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The craft rubbed off on him. That’s obvious as you walk into his bar on North Broadway, just east of the interstate in the hardscrabble North Riverfront neighborhood.

To the right is a burned out, four-story, red brick building with no roof. The entrance to is through the stabilized but open-air corridor of an adjacent building. Enter the bar and restaurant, and Larrison’s months of wood and brick work from 13 years ago is immediately evident.

There are bits and pieces of Larrison’s long life as a bar owner in St. Louis hidden in nooks and crannies of this biker bar. It’s a place that is unknown to much of St. Louis, whose residents tend to eschew the mostly empty warehouses and old industrial footprint of the north riverfront. But ask bikers across the country, or the downtown businessmen, lawyers and judges who like to sneak away for lunch and a beer, and Shady Jack’s is an institution.

That’s what makes the past few months so confounding for its 74-year-old owner, and his wife, Ann.

In July, Shady Jack’s was served with a public nuisance notice by the city’s Department of Public Safety. The notice cited “disturbances, drug use, assaults, and other unruly behavior.�

Larrison has no clue what the notice is referencing.

“I’ve been here 13 years without one problem,� he says.

Trail of inspectors

Larrison strokes his long white beard and points to a pile of paperwork sitting on a table in the bar.

The evidence is in his favor. His file in the city’s excise division, which controls liquor licenses, makes no mention of any of the items cited in the public nuisance notice. The only complaint is an Aug. 28 letter, received more than a month after the public nuisance notice went out, filed by a neighbor, Bill Hibdon of , a company that crafts custom guitars and other musical instruments. It’s in the same line of brick buildings along North Broadway just south of Cass Avenue.

Hibdon makes no bones about it: He wants the biker bar two buildings down from him shut down.

“He’s a likeable guy,� Hibdon says of Larrison, “but it’s what he’s doing with his business that is a problem. The bikers have turned Collins Street into a drag strip. It’s so loud, it’s unbelievable.�

Guilty as charged, says Larrison, who in a former life was a county cop.

Motorcycles are rev-your-engine-and-backfire loud. His events bring in hundreds of bikers from across the country. There are live bands, and fundraising rides that start at Shady Jack’s and finish elsewhere. Some of the bikers ride up and down the mostly deserted streets of the north riverfront. Back in the day it was Hells Angels and other rival clubs who dominated the joint. These days, the clientele includes younger stunt-bike riders.

In 2015, an argument at the start of a Sunday morning biker event resulted in a shooting.

But the public record doesn’t show a history of problems, at least not at the bar itself.

Larrison’s attorneys, Don Singer and his son, John, filed a Sunshine Law request for documentation to back the public nuisance complaint. They say they received an incomplete reply from the city, which held a hearing but dropped the nuisance complaint.

“It was the most comical meeting I’ve ever been a part of,� John Singer says. He’s been coming to Shady Jack’s with his dad since “before I could walk.� To him, the paper trail doesn’t justify the city’s actions.

The liquor license

In August, when Shady Jack’s liquor license was up for renewal, city excise commissioner Myles McDonnell renewed it for six months instead of the usual year. The file doesn’t say why, but McDonnell says it was because of Hibdon’s complaint.

On the day I visited City Hall to look at Larrison’s file, a health inspector stopped by his restaurant.

That follows a street inspector last September, a bill for uncut weeds that same month that was later rescinded, and building inspections in October and December. On the Friday before we spoke, he said two building inspectors dropped by, one asking about a fence and the other a parking lot issue. Add to that police officers parking near his lot, and Larrison believes he is being harassed.

He is, sort of.

At least some of the recent activity from city inspectors is coordinated, said Todd Waelterman, director of operations for the city. When Mayor Lyda Krewson took over, she started regular meetings in which police and other city departments get together to discuss issues in various neighborhoods. When police noted in one of those meetings a couple of months ago that calls for service were up around Shady Jack’s — specifically related to motorcycle activity — Waelterman asked other departments to pay more attention to the biker bar.

“I’m scared to death they are going to put me out of business,� Larrison says.

Shady Jack’s liquor license will go back to the traditional one-year renewal later this year, McDonnell says.

“He hasn’t had any problems,� he said.

That won’t make Hibdon happy.

The two men went to mediation last October. Larrison agreed to provide Hibdon with flyers announcing the events that draw the biggest crowds. It didn’t solve their disputes.

Larrison has owned bars throughout the city. There was Top of the Barrel, the Foxhole, the Panda Bar, the old Blitt’s in the Grove. In most cases, he started them the way he did Shady Jack’s, taking an old building and breathing life into it.

He’d like to retire soon, but that becomes much more difficult if some unknown force with political power is trying to shut him down.

“You’ve got 11,000 empty buildings in this town,� Larrison says, his deep, gravelly voice trailing off. If the city doesn’t stop hassling him, “you’re going to get one more.�