CARENCRO, La. (KLFY) — The owners of Crave, an adult toy store in Carencro, have faced many challenges while trying to open a new branch of their business.
Mike and Julie Menard were first told by the city that they weren’t allowed to sell adult toys inside the store claiming it was illegal after citing an almost two decades old obscenity ordinance.
Mike Menard told us they were still planning on opening and working with the city in deciding what was allowed to be sold.
He said everything they sell isn’t obscene, citing the Supreme Court Case, Miller v. California.
The Menard’s planned their grand opening for the first week of April; however his landlord has now canceled his 5-year lease.
“I’m not a sue happy guy, I just wanted to open my store. Now I’ve got a breach of contract and all sorts of things,” Mike Menard said.
According to Menard, the landlord is telling him a business owner in the Derrick Plaza Shopping Center first gave their blessings to have the store and then they retracted their blessings.
Menard now intends on going to court challenging the landlord saying the contract was breached.
He says he was also intending on going to federal court and challenging the city of Carencro saying the obscenity law violated his First Amendment rights.
We reached out to the landlord of the property at Derrick Plaza, and he declined to comment.
Menard said his neighbors, Bailey’s Cigars, don’t want him there.
We also reached out to the owner of Bailey’s Cigars, and they declined to comment as well.
“It’s overwhelming some days to wake up knowing what we do and how we do it, and still get push back from people who were never coming into the store in the first place,” Menard said.
Menard said he doesn’t want to leave the city of Carencro and burn the bridge with them, however, as the sign hangs on his door and he packs he leaves the city with the quote, “Relax, it’s just sex.”
Mike Menard said he was welcomed to the city of Youngsville with open arms and is looking at locations on opening his new store there.
