The Dome turns 30 years old next week

The Dome turns 30 years old next week, and is celebrating with four days of events, September 12 trough 15, with pretty stiff discounts and a number of great performers and DJs at the various venues. The history of the place is becoming lost as memories fade, explains Gary Muise, VP of operations at the Grafton Connor, the company that operates it. But here’s the short of it: in 1982 owner Gary Hurst bought Lawrence of Oregano pub, and My Apartment Lounge on Argyle Street. Then, in the mid-1980s, the parking lot in between was covered with an atrium, connecting the two establishments, and that’s now The Dome’s dancefloor. The two bars had different kinds of licences, one beer and wine, one that prohibited beer sales, which “made for interesting times,” says Muise. Up above was a country bar called the New Armadillos, which eventually became the rock venue The Attic, and now Taboo. Cheers was tacked on sometime in there as well. People about town started referring to the collection of bars as “the liquor dome,” and “why fight it?” laughs Muise. The Dome sees between 7,000 and 8,000 customers each week.