Community Board 10 members blasted owners of a wild Fourth Avenue Brazilian supper club for allowing dance parties without a permit, but — much like the Bomont town council in “Footloose” — is stopping the club’s owner from getting the proper paperwork needed so his patrons can shake their groove things legally.
The board’s police and safety committee unanimously panned Club Amnesia’s request for a cabaret licence, which would allow dancing at their hall between 100th and 101st streets, on Feb. 15, claiming that neighbors have repeatedly complained about the club’s noise, trash-strewn sidewalks, rampant illegal parking, and patrons vomiting in public.
There have also been several arrests at the club, committee chairman George Fontas noted.
“Besides the significant community issues, they’re breaking the law,” Fontas said, referring to the club’s failure to get a cabaret licence.
Club manager Charles Atiles admits that his patrons dance the night away, but says he never knew he had to get a cabaret license.
He then accused CB10 of refusing to give his business a chance to make things right.
“The community board failed us,” he said.
But CB10 — who in recent years have taken a hard line against loud clubs — said it was Atiles’s responsibility to make sure he was obeying city rules.
“You should have come to us before you opened up a night club,” Fontas told Atiles.
The committee was clearly against Club Amnesia getting a cabret license and the full board will most likely deny the request when they vote on the issue tonight, but the city may still authorize one, since the board’s opinion is only advisory in nature.
Club Amnesia’s owners turned a failed Brazilian steak house into an events hall last summer, spending more than $1 million to convert the space into a party spot that hosts dance parties “where the best DJ’s in the city spin,” according to one advertisement.
But neighbors say the owners have allowed rowdy patrons to take over the otherwise quiet part of Fourth Avenue.
“We have a great view, but on the weekends you look around and there’s a bunch of thugs,” said Carol Wolf, who has lived in the neighborhood for 40 years. “This is the most disgraceful business I’ve ever seen in this space.”
Cops responded to numerous 311 noise complaints against the club last year and residents lodged 20 complaints against the business with Community Board 10, officials said.
But Atiles said he fixed most of these problems when he fired the club’s old security firm in January.
There have been no complaints since then, the 68th Precinct confirmed.
