After a splashy opening filled with celebrity investors in 2021, the four floor nightlife mecca known as The Q in New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen has closed its doors. The nightlife establishment that promised to be the “silver lining to our collective trauma” post-COVID has both showcased burgeoning nightlife talent on they stages and been fraught with behind the scenes drama, almost since they opened their doors.
An anonymous source inside The Q reached out to me about the sudden closure and simply said it was most likely the result of management missteps, coupled with the inability to recover after the massively poor PR that came from accusations of racism and sexual harassment from former co-owner Frankie Sharp in July of 2022. (These allegations resulted in co-owner Alan Picus being terminated and Executive Director Luis Fernando being installed).
The source went on to allege that the nightclub was “losing money”. They “hired the wrong talent and DJ’s, ignoring DJ’s in Hell’s Kitchen”. The source also alleges that the DJ’s hired were not bringing in a crowd that drinks, resulting in less revenue for the venue. The source alleges that this resulted in staff cuts, including the marketing and social media team leadership. The source also alleges that being paid in a timely manner by The Q was a “consistent” issue.
Former co-owner of The Q Frankie Sharp responded to me when I requested comment, stating to me exclusively “Due to ongoing litigation, I am not at liberty to speak freely on the subject of The Q’s sudden closure. If news of The Q’s closure is true, my hearts goes out to all of the folks there who have unexpectedly lost their jobs today”
Request for comment to The Q owner Bob Fluet were not answered as of press time
I went there last week with 2 friends. All 3 of us wearing fitted t-shirt and jeans, walked in together. The bouncer at the door pat down the first one, let go the second without even touching, and then pat down me. Guess our ethnicities, first one – asian, the one he didn’t pat down – redhead, and me, south asian. I couldn’t believe what just happened. I’m glad they shut down. I thought after all the controversy they might have changed their attitude but this was literally last week