Super Sexe strip club: closed for renovations or closed forever?

   The Super Sexe strip club has been closed for some time, supposedly just for renovations, according to a sign on its door.
   Some believe that the 400-capacity, 10,000 square foot club, which opened around 1979 at the premises of the old Astor Restaurant, will not reopen.
   Coolopolis has been unable to find out which version is true, as the one stripper we've managed to reach from the establishment wasn't sure if it would reopen but was hoping that it would.
   The club does not appear to have a website and no explanations were offered on its sporadically-maintained Twitter and Facebook accounts and we could not reach Vincent Passalacqua and manager Nedo Bucciacchio for comment.
   The Super Sexe is unremarkable on many levels but is famous largely for its massive gaudy sign on a bustling section of St. Catherine Street.
   The sign was long in the cross-hairs of a now-forgotten initiative to rid the city of sexually provocative signs in the 80s and 90s.

• Another neighbourhood peeler joint bites the dust, are such places on the way out?
• Chez Mado on Pie IX - why was it closed and demolished?

    The anti-smut signage initiative was propelled at the very highest level by a city councillor named Lea Cousineau with the blessings of Mayor Jean Dore, with high-paid officials writing up action plans and reports, none of which changed much.

   The province chipped in with legislation that attempted to cripple strip clubs by banning bar workers from chatting with customers, a law that was quickly struck down as unconstitutional in June 1999.
   Back then strip clubs also had visiting performers who would be advertised in 8 x 10 photo glossies presented in glass cases on the streets. Clubs no longer have such guest performers.
   Porno movie theatres were also part of the smutty streetscape back then, so the smutty sign issue was largely settled on its own.
   The Super Sexe sign is now seen affectionately as harmless nostalgia kitsch.
   It has - I believe - been modified to be more palatable. Nowadays the only sexy signage that comes to mind is at Cafe Cleopatra. A place called Bar Lavalois on Laurentian in Laval has a naked woman on its cartoon sign as well.  
   Many strip clubs have closed in Montreal in recent months, including the Dice Club on Papineau and Mado on Pie IX.
   Meanwhile Peter Sergakis recently announced that he will revive a longtime former strip club across from his Sports Station on St. Catherine.

  Super Sexe has sterling record with the liquor authorities

  Quebec liquor authorities has confirmed that they did not order the Super Sexe closed.
  In fact the bar has had a spotless record for many years.
  You want stories from the club? Here's a list.

•   In 1985 owner Andre Lachapelle was fined $45,000 for avoiding taxes by pretending that the bar closed at 2 a.m., which meant he failed to declare $250,000 in earnings between 1980-1982. He had declared personal bankruptcy by the time the fine came down anyway.
•   Dec 1988 A man robbed a bank at 777 St. Catherine W. with a toy gun. A security guard shot at him but missed. The robber ran into the Super Sex e but was quickly caught. 
•   In 1988 part-owner Fernand Greco and manager Mario D'Aquino were sentenced to eight-year prison terms for transporting $1.5 million of cocaine hidden in the door's car panels into Quebec from New York state. They were supposedly trying to bring 10 kg into the county in a car driven by Super Sexe bouncer Yves Arsenault, 24  After his release D'Aquino went on to manage other troubled clubs. 
•   The club attained some prominence as well when it hosted a strip-a-thon charity drive for sick children stripper organized by Lindalee Tracy, known by her stripper name Fonda Peters between 1975-1980 and possibly after.
•   Eric Laurence was shot dead by Jamie MacNeil, 23, after leaving the club in 2006. 

What customers say 

   Many who visited the Super Sexe describe it as a tourist trap with scary bouncers according to one site which discusses such things.
   Two men who visited reportedly laid a massive $840,000 lawsuit against the bar last year after being allegedly badly beaten in a visit three years earlier.
   Brothers Jessey Allyn McCall and his brother Dylan McCall claimed they were badly brutalized and robbed by bouncers at the club in a 2011 visit after they refused to pay what they felt was an inaccurate bill.
   No sign of the suit could be found at jugements.qc.ca however.
   Bouncers Yves Paulin and Wandji Mbangue, who appear to also have had companies together, were cited in the reports from the time.
  Asking for $800,000 seems a bit ambitious however.
  A  quick scan of bar beatdowns demonstrates that many are unsuccessful and those which are end up with much lower payments including one in which the aggressors were ordered to pay the  victim $40,000.