Burbling beneath our country’s wars on terror, drugs, cigarettes and fat is the series of smaller skirmishes the city of Portland has had with local bars and nightclubs, a fight collectively known as the War on Fun. The city’s history of anti-fun warfare dates back to Neal Dow’s day, but the battles have been particularly fierce in recent years, and show no signs of abating. Forthwith, some dispatches from the front:

After a prolonged struggle, a combination restaurant, bar and live music venue will open on the corner of Congress Street and Forest Avenue this fall. Though that corner is in the heart of the Arts District, anti-fun zoning imposed on a defunct dance club further down Forest makes it hostile territory for bohemians. The prospective proprietors got mired in a tangle of city and state regulations, but emerged on Sept. 5 victorious, having at last secured the liquor and entertainment licenses necessary to operate the business.

Sadly, not all of them made it out of the regulatory jungle. The venue was originally planned to be the reincarnation of The Skinny, a popular music club and performing arts space on Congress Street that closed several years ago. Over the course of the long campaign, the ownership team reshuffled, and former Skinny owner Johnny Lomba is no longer part of the enterprise.

Instead, the place will be called the Empire Dine & Dance. Todd Doyle – the real-life War on Terror vet interviewed in the summer edition of The Bollard’s print magazine – is still involved with the business, as is Bill Umbel, a local bluegrass promoter who owns the building. Umbel said the upstairs bar and stage area will primarily feature acoustic folk, jazz and blues acts. The restaurant on the ground floor will serve “bistro-style fare.” The doors should be open by October.

Much to the chagrin of some neighbors in Portland’s West End, the doors are still open at The Icehouse, formerly Popeye’s Icehouse – and, to most, formerly (before the Patriots Day Storm) the bar at the end of the Casco Bay Bridge with the plane sticking out of its roof.

Prodded by complaints of drunken patrons terrorizing civilians and waging what could be termed “biological warfare” on sidewalks and shrubbery, city officials have been trying to topple the tavern for the last decade. Over the years, they’ve imposed a variety of sanctions: no entertainment, no use of the patio, a mandatory 10 p.m. closing time. Late last year, the city clerk even took the unprecedented step of pulling the bar’s licenses to sell food and have “amusement devices” like pool tables and touch-screen video games – all to no avail. Like a recalcitrant dictator, The Icehouse – site of a neighborhood watering hole for 75 years – has stood its beer-soaked ground.

In late August, the City Council refused to renew the bar’s liquor license, but in doing so, gained nothing. The current owners, members of the Orne family, intend to lease the tavern to their head bartender, and councilors have little recourse but to approve her liquor license application. After three hours of public testimony and procedural fencing with the Ornes’ tenacious attorney, David Turesky, the deflated councilors denied the Ornes’ license but postponed action on the new license for what will be called the West End Tavern to October 1.

Meanwhile, over on Warren Avenue, the city settled a showdown with the new owner of an old garage last occupied by Austin’s Boot & Buckle Saloon. Seems things had gotten a bit rowdy at Austin’s a couple years back – patrons hootin’ and hollerin’ and cussin’ and fightin’. One neighbor said a brawl spilled from the bar parking lot into her home across the street one night. So councilors are taking no chances with the new establishment, whose name hasn’t exactly helped its cause.

Goodfellas Bar & Nightclub will be able to use its open-air patio, but due to concerns about noise, customers won’t be allowed to eat, drink or be entertained out there, per city order. They can smoke and talk and laugh and gab on their cell phones all they like, but the two activities that require you to shut your mouth – eating and drinking – are banned.

One wishes Goodfellas proprietor Andrew Cole good luck with his new venture. May it be more successful than his previous endeavor on Wharf Street – the Bikini Bottom Grill.

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