Jaws locked on possible Crocodile Cafe deal

A deal to sell the Crocodile Cafe, the legendary nightclub that closed last month, may be in its final stages. Groupee Venues on Friday applied to take over the Crocodile's liquor license, according to the Washington state Liquor Control Board.

Stephanie Dorgan, who ran the Crocodile from 1991 to last December, could not be reached for comment.

Listed on the liquor application as partners are Edward H. O'Neill, Rose Mary H. O'Neill, Lori L. Hope and Robert N. Hope. All except the latter are listed as employees of Groupee, a company that develops software and operates the social networking site www.groupee.com.

"I have no comment at this time," said Lori Hope. Asked if her group had purchased the Crocodile, she said, "I cannot confirm or deny that."

According to Groupee's Web site: "Groupee, Inc. [formerly Infopop Corporation] is a privately held company based in Seattle, Wash. We have over 10 years experience in software development and enterprise hosting for online communities. Our customer list includes: Discovery Communications, Warner Brothers, Scripps, Rodale, The Weather Channel, Financial Times, Mattel, Ubisoft, The Home Shopping Network, Military.com and Xerox. Our enterprise hosting operation currently serves hundreds of millions of page views per month."

The Crocodile Cafe was opened in 1991 by attorney-turned-businesswoman Dorgan and quickly became a local music-scene fixture.

It opened just in time to ride the grunge wave. But it had a hearty life after grunge's demise, and helped launch the likes of Modest Mouse.

The hip dive hosted shows by Nirvana, Hole, R.E.M. and the Beastie Boys. It was also a prime venue for touring acts, landing acts such as the Strokes, Sparklehorse, Badly Drawn Boy and Cheap Trick.

Tom Scanlon: 206-464-3891 or tscanlon@seattletimes.com

Seattle Times reporter Tan Vinh contributed to this report.