Cheers and tears as Karen and Nepali store replaces troubled St. Paul strip club

Kristi Miller, Pioneer Press
·4 min read

In a celebration full of cheers and tears, a ribbon cutting was held Saturday for the opening of a new Karen and Nepali grocery store in the former location of the controversial Lamplighter Lounge strip club.

The owners spent months renovating the space at 160 Larpenteur Avenue West in St. Paul.

The Lamplighter Lounge was St. Paul’s only strip club and was ground zero for a number of shootings including the June 2020 murder of Nia Black, a 23-year-old cosmetologist who was shot outside the club.

A year ago, the St. Paul City Council sought to close down the club, holding an emotional public impact session to gauge how the nightclub has affected neighborhood residents. However, the council did not have the authority to do so and was legally required to renew its liquor license.

In March 2022, the city said it they would cancel the strip club’s licenses. Shortly after, the business closed permanently.

Kim O’Brien, executive director of the Rice & Larpenteur Alliance, called it a “big day in the neighborhood” in an email to the group’s board of advisors.

“This is a day of spiritual redemption and restoration, and there is no greater way to honor my daughter’s life,” said LaTanya Black, Nia’s mother. “This is a victory for the community. This is a victory for the future children of this community. This is an end to the mayhem and epidemic violence at this place.”

Soon after her daughter’s death, Black started Mothers Against Community Gun Violence, working with other mothers of homicide victims to bring gun-violence awareness to the community, and holding support groups and “peace walks.”

The closing of the strip club and opening of the grocery store shows what a community can do when it comes together, she said.

“Today is a beautiful day,” she said. “Not only for us, but for the homeowners and the businesses impacted by this violence. The sky has opened up and even thought it’s gray, the heavens have opened up and my baby is looking down, shining, thanking me and thanking the community. Today is a good day.”

Black and several others attended the ribbon cutting wearing T-shirts with Nia’s face. Each one also carried a sign with Nia’s picture on it and messages pleading with the city to shut the strip club down. Before the ceremony began, Black and several other women took the signs and broke them in half and then stepped on them.

When the Lamplighter Lounge was still open LaTanya Black and others would stand on the corner of Rice Street and Larpenteur Avenue for weeks on end holding the signs and demanding the strip club be shuttered.

“They said it couldn’t be done,” Black said on Saturday. “We were just a small group of people who came here and we believed and we were hopeful. These are the signs we carried, for weeks, to shut down the place. And today we broke the signs because (the Lamplighter Lounge) is not here anymore. It’s a new day. The signs represented the breaking of something old and the start of something new.”

As Black spoke, people in the group cheered, applauded and shouted, “Hallelujah!”

Previous incidents at the Lamplighter Lounge included a shooting in the lot on July 9, 2019; a report of shots fired on Sept. 21, 2018; a shooting in the lot on Sept. 11, 2018; an assault in the parking lot on June 8, 2018; and a parking lot assault on May 26, 2018. Jauan E. Love, 37, was shot dead in the parking lot on Sept. 29, 2017.

The new owner, Khem Rai, said the grocery store will have traditional Asian foods that people can’t find in other stores, such as unique fruits and vegetables, such as banana leaves and different types of dragon fruits, Asian seasonings and noodles and specially seasoned Asian snacks. He wanted the store to have other services for some of the elderly neighborhood residents such as a hot deli and a way for them to send money. Rai said many of the elderly people don’t have transportation so being able to walk to his store will be convenient.

“We are turning a messy place into a good place,” he said. “It feels nice.”

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