LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) – The doors of “Thee Gentlemen’s Club” on East Market Street in downtown Louisville are now closed. This is thanks to a new order from the Louisville Metro Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) on October 29 that revoked the NQ2 Retail Liquor License the business needed to operate.

WAVE News found that a similar decision was made by ABC State earlier this month, although the cancellation decision was appealed.

After digging through more than 700 pages of case file documents, WAVE News found that the business has been the target of multiple State and Metro ABC investigations over the past several years. Many of the investigations involved allegations that the club was illegally operating as a strip club despite having a restaurant license.

Case documents show that “Thee Gentlemen’s Club” was owned by a local paralegal named Elizabeth Johnson. Johnson first applied for a liquor license at that location in 2022 under the LLC’s name “Market Street Bar & Grill.”

In early 2024, Johnson was granted an NQ2 liquor license, which is given to restaurants, hotels and riverboats to allow the service of alcohol. However, the license does not allow adult entertainment businesses and for a business to retain its NQ2 licence, it must have a bona fide kitchen and more than 50% of its sales must come from food.

At a hearing on September 13, 2024, Johnson said his intention was to open a “family-friendly restaurant” in the area.

But neighbors, authorities and investigators made it clear they believed the business was a strip club. That’s why Metro ABC Director Brad Silveria ordered the subway shutdown.

“We believe they are applying with full intent to become a strip club,” Silveria told WAVE News. “But the only way they can get the license is if the NQ2 license is issued. So I think it’s probably deceptive.”

Shortly after the NQ2 license was granted to “Market Street Bar & Grill LLC,” records show the owner changed the name of the business to “Thee Gentlemen’s Club.” Just days after the business opened in April 2024, complaints began coming in from local officials.

On May 1, Metro decided to send an undercover detective to find out whether the business was really a restaurant or something else. The detective wore a hidden camera.

When they arrived at the club, the detective noted that a woman dancing on stage had taken off her top and exposed her nipples, despite it being against Louisville’s nudity ban.

At one point, another dancer made a deal with the undercover detective for a private dance: $100 for three songs. The woman danced over the detective, exposing her nipples and pushing her body towards him. Both dancers acknowledged to the detective that they were aware that nudity was illegal.

The detective was also told there was no food available and the kitchen was closed.

WAVE News was told video of this undercover operation is publicly available.

In June 2024, following complaints, State ABC stepped in and sent several representatives to the business to document what they could find.

Photos taken by ABC detectives show there was little food in the kitchen, only a 10.5-inch frozen pizza in the fridge, but plenty of alcohol. The kitchen had only two small tabletop ovens and a microwave.

When detectives asked the manager at the time if he was aware that the business was legally required to earn 50% of its revenue from food sales, the manager responded, “They sell a lot of pizza.” The state noted that based on its observations, the business was “clearly” a strip club.

The discovery led to a state-level financial audit; detectives told the manager and the bar attorney that they needed to see proof of 50% of the food sales.

ABC Detectives were eventually given what was called a “self-generated document” which they deemed “inadequate” for financial auditing. When asked for specific point-of-sale records, the State filing says the business turned over similar “self-generated” records.

Government investigators even went so far as to say the documents were “fictional.”

They also found numerous online advertisements for “Thee Gentlemen’s Club” on social media. Advertisements and photos document scantily clad women, bottle service, stripper poles, special events such as “Fetish Fridays” and “Wet and Wild Wednesday” and refer to the business as a “nightclub.”

With all the evidence collected as a result of the investigations, both the state and the metro filed independent applications to revoke the operating license.

“They couldn’t provide food sales, they couldn’t show it to the metro government or state ABC at any time, they didn’t have menus, they didn’t have utensils,” Silveria said Tuesday. “That’s why we revoked the license today.”

Neighbors of Mercantile Gallery Lofts, right next to the club, said they had been warning Metro about this business for months before it even opened. A group of about a dozen neighbors met with WAVE News to discuss the issues.

“It’s not hard to put someone together,” said a neighbor named ‘Bob.’ “If the place is called ‘Thee Gentlemen’s Club,’ okay, it’s a strip club.”

Some other neighbors also said they had unwelcome encounters with many people who visited the clubs.

“There were some very aggressive hissing incidents,” said a neighbor named ‘Daniel’.

Some neighbors also reported drug use, sexual activity and incidents of customers vomiting on the sidewalk. In one instance, a man was caught on security cameras crawling on his hands and knees, apparently drunk, before vomiting on the ground.

Mercantile Gallery Lofts HOA President Anne-Marie Hogan is leading efforts to get the metro to take action on this issue. He’s seen firsthand what outdoor surveillance picks up.

“I wouldn’t want my daughter around her clients,” Hogan said. “What we see on camera can be almost scary sometimes.”

Hogan and more than a dozen of his neighbors have written letters of protest to Metro since 2022; most of this was before the liquor license was issued. Many are pleading with Metro not to grant a liquor license, saying the business is masquerading as a restaurant and plans to be a strip club.

In one letter, he called the business a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

“I want (Metro) to adhere to zoning regulations that specify that an adult entertainment business cannot be located in that building or anywhere else in that district,” Hogan said.

Records show that numerous letters of protest led Metro to initially deny the business a license in 2023.

Elizabeth Johnson responded to the letters stating that the allegations were false.

“All letters of protest are false and express lies,” Johnson said. “It is NOT a stripper pole… There is a stage I plan to use for live bands, but there is no stripper pole.”

Ultimately, the state ordered Metro to issue a liquor license after a hearing officer ruled that the letters of protest were not significant enough to prevent the business from operating.

As a compromise, Metro agreed to grant the license to Market Street Bar & Grill, but only with the following conditions:

1. The business operates under an NQ2 license for a restaurant and therefore covers 50% of the required food sales.
2. The business and its agents and officers have no affiliations with other adult entertainment businesses and figures.
3. The business cannot host any adult entertainment.

The owner of the company, Elizabeth Johnson, signed a declaration stating that the above conditions would be met and therefore issued the Metro license.

Metro ABC Director Brad Silveria personally apologized to those residents Tuesday and said he wished he could have done something sooner.

“Everything we were worried about happening happened,” Silveria said. “I’m sorry. It was never our intention to let a strip club go there.”

Business owners are legally allowed to appeal the cancellation decision, but it is unclear at this time whether they plan to do so. The business’s current liquor license expires Thursday.

WAVE News has spoken with the club’s attorney, Eric Eaton, via email and phone multiple times over the past few days. Eaton assured WAVE that he would provide a statement in response to questions provided by WAVE News, but as of the time of this article’s publication, that statement has not yet been made.

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