The owners of an all-nude club in Long Island City have given up on their bid for a state liquor license and are instead suing the State Liquor Authority (SLA) for arbitrarily ruling against them.
Owners of the Show Palace all-nude club, formerly called Gypsy Rose, were twice denied a state liquor license for the establishment at 42-50 21st Street in Long Island City.
The 21 Group were hoping to take their case to Albany on October 25, to ask the state panel to review their third application for the club, located just steps away from the entrance to the upper level of the Queensborough Bridge.
When local leaders, elected officials and business owners rallied against a liquor license for Gypsy Rose, the club owners vowed they would open a strip joint at the location – alcohol or no alcohol.
Club owners made good on their promise when they opened Show Palace on May 31, as a “juice bar” offering food, lap dancing and full nudity.
Area officials and community leaders opposed approval of the liquor license since 2010, charging the club would damage Long Island City’s restored image as a family neighborhood.
The club’s new attorney, Albert Pirro, said Show Palace has been operating for months without problems in an area zoned to allow adult entertainment. Neighborhood residents have called the zoning “archaic” and have asked the city for rezoning to keep the strip clubs from opening in the area.
Pirro said he believes the prior SLA hearings were merely a sounding board for the residents’ complaints, and they did not focus on the proper issues.
In a recent letter to the State Liquor Authority, Pirro said the 21 Group was abandoning its plan to ask the panel to reconsider its third application.
“We believe it will be a futile exercise,” Pirro wrote, saying his clients believe the SLA’s decision was “arbitrary, capricious and without merit.” Pirro said community opposition cannot be a deciding factor in the license approval.
The club owners are suing the State Liquor Authority and have filed papers to that effect in Manhattan Supreme Court.
“I wish they would just take no for an answer, already,” state Sen. Michael Gianaris said. Gianaris has repeatedly written to the SLA, asking them to reject the application filed by the club owners.
In a September 19 letter to the SLA, Gianaris wrote, “I continue to believe this neighborhood is not the appropriate place for a sex-based business, particularly as there is so much revitalization occurring and an increase in families and businesses moving here.”
A spokesperson for City Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer said the Queens lawmaker would continue to battle against approval of a liquor license for the club.
“I believe that nothing has changed since this establishment filed their first application with the SLA,” Van Bramer said. “This area is being transformed into a family neighborhood.
We do not need motorists driving past this club, seeing the ‘All Nude’ signs and wondering what kind of neighborhood this is.”
