender were the only two employees at the bar throughout the night. Neither had operator licenses.
Payne told the council he did not know that Nesthus did not have an operator license until “11 days ago, when I was served the papers.” Payne told the council he trusted Nesthus “and he betrayed that trust by not getting a license when I asked him to.”
Zilavy called that admission “disturbing.”
“I understand trusting people who you employ,” said Zilavy. “But when you are operating a business that's federally regulated by the state and the city, I think you have a bigger duty to make sure that both you and your employees are complying with those laws.”
By 3:46 a.m. on Dec. 7, Nesthus had drunk more than eight shots of alcohol, a large swig of whiskey and several mixed drinks, according to the complaint. On video footage Payne provided to police, Nesthus was seen staggering, falling and spilling drinks in the club. After departing the bar, he left in his car and ran a red light on North Stoughton Road at 3:56 a.m., striking two vehicles and killing the occupant of one. Nesthus is currently being held in the Dane County Jail and faces charges of homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle and second degree reckless endangerment.
Payne admitted responsibility for the events on Dec. 7 at a May 29 meeting of the Alcohol License Review Committee (ALRC).
“It’s made me sick to my stomach and sleepless for months,” Payne said at the committee, emotion in his voice. “It doesn’t represent a pattern. I’m there every day. I’ve been there every day for four years, and I was sick this day. And I went home early. And somebody died.”
Liam Beran
Assistant City Attorney Jennifer Zilavy at the June 3, 2025 Common Council meeting.
Assistant City Attorney Jennifer Zilavy said the infractions at The Red Rooster 'shocked her conscience.'
In voting against renewal Tuesday night, alders said that serving alcohol requires license holders to have adequate safeguards.
“I understand how that alcohol subsidizes live music in a city such as Madison and how essential that liquor license is,” said Ald. Tag Evers, who’s worked for more than four decades as a concert promoter. “But I also understand that enormous responsibility. To not have the safeguards in place is sort of like having a loaded gun in a home that’s unholstered.”
Ald. Yannette Figueroa Cole, a member of the ALRC, said she would encourage Payne to use the time “as an opportunity to reset.”
“Denying this liquor license renewal does not mean the end of the business,” said Figueroa Cole. “I encourage Mr. Payne to use this time as an opportunity to reset, use the complaint as an opportunity to identify steps to reduce future harm, review the business plan, rally the team, and return to the ALRC and the council later to discuss a new application.”
Council President Regina Vidaver agreed.
“There are resources, both in the city and UW Extension, for business development, for being able to create a dry entertainment venue for the period of time for which this license is likely to be not renewed,” said Vidaver. “We want this business to be a successful entertainment venue.”
Payne was one of three members of blues band Madtown Mannish Boys that in 2021 bought the Knuckle Down Saloon, closed during the pandemic in 2020, and converted it into the Red Rooster. Though most well-known for blues music, the venue hosts artists of various genres.
More than 50 people submitted written support for license renewal prior to the May 29 proceedings. They characterized the event as an isolated tragedy not representative of their experiences at the establishment, and noted that it is unique among Madison’s indie music venue scene as a community gathering space and blues venue.
“It's one of a very few venues in town that doesn't charge a local musician for the room,” noted musician Beth Kille, the music director of Girls Rock Camp Madison. “[It’s also] the only venue that I'm aware of that doesn't charge that also supplies a backline of instruments/amps and the well-calibrated sound system, along with the sound engineer. For use of a room such as the High Noon Saloon for example, this would require the first $300 of ticket sales to go to the venue.”
“The Red Rooster is more than just a venue — it’s a community space, a creative hub, and one of the few places in Madison that consistently uplifts local artists and musicians,” wrote local musician Joshua Velázquez.
“Blues clubs are few and far between in our area, and it would be an absolute shame to lose this one,” wrote Frank Rineck, an Eau Claire-based blues artist who has performed at the Red Rooster.
The future of the establishment is uncertain; Payne says he’ll share more information on Facebook, Instagram and The Red Rooster’s website soon.
He adds that he “understands the ruling” and isn’t angry at it.
“I was there almost every day, and that just wasn't that evening,” says Payne. “It's kind of a burden on me. It's like, ‘What if I had stayed later?’”
