Roxy’s Pub: Speakeasies, Shell Games, and a Sheriff’s Notice on the Door

Born in a Prohibition bust (1929–1934)

Roxy’s traces its lineage to a speakeasy run by P.P. Dock at the corner of Okeechobee Road and South Dixie Highway; Dock had been in business at 401 Okeechobee Road since 1929 [3]. In 1933 — nine months before Prohibition was repealed — federal agents busted Dock on charges of “possession of intoxicating liquor” [3]. He pleaded guilty in October 1934, and two months later became one of the first two people to receive a liquor license issued by the City of West Palm Beach after Prohibition [3][4].

A note on the founding date: the bar’s own website says it was “established in 1933” [5], the Palm Beach Post’s photo retrospective dates the speakeasy to 1929 [6], and CBS12’s 2026 coverage calls it a 93-year-old establishment (implying 1933) [7]. The records are genuinely fuzzy here, as you’d expect for a business that began illegally.

Five owners, three locations (1934–2007)

In nearly a century, the bar has had five owners and three locations [3][4]. Dock ran it for several years before selling to Berlin Griffin, co-owner of the Palm Beach Kennel Club [3]. One of Griffin’s dog-track employees, Harry “Roxy” LaRocco, started working at the bar and bought it in 1949 — it became “Roxy’s” under him, and he ran it for about 25 years [3]. In 1974 it was purchased by Ken Wagner, a New Yorker who’d moved to the area for a restaurant-chain job [3].

The original building had its share of drama: in 1983, a police officer shot and killed a man at the bar after the man waved a gun at patrons [3]. In 1986 the building’s owner sold to developers Henry Rolfs and David Paladino, who razed it in 1989 as part of the failed Downtown/Uptown redevelopment project [3].

Roxy’s reopened in 1989 in the historic Comeau Building on Clematis Street — though the landlord initially insisted it be renamed the “Comeau Bar and Grill.” By the beginning of 1990, the awning said “Roxy’s” again [3]. The bar’s massive Brunswick bar — reportedly brought over from Palm Beach’s Whitehall Hotel in the 1920s — made the move too [3]. When Roxy’s arrived, Clematis was mostly deserted after dark; by 1993 the strip also included Respectable Street Café (opened 1987), Lost Weekend, Underground Coffeeworks, Narcissus and the Metropolis Club [3].

In 1997 Wagner bought a building two doors down and moved Roxy’s to its current home at 309 Clematis St. — he and his wife Pat strutted down the street to the new location with a bagpiper [3]. County property records confirm the purchase: Von Esselborn Inc. (more on that name shortly) took 309 Clematis by warranty deed in May 1997 for $630,000 [8].

Wagner, worn down by years of Clematis road construction, sold the business in 2005 [3].

The Webb era (2007–present)

The buyer was John Webb, who reopened Roxy’s in early 2007 as an upscale Irish pub with a pool table, fireplace, and booths around the central bar [3]. Two years later he added Sky 309, a rooftop bar with a dance floor [3]. The bar became a Clematis institution: 1990s rock acts like Live and Candlebox played there, Snoop Dogg drew a crowd of 3,000 in 2010 [3], Mayor Lois Frankel celebrated her 2007 reelection there [3], and the annual St. Patrick’s Day party shuts down the whole 300 block [3][6].

In 2023, Webb pushed forward a $17 million expansion: a rooftop pool and restaurant — the first rooftop pool bar on Clematis — incorporating the vacant neighboring building at 313 Clematis, which he’d purchased in 2022 [4][9]. County records show Von Esselborn Inc. paid $7.5 million for 313 Clematis in October 2022 [10]. The city’s Downtown Action Committee approved two setback variances for the project [9], and the 300 block was closed to traffic for most of summer 2023 for crane work [11]. The rooftop venue, “Top of the Rox,” opened in July 2025 [12].

The corporate structure: who actually owns Roxy’s?

This is where it gets interesting. “Roxy’s Pub” isn’t one company — it’s a layered set of entities, all tied to John P. Webb, several organized out of state, with the same Palm Beach Gardens attorney as registered agent and the same West Palm Beach PO boxes. Here’s what the public record shows:

Now, the necessary caveat: no court, regulator, or news outlet has called any of these entities a “shell company,” and forming LLCs in Nevada or Alaska is legal and not uncommon in hospitality. What the record does show is a real-estate-rich corporation (Von Esselborn) separated from out-of-state operating LLCs whose manager is itself an LLC — a structure that became very relevant when a jury handed down a seven-figure judgment. Notably, the news reporting and court records sometimes conflate the entities: the Palm Beach Post described RP Palm Beach as “the company that owns the pub” and Von Esselborn as owning the property, “both controlled by Roxy’s owner John Webb” [4]; CBS12 reported flatly that “both Roxy’s Pub and Von Esselborn, Inc. are owned by the same individual, John Webb” [7].

One more clarification while we’re untangling Clematis ownership: Roxy’s is not part of the Rodney Mayo/Scott Frielich Sub-Culture group that runs Respectable Street, Lost Weekend, and other Clematis venues — that’s an entirely separate ownership group [20][21].

The court docket: the beer-mug case that nearly ended it all

Perez-Valdivia v. RP Palm Beach, LLC d/b/a Roxy’s Pub, Case No. 502021CA002375XXXXMB, Palm Beach County Circuit Court (15th Judicial Circuit), filed February 22, 2021 [22].

According to the complaint, on September 20, 2020, Miami-Dade resident Rafael Perez-Valdivia was at Roxy’s with his wife when a drunken patron began harassing him — over a span of roughly twenty minutes — before throwing a glass beer mug that struck him in the face. The complaint alleges security personnel were present on the premises and made no attempt to stop the assault. Counts: negligent security and loss of consortium [22][7].

The docket (278 entries, pulled directly from the Palm Beach County Clerk’s eCaseView) tells the four-year story [34]. Roxy’s answered in April 2021. The plaintiffs served formal proposals for settlement in December 2022 and again in December 2024 — both went nowhere, which later triggered fee entitlement under Fla. Stat. §768.79 [34][23]. In 2023 the plaintiffs won leave to amend and added Von Esselborn, the property-owning corporation, as a defendant [34]. In June 2024 they filed an emergency motion to strike Von Esselborn’s pleadings for failure to participate in discovery and comply with a court order, which the court set for an emergency hearing [34]. The defendants’ motion for summary judgment was denied August 27, 2024 [34].

The jury trial ran February 18–21, 2025, before Judge Bradley Harper, with jury questions posed during the depositions/testimony of witnesses including James Webb and Samantha DelBene [34]. The verdict came February 21, 2025. The original Final Judgment of February 26, 2025 was actually bigger than the press reported: $883,200 against RP Palm Beach and $588,800 against Von Esselborn — $1,472,000 total [34]. The defendants then won a reduction for collateral-source benefits (order of May 16, 2025), producing an amended judgment June 11, 2025, and the Second Amended Final Judgment of August 25, 2025: RP Palm Beach liable for $702,949.75, Von Esselborn for $468,633.17 — a total of $1,171,582.91, accruing interest at 9.15% per year [34][23][7].

Then came the collection fight, also visible line-by-line on the docket: writs of execution issued December 4, 2025; defense counsel John Howe withdrew in mid-December 2025; the court twice ordered the defendants to complete the Form 1.977 fact information sheet (December 16, 2025, and again — on a motion to compel compliance — February 19, 2026); the original writs came back “returned not executed,” and fresh writs issued April 10, 2026 [34]. The owners didn’t pay [2]. The plaintiffs’ attorneys pursued the properties — and the liquor license [24]. On April 17, 2026, PBSO posted a notice of levy on the door; the property was declared in the Sheriff’s custody, and a public auction of 309 and 313 Clematis (combined tax-assessed value about $4.3 million) was set for June 2, 2026 [7][4][2].

The auction was cancelled hours before it was set to begin, after a last-minute settlement between Webb and the Perez-Valdivias. The bar stayed open [25][26].

But it’s not over: the $5 million foreclosure

Eight days before the scheduled auction was even cancelled, a second legal front opened. On May 14, 2026, lender NBL SPV IV LLC filed a commercial foreclosure action — Case No. 50-2026-CA-005474-XXXA-MB, Palm Beach County Circuit Court — against Von Esselborn Inc., John P. Webb, and other defendants [27][28].

Per news reports on the complaint: the loan was originally issued in October 2022 (reported as a $4.9 million construction loan tied to the rooftop redevelopment), was modified several times, and matured in March 2026; the lender claims more than $5.1 million in principal, interest, and fees is outstanding, with default alleged from a missed November 5, 2025 payment [28][29][26]. (The loan figures come from news accounts of the complaint; the verified complaint itself is on the docket but its dollar terms weren’t extracted directly.)

The docket itself — pulled from eCaseView — fills in the rest [35]. The verified commercial foreclosure complaint (case type “COMM FORECLOSURE => $250K”) was filed May 14, 2026; the case is assigned to Judge Maxine Cheesman on the streamline non-jury track, and a lis pendens was recorded May 18, 2026 (OR Book 36536) [35]. The party list reads like a map of everyone with a claim on the two buildings — 20 parties in all. Webb’s whole entity stack is named: Von Esselborn Inc., RP Palm Beach LLC, Wallisville Corporation, and Small Time Restaurant Group LLC (described in the filing as a Delaware LLC) [36]. So are the construction trades from the rooftop project (Cemex Construction Materials, Prestige Gunite & Shotcrete, Tru-Steel Corp, Skyworks LLC, Hellbent Custom Garage LLC, Southern Land & Buildings LLC, and Thomas Wilkinson), the City of West Palm Beach, the U.S. SBA — and, notably, Rafael and Ashley Perez-Valdivia themselves, joined as junior lienholders on the strength of their judgment [36]. One docket curiosity: the foreclosure filing describes RP Palm Beach LLC as “an Arkansas limited liability co,” while Sunbiz records its state of organization as “AK” — Alaska [36][14]. Summonses to all defendants issued June 3–9, 2026, meaning service was just beginning as of this writing; no judgment has been entered [35].

And there’s a third money fight in the file: in September 2025, Webb’s entities (RP Palm Beach/Von Esselborn/Wallisville, d/b/a Roxy’s Pub) took a merchant cash advance from Emerald Group Holdings d/b/a Vitalcap — selling $136,320 of future receivables for $96,000, personally guaranteed by Webb. Webb sued in New York to void the deal and block arbitration; on April 22, 2026, the New York Supreme Court (Index No. 659827/2025, Justice Judy H. Kim) denied his motions and dismissed his action, sending the dispute to arbitration [19]. Selling future receivables at that discount, weeks after a $1.17M judgment, paints a picture of a business under real cash strain.

The scandal file

Beyond the litigation, the documented controversies:

The 2017 underage-drinking video scandal. Two 19-year-old women sued Roxy’s over an October 15, 2017 incident, alleging bartenders served them free vodka-cranberry cocktails knowing they were underage, then management failed to intervene as employees and patrons filmed them simulating sex while naked on the dance floor — footage that allegedly appeared briefly on Roxy’s own Facebook page before spreading to porn sites. The women rejected settlement offers of roughly $1,000 each; Roxy’s said four employees were fired [30]. No case number or final disposition surfaced in indexed sources, so how this ended is not publicly documented.

The 2010 rooftop death. In December 2010, Jessica Harris, 39, fell to her death from the Sky309 rooftop bar. Police called it a fall and said it was not a suicide; Roxy’s stated the rooftop complied with all ordinances, codes, and state laws. No lawsuit was found arising from it [31].

The 2025 health-inspection closure. A March 18, 2025 state inspection (Florida DBPR) tallied 15 violations, seven high-priority, and Roxy’s was temporarily ordered closed; a follow-up inspection found not all issues fixed, requiring another visit [32]. (Caveat: this comes from a summary of the official DBPR inspection feed; the underlying state record couldn’t be fetched directly.)

The 1983 shooting, covered above — a police officer killed a gun-waving man at the original location [3].

Just as notable is what isn’t in the record. Despite targeted searching, we found no documented COVID-era violations or closures specific to Roxy’s [33], no noise or code-enforcement actions naming the bar, no discrimination or employment suits, and no shootings or stabbings at the venue — the various “Clematis Street trouble” stories trace to other addresses. The bar today markets itself as a neighborhood pub with 64+ beers on tap and 22 flat screens [5].

Beyond the pub: John Webb’s other ventures

Roxy’s isn’t Webb’s only act. Public records and news archives show a small empire of ventures around the 300 block of Clematis — and the corporate paper trail behind them is even more interesting than the bars.

The Wine Dive (319 Clematis St, 2012–2017). A wine bar two doors down from Roxy’s, identified by Broward Palm Beach New Times in 2012 as “an impressive array of vino in a casual-chic setting from nearby Roxy’s Pub owner John Webb” [37]. It opened around the end of 2011 [38] and left Clematis at the end of May 2017, with its manager citing rents jumping to about $50 a square foot [39]. It said it would reopen nearby; no source shows it ever did, and Yelp lists it permanently closed [39][18]. The entity, Wine Dive LLC, was fronted by Sandra Lawson and shared PO Box 2649 with Webb’s Wallisville Corporation; it was administratively dissolved in 2020 [18]. No scandals surfaced — just rent economics.

Top of the Rox and Vault 313. Top of the Rox (the rooftop pool venue) is Webb’s, covered above. But the Vault 313 nightclub was not a Webb venture: it occupied 313 Clematis before he bought the then-vacant building in 2022 [9]. Worth keeping straight, since the buildings are now lumped together in the foreclosure.

Austin Republic (West Palm Beach and North Palm Beach, 2023–present). Webb’s barbecue play. He partnered with chef James “Jimmy” Strine (ex-Café Boulud, Buccan, The Breakers) on a Texas-themed “authentic Austin barbecue” concept — Boca Raton Magazine reported in June 2023 that Strine “has partnered with John Webb” [47], the Palm Beach Post in January 2025 called him “Austin Republic owner John Webb, who also owns Roxy’s Pub” [48], and Stet News described him as “John Webb, owner of Roxy’s Pub in downtown West Palm Beach and a Texan” [49]. The first location opened around April 2023 at 4801 S. Dixie Hwy in WPB’s SoSo district, operating from a converted shipping-container mobile kitchen; that closed April 6, 2024 for a permanent build-out [50]. The brick-and-mortar kept slipping — a March 2025 target came and went, and as of July 2025 the site was still in permitting, serving only as the smoker/commissary; along the way it did get West Palm’s first stacked lift-style parking (30 cars in 10 spots) [48][49]. Meanwhile a second location — licensed with the state as “Austin Republic #2” — opened July 26, 2025 at 661 US Highway 1 in North Palm Beach, in a former Ruth’s Chris, with a 120-seat dining room and 60-foot oval bar [49][51]. Webb told Stet that “working with the Village of North Palm Beach proved much easier than West Palm” [49]. Scandal-wise, the record is thin: a pre-opening DBPR inspection warning in July 2025 (renovations made without an approved plan review, including a removed hand-washing sink), corrected within days [51]; and a note posted on the NPB door in May 2026 saying it was closed for renovations until August 15 [49]. A Palm Beach County court party-name search for “Austin Republic” returns zero cases [52]. Whether the WPB brick-and-mortar ever opened is unconfirmed — Yelp currently lists it as closed [50].

So who owns Austin Republic on paper? No Florida entity carries the name [53] — it runs on fictitious-name (DBA) registrations, and the state’s fictitious-name registry resolves the whole chain. “Austin Republic” and “Austin Republic Food Truck” (both registered January 10, 2023, mailing address PO Box 2390, West Palm Beach — the same PO box used by Webb’s Von Esselborn and RP Palm Beach) are owned by Plantain Partners I LP [54], a Florida limited partnership filed July 29, 2019 whose registered owner address on the DBA filing is in Austin, Texas (6836 Bee Caves Rd), whose principal address is the restaurant site itself (4801 S. Dixie Hwy), and whose registered agent is Timothy Grice of 319 Clematis St. — Webb’s other long-time registered agent [55]. The LP’s general partner is BK Development Inc., whose sole listed director is Thomas Wilkinson [56]. “Austin Republic #2” (registered August 19, 2024) is owned by Plantain Partners II LLC, principal address 661 US Highway 1, North Palm Beach — the restaurant — with the same manager (Wilkinson) and same agent (Grice) [57]. Two things stand out. First, Webb’s name appears nowhere on any of these filings, despite three news outlets identifying him as the owner — consistent with his post-2011 pattern of keeping his name off operating entities (Florida LPs don’t disclose limited partners, which is where a silent owner would sit). The hard paper link to Webb is the PO Box 2390 mailing address on the original DBA filings. Second, Thomas Wilkinson is no stranger: he was deposed in the Perez-Valdivia trial run-up and is a named defendant in the NBL SPV IV foreclosure [34][36].

Webb the landlord. Von Esselborn sued its own tenant, Young Guns LLC d/b/a Release Nightclub, twice — a landlord-tenant action in 2005 and a contract suit in 2007 — meaning Webb’s company spent the mid-2000s as landlord to a nightclub [45].

The smaller and stranger entities. Sunbiz shows a constellation of other Webb companies: 115 South Olive Enterprises LLC (2005, dissolved 2024 after multiple lapses) at 115 S. Olive Ave [41]; Coral Reefers Restaurant Inc. (2009), which never filed a single annual report before dissolution [42]; and Longhorn Valet Inc. (2014–2021), a valet operation [43]. Then there’s the structural oddity that says the most: a Florida-registered “309 Clematis LLC” was voluntarily dissolved on November 17, 2020 — and an Alaska LLC of the identical name registered in Florida the very next day, November 18, 2020, with the same address, PO box, and registered agent [44]. Combined with the Nevada Roxys Pub LLC (2011) and Alaska RP Palm Beach LLC (2016), the pattern since 2011 is consistent: operating entities organized out of state, with Webb’s name replaced by Small Time Restaurant Group LLC — a holding company that has no Florida registration of its own and surfaces in the foreclosure as a Delaware LLC [40][14][36]. Court records also reveal a family thread: the “Sandra Lawson” who fronted Wine Dive LLC and the Nevada Roxys Pub LLC appears in the 2019 lawsuit’s party list under her full name — Sandra Webb Lawson [46]. And one more relationship-mapping nugget: UTEX94 LLC, an otherwise obscure entity, was sued alongside the whole Webb stack in 2019 and defended by the same attorney, marking it as part of the network [46].

A corporate vehicle older than Webb’s ownership. Von Esselborn Inc. was filed in 1989 — the very year Roxy’s moved into the Comeau Building — and old cases show it doing business as “Comeau Bar and Grill” (1991, 1998) and “Roxy’s Bar & Package Store” (2007) [45]. That means the corporation predates Webb’s 2005 purchase of the bar and was apparently the Wagner-era vehicle that came with it; today Webb is its sole listed officer [13].

The full court file: 32 cases and counting

A party-name sweep of the Palm Beach County docket (“Von Esselborn” and its co-parties) returns 32 cases from 1991 to 2026 [45]. The shape of it:

The Perez-Valdivia case wasn’t a one-off. It was the third negligent-security suit against the bar: Deedra Hunter sued Von Esselborn in 2016, Brad Eichbauer sued Roxys Pub LLC in 2020, and the Perez-Valdivias filed in 2021 [45]. Add Angela Chancey’s 2002 negligence suit against “Von Esselborn Inc d/b/a Roxy’s Restaurant” and Hardy Prado Briones’s 2022 negligence case against RP Palm Beach, and patron-injury litigation spans a quarter century [45].

The 2017 underage-drinking video scandal did become a lawsuit: Vaughn v. Webb, Case No. 50-2019-CA-006646 (filed May 20, 2019), brought by Bailey Vaughn and Audra O’Neill against Webb personally, five of his companies (Von Esselborn, Roxys Pub LLC, RP Palm Beach, Small Time Restaurant Group, UTEX94), Sandra Webb Lawson, five named individuals, and six “unknown employees” [46]. It ground on for five years through a fourth amended complaint before the plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed it with prejudice on May 10, 2024 [46]. (A with-prejudice voluntary dismissal often follows a settlement, but the docket doesn’t say — no public record of terms.)

Money cases bookend everything. Construction and vendor suits cluster around Webb’s two big build-outs: Intrepid Electric sued Webb and Xpert Elevator sued Von Esselborn in 2010 (the Sky 309 era), and the rooftop-pool era brought Coast 2 Coast Engineering (2021, twice), Skyworks LLC (2025), AVT Lifts (2026, open), and IAT Insurance Group (2025, open) [45]. Webb punches back, too: small-claims suits against ADT, FPL, and A1A Architects in 2007–08, a business tort against Robert Cutcher in 2011 — and most tellingly, Webb v. Newtek Small Business Finance LLC (Case No. 50-2025-CA-012858, filed December 11, 2025, open), in which Webb sued the small-business lender connected to his construction loan a month after the alleged default and five months before NBL SPV IV filed to foreclose [45]. Even the bar’s 1990s era is in the file: a 1997 eviction and contract suit by 319 Clematis Associates against Von Esselborn — the same year Roxy’s decamped to 309 Clematis [45].

Where things stand (June 2026)

Roxy’s is open. The judgment that nearly cost Webb the building is settled. But the $5.1 million foreclosure is live, the merchant-cash-advance arbitration is proceeding, two vendor suits (AVT Lifts and IAT Insurance Group) remain open, Webb’s own countersuit against lender Newtek is pending, and the Austin Republic expansion sits half-built in West Palm and “closed for renovations” in North Palm. The entities behind it all — an Alaska LLC managed by a Delaware LLC, a Nevada LLC dissolved by revocation, a 1989 holding corporation, and a Texas-flavored limited partnership fronted by an associate who’s also a foreclosure defendant — are all now matters of public court record. For a bar literally born from a federal bust in 1933, it’s an oddly fitting second act.