Campaign To Shut Down Bed-Stuy Nightclub Renews As Bar Reopens

BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — A years-long campaign to shut down a notorious nightclub has reignited in Bed-Stuy after the bar reopened for the first time in more than a year last week.

Amour Cabaret — which local officials contend is a strip club despite marketing as a bikini bar — opened its doors on Nostrand Avenue Thursday for the first time since shortly before the coronavirus pandemic, to the surprise of Community Board 3 members who had opposed renewing the business' liquor license earlier this year.

The reopening, allowed under a due process provision with the State Liquor Authority, has spurred a renewed effort from the board to shut down the club, which it says is a hotspot for liquor authority violations, noise complaints and police write-ups.

"We cannot allow this establishment to continue to be cloaked with legitimacy while exploiting a loophole that risks the safety of our families and neighbors," CB3 Chair Richard Flateau wrote to the State Liquor Authority on Friday. "We urge the SLA to expedite the review of Amour Cabaret’s renewal application immediately so that it can be denied."

Flateau and Community Board 3 — occasionally with local police, clergy and elected officials — have been working to shut down Amour Cabaret since it first opened two years ago.

Back then, Amour had told the board it planned to open an event venue for the neighborhood. It wasn't until the club opened that the board found out it was a "a completely different establishment," according to members.

Before closing at the start of the pandemic, Amour had racked up 32 criminal summonses, six State Liquor Authority violations and 57 calls to 311, according to a report from the local precinct earlier this year. It was also the site of a fatal shooting.

At least one of the SLA violations is slated for a hearing, according to the authority. But, because Amour applied for a renewal of its liquor license before it expired in November, it is allowed to operate under rules meant to preserve due process of law.

"The license for Amour has not been renewed as the licensee has pending disciplinary matters before the SLA that could result in the cancellation or revocation of the license," an SLA spokesperson told Patch. "However, as the licensee submitted a timely renewal application prior to the expiration of their license, under the State Administrative Procedures Act (SAPA), the licensee is allowed to continue to operate pending the outcome of the disciplinary proceeding, which is being scheduled for hearing.”

The spokesperson did not respond to a request for details about the disciplinary action.

For its part, Amour says it has been a "responsible" licensee, given it has not had incidents of underage drinking, serving patrons while visibly intoxicated or drinking and driving.

The club has said in the past the violent incidents in question happened outside, not inside, the business. When asked for comment this week, owner Michael Franklin sent surveillance videos to Patch of the moment a 26-year-old was shot outside the club last year.

"The shooting we’re being blamed for had absolutely nothing to do with the club," he said. "He was not on line and he was not a customer of the club but rather using the club as safety while he was being followed."

Franklin also maintains the business is not a strip club, given that it doesn't include lap dances, private rooms or champagne rooms.

"We are a nightclub with women that are dressed sexy, and attractive," he said. "Dressing provocatively is not illegal."

Franklin instead claims that the opposition to their business "is a vendetta against African-American entrepreneurship and economic empowerment under the guise of accusing a business that creates jobs as unsafe for the neighbor."

Still, Flateau said the letter to the SLA is just the first step in their efforts to close down the business. The community board copied Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Mayor Bill de Blasio and several other elected officials on the plea.

"We are concerned about safety and the degradation of the quality of life for people living in the vicinity of Amour Cabaret," he told Patch. "...We are hoping that our elected officials will join with us in putting pressure on the SLA to revoke Amour Cabaret's liquor license."