LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) – The doors to “Thee Gentlemen’s Club” on East Market Street in downtown Louisville are now closed. This is due to a new order issued by the Louisville Metro Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) on October 29 revoking the NQ2 License for the retail sale of alcoholic beverages, which the company needs to operate.

WAVE News found that a similar order was filed by State ABC earlier this month, although that order to revoke is being appealed.

After pulling more than 700 pages of file documents, WAVE News found the business has been the target of several State and Metro ABC investigations over the past few years. Most investigations involved allegations that the club was operating illegally as a strip club despite being licensed as a restaurant.

Documents in the case file show that “Thee Gentlemen’s Club” is owned by a local paralegal named Elizabeth Johnson. Johnson originally applied for a liquor license at the location in 2022 under the name “Market Street Bar & Grill” LLC.

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

In a hearing on September 13, 2024, Johnson said her intentions were to open a “family-friendly restaurant” at the location.

But neighbors, authorities and investigators have made it clear they believe the business is a strip club. That’s why Metro ABC CEO Brad Silveria eventually ordered it shut down.

“It is our belief that they applied with full intent to be a strip club,” Silveria told WAVE News. “But the only way they could get the license is to issue an NQ2 licence. So I think it was more than likely misleading.”

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

On May 1st, Metro decided to send an undercover detective to see if the business was really a restaurant or something else. The detective was carrying a hidden camera.

Once at the club, the detective recorded a woman dancing on stage, then removing her top to expose her nipples, despite the fact that this was a violation of Louisville’s no-nudity ordinance.

At one point, another dancer made a deal with the undercover detective for a private dance – $100 for three songs. The woman danced on the detective, exposing her nipples and pushing her body against him. Both dancers admitted 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 is told the video from this undercover operation is publicly available.

In June 2024, ABC State got involved following complaints and sent several agents into the business to document what they could find.

Photos taken by ABC detectives show the kitchen had very little food, only about 10 five-inch frozen pizzas in a cooler, but plenty of alcohol. The kitchen only had two small tabletop ovens and a microwave.

When detectives asked the manager at the time if he knew the business was legally required to make 50 percent of the money from food sales, the manager replied that “they sell a lot of pizza.” The state noted, from what they observed, the business was “obviously” a strip club.

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

ABC detectives eventually received what they called a “self-generated document” that they deemed “insufficient” for a financial audit. When specific point-of-sale records were requested, the state filing says the business turned over similar “self-generated” records.

State investigators even went so far as to call the documents “fictitious.”

They also found numerous online advertisements from “Thee Gentlemen’s Club” on social media. Advertisements and photographs document half-naked women, bottle service, striptease poles, special events such as “Fetish Fridays” and “Wet & Wild Wednesdays,” and refer to the business as a “nightclub.”

With all the evidence gathered from the investigations, both the state and Metro filed independent motions to revoke the business’s license.

“They couldn’t provide the food sales, they couldn’t show the metro government or the state ABC at all times, they didn’t have menus, they didn’t have utensils,” Silveria said Tuesday. “And that’s why we revoked the license today.”

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

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

Several other neighbors said they have had unwanted encounters with many people visiting the clubs.

“There were cases of very aggressive shouting,” said a neighbor named “Daniel.”

Several of the neighbors also reported instances of drug use, sexual activity and patrons vomiting on the sidewalk. In one case, a man was caught on surveillance crawling on his hands and knees, apparently intoxicated, before vomiting on the ground.

Mercantile Gallery Lofts HOA President Anne-Marie Hogan led the push to get Metro to act on the matter. She saw firsthand what outdoor surveillance captured.

“I wouldn’t want my daughter around their clientele,” Hogan said. “Sometimes it’s almost scary what I’ve seen on camera.”

Hogan and more than a dozen other neighbors have written letters of protest to Metro since 2022, most of them before the liquor license was granted. Many of them are begging Metro not to grant the liquor license, warning that the business is masquerading as a restaurant and intends to be a strip club.

One letter called the business a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

“I would like (Metro) to follow the zoning ordinances that they have established that an adult entertainment business cannot be put in that building or any other places in this area,” Hogan said.

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

Elizabeth Johnson sent a response to the letters, saying the claims were false.

“All letters of protest are inaccurate and false,” Johnson said. “There are NO strip poles…there is a stage I plan to use for live bands, but no strip poles.”

Ultimately, the state ordered Metro to grant a liquor license anyway after a hearing officer determined that the protest letters were not substantial enough to prevent the business from operating.

As a compromise, Metro agreed to license Market Street Bar & Grill, but only on the condition that:

1. The business operates under an NQ2 licence, for a restaurant, and therefore meets the 50% food sales requirement.
2. The business and its agents and officers have no affiliation with other adult entertainment businesses and figures.
3. The company cannot host any adult entertainment.

The owner, Elizabeth Johnson, signed an affidavit saying that the above conditions would be met, and Metro granted the license.

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

“All the things we were worried would happen, they did,” Silveria said. “I apologize. It was never our intention to allow a strip club to go there.”

Business owners are legally allowed to appeal a revocation order, but it is unclear at this time whether they plan to do so. The company’s current liquor license expires Thursday.

WAVE News spoke with the club’s attorney, Eric Eaton, several times by email and phone in recent days. Eaton assured WAVE it would provide a statement to questions provided by WAVE News, but as of this writing, that statement has not been provided.

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