Darts til dawn — A Lovell bar owner’s campaign to party all night

LOVELL — When Audrey Bay recently roasted a whole alligator for Mardi Gras at the Aud’s 4-Corners Bar and Grill, she loaded the 24-pound reptile onto the big smoker out back, basted it for six hours and served it to a ravenous crowd that picked it clean. The alligator was a trial run for what she hopes will become a new culinary tradition accompanying the revival of a much older nocturnal one.

For the better part of two years, Bay has been showing up to town council meetings, trying to talk officials into letting her bar stay open all night the way it used to during the town’s annual end-of-June celebration. For years, the tradition was a given: dart tournaments that kicked off at 7 p.m. and ran until 6 the next morning, bands and DJs filling the hours between last call and first light. Then, about two years ago, the town stopped issuing all-night permits.

Bay eventually won a compromise—not a return to the sunrise format, but a two-hour extension from the standard 2 a.m. closing to 4 a.m. Lovell Town Administrator Jed Nebel said the decision to scale back wasn’t driven by any single infamous incident but by staffing shortages. The all-nighter wasn’t just tradition, Bay argued; it was economic survival. “It brings in extra money,” she said, “and so it’s kind of a cushion for us to fall back on when things are pretty lean.”

Bay will approach the council again in April to request this year’s late-night permit. Those craving smoked alligator and a 4 a.m. last call should mark their calendars for June 27.