Rick’s Cabaret and Steakhouse, an “adult entertainment club,” is opening this weekend in a historic building on Main Street in Central City, despite city leaders’ attempts to stop it from operating out fears of rising crime.

The only thing that will be “no cover” is the grand opening offer to get people in the door.

This weekend, Rick’s will feature strippers who cover up with latex to get around laws that prevent nude dancing near churches and other gathering places.

Eric Langan, president and CEO of RCI Hospitality Holdings, told The Denver Gazette that he is not in violation of the town’s sexually oriented businesses ordinances. Technically, the workers are opaquely covered — but “it works so well, people think they’re nude,” he said. 

Rick’s Cabaret already had two nights of soft openings to test the waters and, according to Gilpin County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Cherokee Blake, there were no police calls to the location, despite warnings from some townsfolk that the strip club would bring crime to downtown Central City.

When it started

RCI Hospitality Holdings bought the property at 130 Main St. for $2.4 million in December 2022 but withdrew its gambling license request with the Colorado Gaming Commission in May 2024, opting instead to bring adult entertainment to town.

The opening of the building in the mountain gambling town, which takes up around half of the block, has not been smooth sailing. In November, a runaway RV crashed into the side of the building, creating a hole in the brick and hitting a gas main.

The damage was repaired but, on the eve of opening Thursday, Rick’s failed its certificate of occupancy inspection.

The cabaret opened on Thursday night anyway and was slapped with a $150 fine, according to Langan. He expects to be cited again on Friday and Saturday but plans to pay the fines and then complete the list of improvements provided by a contracted city inspector in hopes of passing a second inspection sometime next week.

Though the Central City Fire Department gave a passing grade to the cabaret after a fire inspection on Thursday, the certificate of occupancy citations are just the latest in a slew of stumbling blocks Langan faced in a year-long fight with the Central City Council to get around a town ordinance that requires a 1,000-foot buffer between any sexually-oriented business (SOB) located in the historic downtown and residences or gathering places, including a Catholic Church that sits a block away from the cabaret.

RCI banked on the idea that the town would amend the 1,000-foot buffer in the municipal code to 150 feet, allowing it to operate legally. But the council held fast to the 1000-foot rule. In response, RCI Holdings sued the 800-person town contending that it violated the company’s civil rights when it sold the building “for a specific stated economic purpose and then abandoned the process of reforming its regulatory regime to accommodate that stated purpose.”

Ironically, Langan said, it was not he, but rather the Central City Council, that invited him to set up shop in town in the first place.

When word got around that he had bought the building with an adult nightclub in the works, some residents who felt a strip club would obliterate the historic mining town’s charm fought Langan, showing up at town meetings to voice their displeasure.

Heavy hitter on deck

The standoff between town leaders and Langan appears to have hit a wall. As Langan opens his club in the face of his ongoing lawsuit against the Central City Council, town leaders brought in a big-city legal talent.

After the November election, only Mayor Jeremy Fey remains from the original City Council group that oversaw the December sale of the building at 130 Main St.

This new group, which consists of Fey and four new aldermen, is holding a public workshop this Tuesday with a nationally known law firm that specializes in drafting and defending municipalities as they navigate regulations for adult businesses.

Since practices governing strip clubs vary wildly from state to state and city to city, the Law Office of Scott D. Bergthold, PLLC will advise the town council on business licenses for SOBs and on the civil rights lawsuit filed by RCI, according to the panel’s work session agenda.

Bergthold is well-known in adult entertainment circles. He authored a case that involved the arrest of Stormy Daniels, the adult film performer who sued President Donald Trump for defamation.

Additionally, Bergthold was hired by the City of New Orleans to recommend ways to restrict its strip clubs. He also authored an ordinance for the city of Littleton involving an adult bookstore called Z.J. Gifts. That case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled unanimously in June 2004 in favor of Littleton’s licensing ordinance.

Strip clubs and opera collide

This weekend, Central City will be the center of a cultural collision when the opening of Langan’s strip club coincides with the long-awaited season opener of the iconic Central City Opera, which features “The Barber of Seville.”

Langan, who is semi-retired, said he believes there’s room in the famous Gold Rush town for all sorts of entertainment. He has bought a house in the area and sees Central City as the perfect place to keep his hands in the strip club business without the stress of daily management of a multimillion dollar company.

“I’m not going anywhere,” he said. “I love this town.”

Rick’s will be open from 6 p.m. until 4 a.m. Friday and Saturday.

Fey and Central City Councilmember Zac Plasek declined The Denver Gazette’s request for comment.