Stars strip club making waves with move to LO
Nearby residents upset over gentlemen’s club plans to open new club near I-5
By JENNIFER CLAMPET
Pamplin Media Group
TUALATIN – Randy Kaiser, owner of three adult-entertainment businesses in Oregon, plans to open a Stars Cabaret in Tualatin right on the edge of Lake Oswego’s Lake Grove neighborhood.
Kaiser said the business will be similar to the Stars Cabaret & Steak House he owns in Beaverton. The business will feature adult entertainment in the “standard Oregon practice” – full nude.
A sign posted on the Out of the Blues restaurant on McEwan Road informing passersby of the business change over to Stars Cabaret-Bridgeport and a pending Oregon Liquor Control Commission decision has caught the attention of residents.
One woman who called Pamplin Media Group said, “There’s going to be a lot of citizens that aren’t going to be happy with this.”
And Tualatin City Councilor Chris Barhyte agrees saying, “this is not good news for Lake Oswego or Tualatin.”
“It’s definitely something Tualatin doesn’t want at its front porch,” said Barhyte.
Kaiser expected some level of objection with the move into the Tualatin community.
“But it’s very easy to defend myself,” Kaiser said. “I have nothing to be ashamed of. We will run a responsible business.”
Kaiser says proximity to and visibility from I-5 was what motivated him to open a business in Tualatin.
Christie Scott, spokeswoman for the OLCC, called the licensees’ combined history “borderline.” Together, the licensees had some OLCC violations including failing a minor decoy operation and failure for a server to show a service permit. Scott said OLCC decided to weigh on the side of caution and required the posting of the change of business.
“They don’t have a perfectly clean record,” Scott said. “However, they’re not bad operators.”
Kaiser hopes to open the Stars Cabaret-Bridgeport in November.
But Scott noted that the liquor application could take another 60 to 90 days to process. According to Tualatin’s municipal code, the city manager is responsible for coordinating or conducting an investigation of each application in order to make a recommendation to the city council.
City Manager Sherilyn Lombos said for liquor license application investigations the police department researches other establishments under the owners or franchise to see if they have a history of problems.
If the city manager were to recommend approval, the matter would be scheduled as a consent agenda item at the next regular council meeting.
“I hope that it fills the (City Council) room up,” said Councilor Barhyte referring to the number of concerned residents the Stars Cabaret-Bridgeport liquor application will attract during its hearing before the council.