As I reported yesterday in Line Out, both the Comet and Chop Suey have new owners.

I just got off the phone with Chris Dasef, former owner of Chop Suey and new owner of hallowed Seattle watering hole the Comet. Here’s what he had to say about the reasons behind the Chop Suey sale:

“John Villsvik has been an interested party for a while. He was [originally] going to buy in with me to rid myself of some other investors. They didn’t want to be a part of it anymore—and I didn’t want them to be a part of it either. We couldn’t come to an agreeable percentage on joint ownership, so I said, ‘hey, I want to buy the Comet, you should just buy Chop Suey.’”

Dasef also cited a desire to get Chop Suey out of debt as a motivating factor:

“When Neumo’s first opened up, we had a rough time of it [financially]. We got behind on a few things, and I just wanted to get caught up and get square on everything.â€�

Villsvik (who unreachable at the time of this post) will be assuming the old debt and (according to Chop Suey booking agent Colin Johnson), has no current plans to change the club in any major way.

As for the Comet, Dasef said there would be some minor cosmetic changes and the current staff would be retained:

“The Comet is going to be exactly the same. We’re going to remember, support, and cherish the parts of the Comet [that everyone loves]. We are going to clean it, add some fresh paint, and make it less cluttered. We will still have graffiti, live bands, and the same clientel. We also plan on spending [several] hours cleaning up those bathrooms.â€�

Additionally, Dasef plans on applying for a license to serve hard alcohol, a change that old timers may grumble about, but seems to be a necessary upgrade for most bars these days.

I’ll have more details and an interview with the new Chop Suey owner on Monday.