About Us The Diving Mouse

The Diving Mouse kicked off on July 23, 2019, thanks to a spur-of-the-moment idea from Bailey Jones. A few years back, Bailey had walked into this empty space and thought it had potential, but it wasn’t until Friday, July 16, 2019, that things clicked. He and his friend Wesley True stepped in, and Wesley said, “This’d make a cool dive bar—we should open one. I’ll do the food.” Bailey shrugged and said, “Okay.” That was it—no grand plan, just a decision.

By Monday, July 19, Bailey was already at work building a bar, figuring it out as he went, with a self-imposed deadline: open by Friday. Leveraging the Bald Head Bistro’s catering license, he turned it into a pop-up bar opportunity. With his buddy Joel Simpkins, Bailey pieced it together using whatever was handy from Jones Properties’ storage across the atrium—old shutters from Gardner’s Market for the bar face, tabletops sliced from Diamond & Lil’s restaurant for the bar tops. A sink? Rigged with a bucket, a sump pump, and a 2-inch hose run through the ceiling to a drain—worked like a charm and saved a bundle. Needing a spot for the liquor bottles, Bailey hit the storage room and found large glass squares—leftovers from an old ice cream shop that morphed into the first Check Into Cash. Those became liquor shelves, tying in another slice of Cleveland’s story. Every piece of The Diving Mouse, from the bar to the shelves, is built with history pulled straight from Cleveland, giving this place a vibe that’s as local as it gets. They cleaned up some beat-up refrigerators from storage, rolled them over, and suddenly there was a bar with electric, refrigeration, and a whole lot of character.

The name came just as organically. On the first day of building, Bailey spotted a giant mouse head and a full-blown mascot costume—like something straight out of an NBA game—sitting in storage next to a Santa suit. The Mouse suit was used as the Mouse Nutcracker for the Kids dance studio that recently closed and left it. “Mouse something,” he figured. Early on, called it “The Mouse Hole,” but that didn’t stick. While painting the logo behind the bar, Bailey tweaked the “M” adding a diving board with a little mouse jumping off, a diving mouse. “The Diving Mouse,” he said, and that was that.

Friday, July 23 rolled around, and with a few last licks of paint on the logo, it was go time. Wesley threw together a panini menu (press nabbed from Bailey’s house), and by 6 PM, the beer, liquor, and food were ready. The Diving Mouse was open for business.

What started as a quick “why not?” moment turned into Cleveland’s newest nightlife gem. Built from salvaged scraps and a bit of elbow grease, The Diving Mouse is all about good drinks, live music, and a laid-back vibe. No overthinking—just doing. Come see what happened for yourself!

The bar was thought of , built and open all within a week.