An Albany bar owner says he shuttered his Lark Street establishment in part because of the city’s cumbersome cabaret regulations. He said the Albany Common Council should repeal the cabaret license laws instead of just amending them.
Aaron Wilson is the co-owner of Herbie’s Burgers, and the owner of The Larkin Hi-Fi – a now-shuttered bar.
“The idea of the space was that it’s a vinyl record bar so all of the music that we play is by record, we can’t plug in an IPod or a phone or an IPad or anything like that. So, we thought that it fit the theme to have DJs come and spin records and have a dance floor and have people dance,” Wilson said.
But Wilson had to apply for a cabaret license to operate the business the way he wanted to when the bar opened in 2024.
The city law required bars to apply and earn an annual cabaret license to play amplified music, including live entertainment. While the council last month passed amendments to the law, Wilson said the restrictions still proved too much for his bar.
“You have to have events, you have to have something going on, otherwise people just don’t show up. Especially now, like the drinking culture isn’t what it once was, so you can’t rely on just like regulars,” Wilson said.
Wilson said he could not operate the bar how he intended without the license.
But an application for a license had to earn the approval of five separate city departments – if even one of them disapproved then the application would be shot down.
The Larkin Hi-Fi’s owners also had to provide public hearing notices to nearby residents.
Wilson explained that at one point the process took so long that the application expired before a public hearing even took place.
“I think the lawyer for the city was just like hold on a second, this is for last year, we’re not talking about 2025, we are talking about 2024. And we were all just like ‘Oh, yeah.’ Because it took all the fall doing this process going door to door handing out the mailers, blah blah blah, ya know, getting us on the books, its once a month, so its usually two months out. So, we found ourselves there and I think it was either January or February and they’re like we’re all here for no reason and we are talking about 2024 not 2025,” Wilson said.
Wilson says the arduous process lasted around two years before he decided to pull the plug on the business. The bar operated its last day on Thanksgiving Eve.
“We were like ‘OK, we just won’t do events and we’ll just be a quiet bar.’ But it really cut the numbers in half, and you know, to be completely transparent, it really wasn’t making money anyway, but we did like it. It was our bar, we always wanted to have a bar, our friends would go and hangout there and the fact that it kind of broke even wasn’t good but it was fine,” Wilson said.
In November, Albany’s Common Council changed the cabaret license requirements with a new ordinance in an 8 to 2 vote – three members abstained.
Common Councilmember Richard Conti says the newly passed accessory entertainment law modifies several aspects of the cabaret license regulations, including extending existing cabaret licenses by two years, exempting small establishments, and eliminating the public hearing requirement.
The updated regulations also replace the one-year license that used to be renewed on a calendar basis with a three-year one that must be renewed on a rolling basis.
And, now two city departments review license applications as opposed to five.
Conti, who introduced the ordinance said it “significantly” streamlined the existing cabaret license system.
“One of the problems was a lot of the departments did not get back in time, I mean the process was almost delayed out because they weren’t prompt in submitting recommendations,” Conti said.
He says a decision has to be made on an application within 30 days of receipt.
“If it’s not acted on within that 30-day period the license automatically is issued as a temporary license for a 60 day period and if there is no action within that 60 day period, if its not finalized, it automatically becomes an issued license,” Conti said.
Wilson says the city’s cabaret license laws should be repealed, but still likes some of the changes.
“There’s some nice things about it. One is, that it’s three years instead of one year,” Wilson said.
Wilson still holds the lease for the space that the Larkin Hi-Fi used to reside in, and he says the bar could possibly make a comeback, but that is still up in the air.
“I don’t know, maybe we will do something in December, and I don’t know, maybe come January I will re-visit the new requirements,” Wilson said.
