Incoming owner Amy Ginsburg with Joel and Carol Notes, long-time owners of Cape Cabaret
A popular Cape Coral entertainment venue is coming under new ownership.
Cape Cabaret, a vibrant hot-spot featuring multiple performance spaces under one roof, will continue operating without interruption under new local ownership beginning Sept. 1.
Joel and Carol Notes have sold the bus
iness to longtime Cape Coral resident, arts advocate and entrepreneur Amy Ginsburg following several weeks of discussions about preserving the venue’s staff, artists and community legacy.
“Under Ginsburg’s ownership, Cape Cabaret will continue its current programming while gradually expanding entertainment offerings to include additional tribute productions, nationally touring artists, cultural events and community partnerships designed to strengthen Cape Coral’s growing arts and entertainment district,” a release announcing the sale states.
Guests with existing reservations or tickets will experience no interruption in operations, and current employees and scheduled performers will continue as planned during the ownership transition, officials said.
“Cape Cabaret was one of our passions in life,” said current owner Joel Notes. “We had the opportunity to bring live entertainment to Cape Coral for 10 years, and it worked out just beautifully. Now we’re ready to transition into the next stage of our life, but we’re taking wonderful memories with us.”
Ginsburg said she was overjoyed to announce that she has purchased Cape Cabaret, “Cape Coral’s only multi-auditorium entertainment venue!”
“Owning a business like this has been my dream for as long as I can remember,” Ginsburg said. “It’s remarkable how the right opportunities and people materialize at precisely the right time. Joel and Carol have perfected the recipe for success at Cape Cabaret. Other than a pinch or dash of unique entertainment flavor, I have every intention of following their recipe. This will continue to be the same Cape Cabaret everyone knows and loves.”
Ginsburg, a Cape resident for more than four decades, is the founder of Cut the Chord Entertainment, “a boutique talent management and booking agency representing touring artists and connecting them with orchestras, presenters and performing arts centers throughout the United States.”
She also serves as president of Cape Arts Network, Cape Coral’s arts alliance, and is “committed to strengthening the city’s arts and cultural identity through collaboration, live performance and community engagement.”
Ginsburg, who has worked in orchestral music in Southwest Florida for 20 years, said having an accessible venue is always at the top of the list for those in the industry.
“When you have that, that’s a big piece of the puzzle when it comes to being able to exercise creative muscles,” she said. “If you have your owns space, you have all the dates you could ever want and the ability to be creative. That’s all I ever wanted out of music, was creativity.”
Ginsburg has attended and even performed at Cape Cabaret over the years, and is excited to now be at the helm.
“It’s a model that works,” she said. “It’s consistently busy. What’s there works. I have no intention of taking that away from a community that clearly wants it. But, there’s definitely room to add and enhance programming.”
Ginsburg said she has a love for what she calls classical crossover — where popular and classical music are combined by artists.
“I definitely plan to bring programs like that here,” she said. “There are a handful of artists I work with who are really good at making classical music relevant to audiences that otherwise probably wouldn’t have a relationship with it. There are multimedia programs that are compact enough that they can fit in a space like Cape Cabaret.
“There are programs that I’m sure haven’t occurred to me yet, and are artists that will cross my path an I’ll go, ‘Yeah, you know what, let’s try it.’
“It’s going to be a great place to workshop concept programs. My hope is that this will be a space for a lot of world premieres. We test drive things here and then we send them out to the world for everybody else to love them.”
Joel and Carol Notes have been Southwest Florida residents since 2000.
Before relocating to Florida, Joel spent many years in commercial real estate and retail in the Washington D.C. area, learning the ropes from his father. His desire to explore new industries led him to purchase Sandy Parrot and The Buddha in addition to shopping centers in Fort Myers and Cape Coral, the release states.
The Notes bought the former Italian American Club building in 2015 and Joel and Carol spent nearly two years renovating.
It has served the Cape as Cape Cabaret for more than a decade as the only venue of its kind in the city.
“(The Notes) threw their heart and soul into this venue,” Ginsburg said. “They are just good people. The people who work here love them.”
Ginsburg said the staff is being retained, calling them, “amazing, dedicated, and hardworking.”
Cape Cabaret is at 4725 Vincennes Blvd. in the South Cape.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include more information provided by the incoming owner, Amy Ginsburg.
Feature courtesy CAPE CORAL BREEZE/BREEZE NEWSPAPERS
