Dunedin bar's 'Absolutely No Color's' sign aimed at bikers, not nonwhites, owner says

DUNEDIN — Joshua Harvey had just finished breakfast two weeks ago and stepped into the parking lot when he noticed a strange sign on the bar next door.

"Stop, Absolutely No Color's," it read, from the window of the Inn Lounge on the Dunedin Causeway. "You will not be served."

"I just looked at it," he said. "I couldn't believe it."

Harvey, who is black, said the sign seemed like a call for segregation, using a misspelling of "colored" as a derogatory warning against nonwhites.

But bar owner Manny Kusturiss said it was aimed at a different group: gang members flashing their club emblems, or "colors," before a brawl.

"It's not for 'colored' people," Kusturiss said. "I had a problem with some bikers, and I put it up to nip it in the bud."

A Pinellas County Sheriff's Office report from Nov. 15 states deputies received a report of a battery at the bar that Sunday evening. They found a man at the restroom sink, Charles Allen, 53, cleaning blood off his face.

Allen told deputies he had been struck "over a woman" and refused medical attention. But another witness at the bar said a biker gang had attacked the man. He refused to press charges. In March, Allen was arrested on a charge he operated a motorcycle without a license.

The bar sign, which also displayed the words "bikers" in small letters, was posted the weekend after deputies came and hung around for two days — long enough to "send a message," Kusturiss said, that the three men who had caused trouble were not welcome.

The men haven't come back, he said. But curious passers-by with camera phones have taken their place.

Harvey said he was relieved to hear the sign intended no racial prejudice.

"There are some black people who are regulars here," bar regular Bob Reed said Tuesday morning as he sipped a Bloody Mary and watched The Price is Right.

"There's no racial problem around here. But there's sometimes a biker problem."

Drew Harwell can be reached at dharwell@sptimes.com or (727) 445-4170.