Greenpoint Club Makes Its Exit

After fifteen years as the neighborhood’s loudest and most raucous nightclub, Greenpoint’s Club Exit has officially closed its doors for good last Friday. Despite rumors that the club’s closing was related to recent reports of violence, manager Mariusz Kupiec said that in fact, the club had simply run its course, and could not stay afloat in light of the dwindling economy.
“I was telling our employees for two months to start looking for other jobs, so it wasn’t abrupt for us,” Kupiec said. “For the most part it’s economic. There’s no money in it anymore, and we’ve been trying to figure out a new model but it doesn’t seem like anything is working. We were putting money in and not getting any out. At some point, you have to make a decision, and this was it.”
The club has certainly gained a reputation for being rowdy, and oftentimes dangerous, and has attracted a fair amount of negative attention from the community, though Kupiec insists that Club Exit was never more, or less, risky for its patrons than any other nightclub of its kind.
“I’ve heard some of these voices, but I was laughing, and laughing hard,” Kupiec said. “Violence, that’s a big word. There were fights, without a doubt, but I don’t know any club that exists where there are no fights—it happens everywhere, and we weren’t an exception. But nobody shut us down. People like to add drama to situations that are much simpler than they want to believe, and that’s why they spread these rumors. If we wanted to, we could reopen the club anytime.”
But Kupiec stands by his decision to close Club Exit for good, and has absolutely no plans to reopen it at any time in the future, despite speculation that the club is reapplying for a liquor license. In fact, the application is leftover from the summertime, when Kupiec was considering opening a third bar, in a quiet corner of the club. The two active liquor licenses expire in May 2011, “but it makes no difference now,” Kupiec said.
Kupiec is relieved by the club’s closing, and is looking forward to returning to his previous career: construction.
“The club has been a burden on me for quite some time, so I feel good now,” he said. “Being a part of this operation wasn’t really my thing. I’m in construction, and that’s what I actually like. I’m going back to that. The club was just a hobby that I didn’t even like much.”