The Pink Poodle: the rental, the real dog and the protector of old time music

You might miss it at first.

The house on North Fairview Street east of Tri-North Middle School blends in on an initial pass. But take a second look.

Maybe you’ll notice the pink gutters, accentuated against the 1950 stick-built house painted black.

You could peek into the backyard and see a tiny home and an accessory dwelling unit adjacent to a garden and square “pond” a couple yards wide.

Or you may just hear the sounds of live Appalachian folk music.

This is the Pink Poodle, a Maple Heights property home to house shows and renters alike. It’s unapologetically itself. And it’s looking for new tenants.

Owner Danny Weddle, 41, came to Bloomington around 2003 and pursued undergraduate degrees at IU in marketing and sculpture. His history with hosting house shows predates the Poodle.

There was Clark House. Dandelion Village and 7th Street House. Along the line he created the Concert Car, a rolling venue, with his tiny house construction company.

Weddle bought what would become the Poodle, originally known as Copper Hill House, in 2020. There, the first property he owned, he blew out some interior walls, created a “cathedral”-style layout and added stage spaces on the main floor and in the basement. The Pink Poodle was born.

It’s named after a living, breathing pup: Zuul the Gatekeeper, or Zuzu, Weddle’s 6-year-old toy poodle. He dyes Zuzu, named after a “Ghostbusters” character. He also styles him in a ‘40s-era, “Marilyn Monroe” traditional poodle cut and powder pink. Other times, Weddle opts for poms around Zuzu’s paws and tail like the brightly-colored leg warmers of 1980s workout videos.

Weddle began hosting shows around summer 2021. Many of those performances are singer-songwriter or old time string, with accompanying square or contra dancing. He plays the fiddle and guitar himself.

His house shows are in the tradition of Appalachian folk, he said: people get together, casually, a couple times a month.

“People play music in the living room, and they dance in the kitchen, or vice versa,” he said.

It’s not just folk. The Poodle’s hosted honky tonk, comedy, burlesque, queer trivia and a documentary series.

But one event got “way too big,” Weddle said. It was his 40th birthday party, which brought hundreds of people to the house. A few months later, in January 2025, the Poodle got a zoning violation.

That process started after the city received a noise complaint regarding the house. The Planning and Transportation Department then began its investigation, director David Hittle said.

It initially determined the house had acted as a live music venue. Residentially-zoned properties, like the Pink Poodle, can’t operate as a “bar or dance club” under Bloomington’s Unified Development Ordinance.

But in September, the city dropped the violation. Hittle said staff opted to read the ordinance another way, more in line with the spirit of the rule.

“After plenty of conversation internally, getting a better feel for what they’re doing there, we just determined that we don’t want to be in the business of telling people how many folks they can have over with guitars in their house,” he said.

There was no formal agreement required to drop the violation, Hittle said. But actions like formal advertising campaigns and social media presence could make the place “cross the threshold” from an informal space to a professional venue. The city’s noise ordinance also still applies.

So, the Poodle made changes. It no longer has a stage in the backyard. It doesn’t promote shows publicly or put the address online. There's a form for people to sign up for direct communications about shows.

The intimacy of house shows is part of what attracted Weddle to them. He wouldn’t want a commercial space, like a bar, he said. In a house, a toddler and an 80-year-old can attend alike. It’s tighter in space and limited in time.

“Like, ‘You can only experience this for one hour a month’ is a very different experience than it’s, like, available eight hours a day,” he said.

Weddle and his partner, Anastasia Nikoulina, are now living near Lockhart, Texas, between San Antonio and Austin. They arrived in November, Nikoulina said, and brought Zuzu with them. They’ve been together for about two years.

Their Texas home, a workforce trailer, is “Pink Poodle West.” As soon as they moved in, Weddle said, he built a stage inside. It hosted its first performance Friday.

When Nikoulina was younger, she recalls, her grandmother hosting shows inside her house for friends and neighbors. The shows served as a way to connect people to her family’s Russian background in a new, intimate setting.

Nikoulina, 38, received her PhD in cognitive science from IU. She’s now a software engineer at Terran Robotics, which Weddle co-founded. They’re constructing an adobe house in Texas using an AI-powered robot, she said. Suspended by cables, the robot uses cameras to see, then collect and flatten material into walls.

Weddle used that same method at Bloomington’s Pink Poodle. What once was the Concert Car is now attached to a larger structure in the backyard — partially 3D printed out of monolithic adobe — where Weddle said he and Nikoulina are moving into. There’s also a tiny home back there for one of the tenants, and an unused one in the adjacent alley. That’s next to Weddle’s camper.

Not to mention the garden, fire pit and pond. And toy skeletons in a tree.

Weddle is in the process of moving some of the programming to the home in the back, which has two indoor stages and a roof deck for dancing. Each stage on the property is tailored to a specific type of music.

Meanwhile, he’s seeking new tenants to lease to.

The basement, one joint lease, is a two-bedroom apartment. The main floor is another lease with three bedrooms, including the tiny home, but can house a maximum of two unrelated adults. Weddle is also open to leasing the whole thing together.

He is now interviewing applicants to move in in August. Ideally, the future residents would keep up the shows inside, Weddle said, but they don’t have to. They do have to be excited to have performances right outside their door.

“There is a certain type of human that thrives on that kind of a setup,” Weddle said.

With Weddle and Nikoulina living in Texas for now, event hosting at the Poodle has shifted hands. Liv LaFluv, a 26-year-old folk musician who’s performed at the Poodle, has largely handled organizing shows since January.

She said they’ve been trying to build the venue up while remaining responsible after the ordinance violation, although it’s been hard to host artists from out of town when they can’t share the address online.

She wants to reach more artists, including puppeteers and visual performers. The Poodle has a booking form for interested artists online.

Elizabeth Higgs, 31, has lived at the Pink Poodle since 2023. She’s “played Goldilocks,” she said; she’s stayed in nearly every room on the property. Now, she lives in the tiny home.

She loved the creative environment from the start. The common area of the main house is an homage to Bloomington art. There’s the performance stage, yes, but also a plywood cutout by area artist Sam Bartlett and a local glass piece in the kitchen.

It’s different since the violation. But it’s also reemphasized what the Poodle is trying to do there. It’s more personal again, Higgs said.

Old time music is historically Bloomington. Maple Heights is a historic district. Higgs said they want a safe space to share that music and culture with people.

“It’s like the perfect place for it to be protected and preserved,” she said.