Anchorage Assembly may hold the Crazy Horse's liquor renewal until fire officials sign off

The Anchorage Assembly is set to decide Wednesday, Nov. 4, whether to hold up the state liquor license renewal for the Crazy Horse Gentleman's Club on Gambell Street until the Anchorage Fire Department certifies the building.

Fire certification is the only item still missing, according to the Municipal Clerk's report in the resolution from Assembly Chair Anna Brawley. The club owes no city taxes, and its special land use permit is approved. Police, health, building and land use officials have all signed off.

The resolution is a conditional protest. It would let the state hold the renewal until the fire certification arrives, and then the clerk could lift the protest without another Assembly vote. Brawley proposed a similar conditional protest this month for Circle K's transfer of four package store licenses.

The single-story concrete block building, just east of the Sullivan Arena in Fairview, dates to 1955 and originally housed the North Starlight Lounge, according to an entry by David Reamer and Ian C. Hartman in SAH Archipedia, the Society of Architectural Historians' online reference on American buildings.

Jeanette Johnson ran Le Pussycat Lounge there from 1969 to 1978, leasing part of the building to the Premier Adult Theater, and then the Metropolitan Show Club until 1985, when she established the Crazy Horse Saloon. The entry says the purple facade "is easily mistaken for a vacant property" and notes a decorative pole dancer attached to a blue light post.

The license is now held by CH1 LLC, a company formed in 2022 whose sole member is Patrick Moses, according to state business records filed with the renewal application.

The state's Alcoholic Beverage Control Board has put the renewal on its Nov. 17 agenda. It won't grant or deny the renewal at that meeting unless the city waives its right to protest, according to the state's notice.

At the same meeting, the Assembly will take up a conditional protest of the Eagle River Alehouse package store renewal until the business pays taxes it owes the city. It is also set to waive its right to protest renewals for 13 other Anchorage businesses.