Remedy Bar decision headed to Carson City Board of Supervisors

The Carson City Board of Supervisors could decide Thursday whether a drinking establishment with a problematic past will get a liquor license.

Their meeting starts at 8:30 a.m. in the board room of the community center, 851 E. William Street.

Supervisors will convene as the Liquor and Entertainment Board to consider an appeal by Mary Sellars as liquor manager for M&M Frogs LLC doing business as Remedy Bar located at 306 E. William St. On Feb. 7, Sellars’ application for a tavern/bar liquor license was denied by the city and subsequently appealed to the board.

The bar was once known as Toads, then Remedy’s and is now being referred to as Remedy Bar as revealed in meeting minutes from the Feb. 7 hearing.

On Oct. 5, 2023, supervisors suspended the bar’s business license held through Remedys Bar LLC for failing to update the liquor manager filing. According to a staff report for Thursday’s hearing, the space has been unoccupied since that suspension.

Sellars submitted the new liquor license application in September of last year, planning to purchase the business. The Carson City Sheriff’s Office conducts background checks for liquor license applicants, and a CCSO letter signed Dec. 27, 2023, recommended approval of the license contingent on fingerprint results from the FBI. The letter also noted some troubling history at the bar.

“Over the years this business has had its fair share of incidents including fights and battery,” reads the CCSO letter. “The most recent incident occurred on July 15, 2023, which involved a patron and a person recognized as being associated with the Vagos Motorcycle Club. The bar is and has been reported as being a hangout for Vagos motorcycle club members and the bar displays the club’s stickers and hosts Vagos events.

“In addition, Mary Sellars husband Mike Sellars and his brother are known to be associated with the Vagos Motorcycle Club. Each are regularly in the bar and Mike Sellars has been associated with both Toads and Remedy’s.”

Mike Sellars was featured in the Appeal as a co-owner when Toads opened in 2006. On March 3, 2012, officers responded to a large brawl in front of Toads that culminated in a shooting leaving one person paralyzed. In that same year, the bar was closed, purchased by new owners and rebranded as Remedy’s.

A recent letter from CCSO, signed Jan. 24 of this year, did not recommend approval of the liquor license application. The letter stated Mary Sellars’ background check came back clean; however, it went into more detail about problems at the bar, calling Mike Sellars a “former member” of the Vagos.

In a Feb. 15 letter to the city, attorney Justin Clouser said the sheriff’s decision to withdraw his recommendation for approval “appears to be arbitrary and capricious in light of the fingerprint report indicating Ms. Sella(r)s had no criminal history.”

In other action:

• Supervisors will consider authorizing the Carson City Fire Department to submit a joint grant application with Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District for $1.7 million. The application would be submitted to the Bureau of Land Management for the Nevada Fuels Management and Community Fire Assistance Program, according to the agenda.

CCFD could be sub-awarded nearly $500,000 with no local match that would be used for preventative wildfire fuels reduction in northeast Carson.

• Supervisors will hear the Cultural Commission’s 2023 annual report and 2024 work plan. The document can be viewed online: https://legistarweb-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/attachment/pdf/2521529/Cultural_Commission_2023-2024_Annual_Report_and_2024-2025_Work_Plan.pdf.