The city is looking to shut down an alleged brothel that shamelessly advertises to Wall Street executives in the Financial District — and operates above a popular police bar.
The city filed a lawsuit Monday look to close the club, which advertises itself as TemptationsNYC and celebrates its status as “catering to threesomes & cuckold fantasies” on its Instagram page
Its website was taken down shortly after the suit was filed in Manhattan Supreme Court as the operator of the spot called the accusations of naughty behavior a misunderstanding about the “swinger lifestyle.”
Undercover officers purchased illegal alcohol, a lap dance and sexual intercourse at the club, the city’s nuisance abatement lawsuit claims.
“Businesses allowing prostitution and the illegal sale and consumption of alcohol on their premises should be on notice that the City will take aggressive legal action,” a spokesperson for the city’s law department said. “We’re seeking a closing order from the court to put an immediate stop to these illegal activities which erode the quality of life in our communities.”
But the venue’s operator said the swinger’s club was being rented out to a promoter for a “photoshoot and foot fetish event” the days of the supposed undercover stings.
The operator, who gave his name as Johnny, compared the situation to someone renting a “VFW hall that doesn’t have a liquor license.”
“We don’t sell alcohol and there’s no prostitution,” he told The Post of the members-only cub. “That’s not a part of the swinger lifestyle.”
Just four floors below is a police-themed bar, Whiskey Blue, popular with various law enforcement officers, sources said.
The legal action is filed against the unknown operators of the brothel speakeasy and landlord, CYP Enterprise LLC, which the city said had a duty to ensure their property was free of criminal activity.
CYP was not able to be reached for comment. TemptationsNYC and a “sister club” in Astoria did not respond to messages.
The TemptationsNYC Instagram page is littered with raunchy posts, including a promotion for a 2023 “Summer Humpin” and a “‘Bust-a-Nut’ Midweek Play Party.” Last December the page wished a “Merry Cuck-Mas,” and allegedly hosted “Swinger Con 2025” last Friday, billed as “The largest Friday night swinger gathering in the Tri-State area.”
New Yorkers first reached out to the NYPD “on six separate dates to complain that prostitution was occurring at the subject premises” in 2024, the legal filing says.
Johnny told The Post he was never aware of the complaints, and hinted that they could be from disgruntled patrons who thought a swinger’s club was a sure bet for sexual rendezvous.
“The swinger lifestyle is all about consensual adults,” he said. “It’s like going to a bar. You’re not guarantee to hook up with somebody at a regular bar.”
In March, an NYPD detective went to the sixth-floor club and photographed a taped sign on the door reading “TEMPTATIONSNYC — Give in to your TEMPTATIONS,” the court documents read.
On Monday, the same sign hung on a sixth-floor door, in addition to a large painting of a woman’s legs with underwear around her knees advertising a swingers lifestyle website.
Months later that October, two undercover officers visited the club a few days apart and ordered drinks at the bar, the suit said, despite the spot lacking a liquor license.
One of the undercover cops was able to purchase an “erotic lap dance” for $40, the suit claims. As the dancer performed her moves, she also agreed to have sex with the officer for a “tip” of $150, plus a house fee of $50.
The city is also seeking damages of $1,000 from each defendant for every day that the accused brothel was in operation.
When a Post reporter asked neighbors about the alleged sex den, they were not surprised.
A manager at a nearby diner said the club has been there “for years.”
A worker at a nearby hotel said he sees “a lot of people who are strangely dressed going up there on the weekend.”
“Thanks to everyone who came out to celebrate our special Connie!” @temptations.nyc/Instagram
“It’s the stuff people wear at [a] strip club,” he said. “Little weird stuff — most of it’s made out of vinyl. I thought it’s New York City, and I never thought about it again.”
The operator shrugged off the accusations, claiming an apartment building next door regularly has huge parties on the weekend with “people coming in and out like it’s Grand Central.”
“These two things that happened to me were isolated incidents with that one particular event that was going on,” he said. He claimed that once he learned about that promoter selling alcohol, he immediately ended his relationship.
While the supposed brothel’s owner is unknown in the lawsuit, a mysterious older gentleman with a thin, manicured white beard appears in several posts on the TEMPTATIONSNYC Instagram page — one of which shows him holding a stack of cash up against his ear.
“Happy Birthday to the MasterMind behind Temptations NYC & Caligula NY,” the post reads, referring to the apparent Astoria-based “sister” club, Caligula.
“Happy Birthday to our big boss man, head honcho, the one & only!’ @temptations.nyc/Instagram
In another birthday post, a commenter calls the man “Jimmy,” posing behind a New York Mets cake.
“Wishing our owner, the Facilitator of Fun, a very happy birthday!” the post reads.
The man is also credited as the owner of TemptationsNYC’s “sister club,” Caligula in Astoria.
Johnny said the club plans to fight the abatement suit.
“What are you supposed to do?” he said. “Just pack up your pack up your s–t and go because somebody makes bogus phone calls on you?”
