| Former Location |
| 3240 Chili Ave, Rochester, NY 14624 |
| Status |
| CLOSED as of 1989 |
2001 Club of Rochester was a 15,000 square foot disco nightclub built in an old W.T. Grant store location on Chili Avenue in the town of Chili. The club first opened its doors on April 21, 1978 and closed in 1989. When it was first built, it was the biggest disco club in the Rochester area. The club was part of a nationwide franchise, "2001 Clubs of America", started by a Pittsburgh PA entrepeneur, Tom Jayson. The Rochester club was owned and built by three Meadville PA businessmen: Norman "Corky" LaBruzzo, Carl Lynch and "Spider" Zuccharo. After having built similar successful locations in Meadville PA and Jamestown NY in 1976, the trio expanded to the Rochester location in 1978. The cost to build the club was pegged at $450,000 and it made that investment back in less than 6 months!
Originally, the large club was actually two clubs in one: A "VIP Lounge" featuring live jazz and the bigger disco area, complete with a lighted dance floor and other disco lighting, a mammoth sound system and 2 bars. One of the bars had the DJ booth built in the middle of it and was surrounded on the back side with a balcony area. This balcony had sofas and couches rather than the normal table and bar stool setup in the rest of the club. The club had 12 screens mounted on the walls which featured a slide show presentation to kick off the evening's dancing. As MTV became popular in the early 80's, the club added a video projector on a huge screen.
The club was well known for many "firsts":
first to have dance contests which awarded the winners a Cortese Dodge automobile (actually done 2 years in a row: 1978 & 1979)
first to have a hair styling show (put on by "Shear Ego")
first to offer "teen dances" so teenagers could experience the club
first in the area to feature dance music videos
first in the area to play music from CD's
first to feature a 25c drink night on Wednesdays
first to offer free drinks from 8pm-10pm on Mondays
As the "disco sucks" era took hold in the early-to-mid '80's, the club experienced a slight decline but bounced back in 1985. The club was sold in May of 1987 to local Rochester owners and it ceased operation in 1989.
