The Bashful Bandit, on East Speedway at North Dodge Boulevard, closed for good Sunday but is inviting its fans for one last hurrah today from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Above, a patron named Rebel, left, planted a kiss on Bkay Welch at the Bandit’s L-shaped bar in 2008.
In the good old days of not long ago, tricked out motorcycles with gleaming chrome and leather saddlebags lined the front of the Bashful Bandit, Tucson’s storied, rough-around-the-edges biker bar on East Speedway at North Dodge Boulevard.
For more than 40 years, the bar, with its memorial wall devoted to longtime customers, bras hanging from a ceiling pipe and reputation for a bar fight or two, was Tucson’s unofficial biker headquarters, a watering hole and gathering spot for those who rode on weekends and those who rode for life.
But all that ended on Sunday, June 13, when the Bandit closed for good.
In the fall, Toby Kyte, who bought the bar this week, will open a barbecue restaurant that will incorporate the Bashful Bandit name in some form, he said.
But before he begins a $250,000-plus buildout of the space that will include keeping the wraparound wooden bar and stools, creating an outdoor kitchen, enlarging the restrooms and repaving the parking lot, Kyte is opening the Bandit for one last hurrah on Friday, June 18.
The bar will open at 11 a.m. for a final last call and to give customers who have photos
