Andreatta: Last dance at The Klassy Cat

David Andreatta | Democrat and Chronicle

Show Caption Hide Caption Klassy Cat closed for good David Andreatta explains the demise of the naughty Henrietta strip club.

How long before The Klassy Cat Tavern had its last dance had been an open question since the Henrietta strip club was put on the market in 2016.

The answer was early Sunday morning, according to employees, many of whom took to social media in the ensuing hours to lament the shuttering of the club that 25 years ago spawned a flurry of new zoning laws in towns and villages around Monroe County.

“It’s sad, it’s real sad,” said Chris Maier, who had worked in the kitchen and in security at the Klassy Cat since it opened on West Henrietta Road in 1993. “There were good times. There were bad times. It was a mixture, kind of like a dysfunctional family.”

He spoke under a sweltering sun Monday afternoon from the Klassy Cat parking lot that was barren save for the latest issue of eXXXtremely HOT, an adult entertainment trade publication that flapped in the wind from a pothole in which it was ensnared.

Like the magazine, the Klassy Cat has been caught in a rut.

Shortly before the property was listed for sale two years ago, the state had filed a tax warrant against one of the co-owners of the business for neglecting to pay sales taxes, penalties and interest totaling nearly $130,000.

More: Andreatta: Will Henrietta stay Klassy?

Tax warrants are liens against real property that enable the state to collect what’s owed through seizing bank accounts or real estate.

More warrants totaling nearly $345,000 against both owners followed the next year, as did foreclosure proceedings brought by their mortgage lender, according to records on file with the state Department of State and the state Supreme Court.

In June, a state judge signed off on the foreclosure and ordered the property to be auctioned off within 90 days. The mortgage had about $324,000 outstanding.

The owners, Richard Pennella and Gary Marcus, did not return messages seeking comment.

Matthew Rich, a lawyer assigned by the court to sell the property, said the auction has yet to be scheduled and that a variety of developments could delay it. For instance, the owners could declare bankruptcy or arrange to pay what’s owed.

“It’s unfortunate because someone is losing their business,” Rich said. “This one’s just a little bit different because of the nature of the property. At the end of the day, it’s just a building and a lot, it just happens to be a little more famous of a building and a lot.”

Henrietta officials and residents went to great lengths in 1992 and 1993 to keep the Klassy Cat from opening.

Officials persuaded a state judge to stop the club’s grand opening by asserting that the owners hadn’t secured the proper permits to transform the building from a tavern to a topless bar.

When the Town Board later rejected a special-use permit for the club, a record 800 residents reportedly gathered at a public hearing to applaud the decision and heckle the Klassy Cat’s lawyer.

But the town’s efforts were eventually ruled unconstitutional. The women took off their tops and took to the stage, and newspaper ads at the time promised “over 35 beautiful women weekly.”

In the months that followed, virtually every town and village in greater Rochester hastily passed zoning laws that relegated new adult-themed businesses to industrial and manufacturing areas and required them to be a certain distance from homes, churches, schools and parks.

Although Henrietta officials over the years have acknowledged that the Klassy Cat never turned into the crime hub some residents had feared, they’ve also publicly bemoaned its prominent locale on a popular commercial strip known for its auto dealerships.

“It would make a lot of residents feel better to have it close,” said Henrietta Supervisor Stephen Schultz, who was informed of its closing by a reporter. “What I would like to see is just any thriving business that isn’t quite so controversial.”

Schultz noted, however, that the special-use permit the courts forced Henrietta to grant the Klassy Cat in 1993 is transferrable with the property.

If a new owner buys the place at auction, he can operate a strip club, provided he has it up and running within a year, Schultz said.

“I suspect if it goes up for auction Dorschel (the auto dealer across the street) will buy it immediately and bulldoze under it,” Schultz said.

Not everyone in town wanted to see the Klassy Cat disappear.

A handful of would-be patrons, all of them men, pulled into the parking lot Monday afternoon. The red light above the main door in a darkened alcove was on, but the door was locked.

Most of them said they just wanted lunch.

David Andreatta is a Democrat and Chronicle columnist. He can be reached at dandreatta@gannett.com.