Instead of razing and rebuilding, Chubby’s will get a sprucing-up aimed at attracting a more mature crowd.

Chubby’s Waterside Café, the increasingly trouble-plagued Red Bank night spot that has been stymied by the economy in its plans for a wholesale makeover, is opting for an interim solution, owner Mike Gilson tells redbankgreen.

The West Front Street dance club for teens and young adults will shut down on Mother’s Day, undergo interior renovations, and open about three weeks later as The Fixx, Gilson says.

“We’ll renovate, clean it up, bring in a new concept” anchored in part on ’80s-themed dance nights, he says.

The change was not entirely prompted by the passage of a recent ordinance banning a mainstay of his business — so called ‘college nights,’ Gilson says. Young crowds drawn to the bar have led to dozens of calls to police over a recent one-year span, and in one incident triggered a donnybrook involving cops from several towns.

Rather, the ban “forced the issue” of modest changes even though Gilson and his investors have approval for an upscale restaurant and catering facility to replace the club, he says.

“I never liked to do the 18-to-21 thing,” he says. “I always thought you were playing Russian roulette.”

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