Embattled Crown Club To Close

By Thomas Breen, New Haven Independent

NEW HAVEN, CT — The Crown Street club Rumaj plans to close — four days before a state hearing about whether or not it should lose its liquor license.

Rumaj is located in the Loricco Tower building at 216 Crown St.

On Wednesday, May 6, the club’s Instagram account posted a statement reading, “After 4 unforgettable years, Rumaj Nightclub will officially be closing our doors on May 17th.”

The post states that the club had two weekends left: two Friday nights and two Saturday nights. “Let’s make these final nights the biggest, wildest, most unforgettable ones yet. One last time… let’s end up at Rumaj”

An Instagram video accompanying the statement depicts scene after scene of people dancing, drinking, and partying. A voiceover narration states, “They say all good things must come to an end. Every city has a place you can’t explain. You don’t plan for it. You don’t recreate it. It just happens. For four years, this was that place.”

The closure announcement comes as Rumaj is scheduled to be the subject of a “remonstrance” hearing before the state Liquor Control Commission on Thursday, May 21.

The “agent” for that hearing is Downtown/East Rock Alder Christine Kim, and the subject of the hearing is Rumaj Lounge’s Bobby P. Maraj, who holds the liquor permit for the club through his Branford-based holding company, B&M Nitelife LLC.

That hearing could result in Rumaj losing its state-issued liquor license.

Rumaj’s closure announcement also comes a month after a host of city officials, including Kim, held a press conference calling out Rumaj and several other downtown clubs for serving alcohol to customers under the age of 21. At that press conference, which was focused on “juice bars” — that is, separate areas within alcohol-selling establishments where nonalcoholic beverages are served to minors — Mayor Justin Elicker said that, since Aug. 31, 2025, Rumaj had resulted in 138 calls for service. Both chambers of the state legislature wound up approving a bill at the end of this year’s legislative session, on May 5, that, among other provisions, would allow municipalities to prohibit new juice bars from opening and that would prohibit the sale of alcohol on the same premises as an active juice bar.

In a phone interview with the Independent Monday, Kim said she came across Rumaj’s closure-announcement video while preparing for the May 21 remonstrance hearing, “just trying to get all the evidence together” to make the case that this establishment should have its liquor license revoked.

Kim said that, in her few months in office, she has consistently heard from Ward 7 constituents about problems with certain downtown clubs, including Rumaj. She was therefore willing to step up and be the “agent” for the remonstrance hearing to make as strong a case as possible on behalf of the neighborhood she represents. “We just want to be sure that people can be entertained, but safely and without such negative consequences.”

While a state Department of Consumer Protection (DCP) spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment by the publication time of this article, Kim said that she has heard from DCP that the May 21 remonstrance hearing is still scheduled to take place, notwithstanding Rumaj’s closure announcement on Instagram. The only thing that will stop this hearing from taking place is “if Rumaj’s liquor permit is turned in” before May 21. Kim said she and neighbors want to make sure “this is not just a soft closing” that then leads to the club opening up again under a different name and permittee. (On Wednesday afternoon, DCP spokesperson Kaitlyn Krasselt confirmed that Rumaj’s remonstrance hearing “has not been cancelled at this time. “he department continues to work with the permittee regarding their business. Once those discussions have concluded, it will be determined whether the hearing is still necessary.”)

“This is not the first time that they have been in trouble with the liquor commission,” Kim noted.

Click here to read about the state fining Rumaj $9,000 and suspending its liquor permit for a few days in 2024 after finding minors in the club, and click here to read about a $4,500 state fine handed down in 2025 after Rumaj was caught serving alcohol to minors.

“With the privilege of having a liquor permit comes great responsibility,” Kim said. “They’re not being responsible.”

A man who answered Rumaj’s phone number on Monday confirmed that the club will be closing. “It’s just a good time to close,” he said.

Asked if the club is closing because of the upcoming Liquor Control Commission hearing, he said, “Not even close.”

Asked for further explanation as to why the club is closing now, he said, “I don’t know. I have no idea. Obviously there’s people involved, a lot of people have families, some people have health conditions.”

He added that Rumaj is “not really a summer place.” Asked if that means Rumaj plans to reopen in the fall, he said that’s not what he said.

Asked for his name, he replied, “This is a shared line,” and then he hung up.

Maraj, the liquor-license permittee for Rumaj, did not respond to an email request for comment by the publication time of this article.

The New Haven Independent is a not-for-profit public-interest daily news site founded in 2005.