The Supper Clubb

Unless you’ve been under a rock, you know something about the legal issues a nightclub in North Raleigh is facing. The Supper Clubb [warning: like the club, the website plays music] on Atlantic Avenue is in a legal battle to keep its doors open amid protests from the neighborhoods around it. Residents have complained about club patrons parking on their neighborhood streets, loud noise, and violence in the club parking lot. The Raleigh City Council has sided with the neighborhood and voted to revoke the club’s amplified music permit.

While I understand the residents’ concerns about the noise and violence, I think its a bit of a shame that the club is being forced to close. The owners have obviously put a lot of money into it. The food is good. The music is good. Its just that they’ve had problems controlling what goes on outside the club.

The Supper Clubb moved into a moribund, faceless strip mall, setting up shop in what was a long-vacant restaurant building. It became popular with the African-American community with its soul food menu and hopping music. Sure, the noise and traffic is a problem for the neighbors, but those are problems that could be solved without condemning the joint.

I can’t help but wonder if this is more of a race thing than anything else. Maybe the neighbors don’t want black people milling around near their homes at night. Seems like the old Plum Crazy nightclub near Brentwood went through the same thing.

I was an NCSU student when Raleigh police aggressively targeted Hillsborough Street bars in the early 90’s, using the noise ordinance to close them down. Neighbors who complained about college kids having a good time successfully closed many bars and catapulted neighbor Benson Kirkman to a seat on the city council. In that case, however, the university – and the bars that front it – had been there practically forever and were arguably the reason the houses were built. If you don’t like the college bar atmosphere, don’t buy a house next to college bars!

College kids want to go drinking. They will find bars that will allow them to do that. It makes much more sense to have those bars within walking distance to campus to discourage drunk driving. I thought the enforcement was a snotty move by the city and I still do. Now the Hillsborough Street scene is largely a ghost town, filled with blowing trash, shuttered stores and wandering vagrants. The neighbors got what they wanted.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a college student, white, African-American, Latino, or all of the above. We all need a place to meet friends and have good times. We don’t need a place where we can get stabbed or overrun neighborhoods, however. The city should be more willing to work with business owners to make things right. The Supper Clubb’s success proves there is a need and desire for what it offers and that should be considered, too. I hope the club can work out its problems and continue operating, perhaps by finding another location if need be.

I hear there are vacancies on Hillsborough Street.