COLONIE — The Red Envelope Gentlemen’s Cabaret, a strip club that took over a Central Avenue building that for many years had been DiCarlo’s Gentlemen’s Club, has closed after a little more than six months in business.
Richard Snowden, who came out of retirement to open The Red Envelope after decades of running more than a dozen strip clubs and sports bars in Buffalo, Rochester, Montreal, Las Vegas and Washington, D.C., said Wednesday morning that repeated late-night fights among patrons prompted the closure.
“Every few days somebody gets out of hand, and it causes a melee — a brawl, if you will — and sometimes it gets quite ugly,” Snowden said.
“My intuition tells me it’s not going to get better, and so in good conscience I cannot keep it open,” he said. “I don’t want it to be become considered a nuisance property, to damage a reputation I’ve built over a very long time or take up then valuable time of the Colonie Police Department, who have bigger fish to fry.”
Snowden said he believed there have been four or five police responses over six months and perhaps one arrest, but mostly his security staff handled matters.
Colonie Police spokesman Lt. Daniel Belles said via email, “Generally speaking, while we have had some incidents at the establishment, the staff and owner have always been extremely cooperative and helpful. The owner invested a lot into the safety and security of the business and made great attempts to keep it a safe place for the patrons and employees.”
The State Liquor Authority has not received official complaints, called referrals, about The Red Envelope, a spokesman said.
Snowden said he has several prospective buyers interested in the property and will try to sell it before the end of the month. If that fails, he plans to turn the building back over to what he described as its “very gracious and understanding” landlord, Larry Davis.
Larry Davis, a local entrepreneur who has holdings in varied fields including hospitality and communications software, ran DiCarlo’s until mid-last year. DiCarlo’s, founded in the mid-1980s, was run by its namesake, Sal DiCarlo, until his 2012 death. The business, property and adjoining parcel were purchased from DiCarlo’s estate by Davis.
Davis did not reply to a request for comment on Wednesday morning.
The Red Envelope is at 1165 Central Ave.
