{"id":56789,"date":"2025-07-12T22:11:26","date_gmt":"2025-07-13T02:11:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=56789"},"modified":"2025-07-12T22:11:32","modified_gmt":"2025-07-13T02:11:32","slug":"the-velvet-swan-hopes-to-enter-lakelands-bar-and-nightlife-scene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/07\/12\/the-velvet-swan-hopes-to-enter-lakelands-bar-and-nightlife-scene\/","title":{"rendered":"The Velvet Swan hopes to enter Lakeland&#8217;s bar and nightlife scene"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A North Lakeland bar owner is looking to open a new cocktail lounge in the heart of downtown, but some are questioning whether there&#8217;s already enough liquor flowing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jeremiah Joaquim, owner of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cjloungelkld.com\/\">CJ Vapes &amp; Lounge<\/a>, filed an application with the Lakeland Downtown Development Authority for its support in opening up The Velvet Swan, a refined cocktail lounge, at 125 S. Kentucky Ave. The 2,200-square-foot space was&nbsp;previously occupied by Dissent Brewing.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img data-dominant-color=\"6a5f57\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #6a5f57;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"660\" height=\"440\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 660px) 100vw, 660px\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/DIDDENT.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-56790 not-transparent\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/DIDDENT.webp 660w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/DIDDENT-300x200.webp 300w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;We&#8217;re focusing more on high-end cocktails curated toward a wide variety of professional clientele. A more upscale environment for creatives to come together and communalize together, socialized for business, professional or what have you,&#8221; he said to LDDA board members on June 26.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Joaquim said the drinks will be toward the higher-end pricing, to avoid drawing a potential troublesome crowd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;My experience already owning a bar is that the cheaper the alcohol, the more people tend to do,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It leads to issues like fights, disruptions, and things of that nature.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His plans are for a creative but relaxing ambiance, as he said the lounge&#8217;s layout will have more couches, club chairs, and furniture designed to inspire personal conversation. The overall interior layout will remain the same as Dissent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;We&#8217;re not structurally planning on changing anything,&#8221; he said. &#8220;The building was built out for a bar, and most of what you need is already in place.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There are no plans for immediate food service, according to Joaquim, but he does hope to start offering small hors d&#8217;oeuvres, possibly charcuterie boards, in the future. There are no designs for a full kitchen menu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A North Lakeland bar owner is looking to open a new cocktail lounge in the heart of downtown, but some are questioning whether there&#8217;s already enough liquor flowing. Jeremiah Joaquim,&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56790,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMDdcL0RJRERFTlQud2VicD9maXQ9NjYwJTJDNDQwJnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiVGhlIFZlbHZldCBTd2FuIGhvcGVzIHRvIGVudGVyIExha2VsYW5kJiM4MjE3O3MgYmFyIGFuZCBuaWdodGxpZmUgc2NlbmUiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImhpZ2h3YXkiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.iHAuxrW93MNlQBU2jDyhR_iWfCsthAFpFZbmLjwDBF8MQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":56790,"url":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/DIDDENT.webp","type":"image\/webp"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[11824],"class_list":["post-56789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-the-velvet-swan-hopes-to-enter-lakelands-bar-and-nightlife-scene"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56789"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56791,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56789\/revisions\/56791"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}