Sorry for the long read but it's the whole story
[QUOTE=StanleyStankas;5842039]The one guy I know that works for the flea told me he saw one of uncle louie's relatives over there helping take stuff out so it is indeed over. There have been rumours on here and imo they are not true. About underage employees. It just doesn't fit. I was told that back in the day the boys tried to get uncle louie and they did succeed in blowing up his garage, however he walked away. So that kind of old school guy is not going to get taken down for an underage employee. Stay tuned as I do because there are a few that check this thread and have inside info that gladly share. All I know and sorry I could not be of more help. Stosh.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=ChicagoGoer;5841031]Anyone get the full story on why Louie's closed? Any other game in town besides Carl's?[/QUOTE]OK, as for the full story, it's been covered over the past few pages, but I'll go ahead & detail it out one more time. Let's hop in the Wayback Machine one more time to the incident a couple years ago at J's. For those that don't recall, there was a fatal shooting in the parking lot after a dispute in the bar. The during the investigation, the locals had a warrant for any & all video the bar was in possession of from all security cams. Apparently the owner had years of video from all the various cams stored including the 2 cameras right above the dance area showing everything that went on there. There's speculation as to why he had all the video saved, but that's all rumors & opinions & I am sticking to info that is confirmed to be fact Once all that video was turned over, the Mayor, & all the village officials saw the activities from the dance area as well as the deals that were being done out in the open. At that point, the village put a "Dancer Ban" on all bars that were not licensed as "Entertainment" bars. It's my understanding there was discussion of more serious charges to many involved from what was seen from those cameras but apparently the village did not want the publicity.
To this day, that ban has not been lifted. Any bar in Melrose that has dancers is in violation of this & risks the same fate as Louie's. When Louie decided to bring back the dancers, it was originally "street clothes" only, & dance with "caution". The dancers were told not to name "Louie's Lounge" on any of their social Media etc. This frustrated many of them as they'd post on their Snapchat to attract their customers but could not post where. This was all in an effort to work around the dancer ban, FitnessBuff put it best with the term "open secret". Eventually after rolling for a bit, things relaxed & some of the dancers were dressing a bit more on the lingerie side we've all been used to seeing. The back room became available etc. This went on for a couple months or so, but we all know how it ended. The bottom line, is that simply having "dancers" put Louie's in violation of a village ordinance. The locals were looking the other way, but eventually, it was no longer up to LE, it was an order from village & county officials to shut it down.
Something that's been overlooked in this discussion, is that the same night they shut down Louie's, the locals also went to bust Bobbys as they had just started experimenting with ways around the dancer ban. It was VERY fortunate that there was nothing going on at the time they showed up. Only a couple girls were there but not dancing at the time & dressed in street clothes. The fact that the locals attempted to bust both bars on the same day should dispel the rumors of a young dancer etc. This was simply a Melrose Park crackdown & if there had been any other bars with dancers, they would have been included in this shutdown.
So, to address the questions I always get after posting this sort of info, Carls is still able to operate since it's in Stone Park, not Melrose. The Gentlemens club continues to operate as they have a different license & very strict rules that come with that. Those licenses were issued a very long time ago & are grandfathered in (If I'm not mistaken, the Gold Club was the Sugar Shack way back when). Also, I have no affiliation with the village of Melrose Park,(or any for that matter) nor do I have any official connection to the bars in question. I simply know the right people to get the real info from. I have posted facts that have been confirmed & this post is not an opinion piece. I have been a regular at all these places since the start of the bar "Fashion Shows". I have had soooo much fun in these places & am so very sad to see this come to an end.