So the heated debate over whether Casa Diablo—Portland’s notorious vegan strip club—should get a liquor license for its second unopened location or remain high and dry on SE McLoughlin has come to a close. Today, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission awarded the strip club with the license, much to the disappointment of the nearby neighbors who have been petitioning against the club’s existence since the fall.
While Johnny Zukle, manager of Casa Diablo, said he’d go ahead and open the second location with or without a liquor license—it looked like obtaining the license was the key step to getting the joint off the ground.
“The OLCC listened carefully and then decided in Casa Diablo’s favor with some face-saving restrictions,” wrote Robert McCullough, president of the Eastmoreland Neighborhood Association, in an email to the Oregonian this afternoon. “The bottom line is that vegetable-wielding strippers won the day.”
If the OLCC does not grant a license to an establishment, they are unable to sell liquor to it. OLCC is in the business of selling booze to make money to continue to justify their existence. Of course they approved this license (and just about every other). If Oregonians want a true liquor enforcement agency, it must be decoupled from the agency responsible for selling liquor.
+1 to the neighborhood for use of the term “vegetable-wielding strippers.”
This is just wrong and will continue to ruin all surrounding neighborhoods. The strip clubs are full of pathetic people, both customers and “sex workers”. The clubs attract crime and low-life people. Johnny Zukle has already run into trouble with the City for other liquor law violations. So WHY did they give him a license? Money is the answer.