The New Era of NYC Strip Clubs

Another look at the upscale strip clubs - no, make that "gentlemen's club" - populating Manhattan in the Times, which looks at the Penthouse Executive Club, Hustler, and Scores West Side. Some call Rudy Giuliani's efforts to clean up Times Square and rezone adult entertainment as the motivation for fancy clubs, although no one's denying that finding more outrageous ways to fleece happy men of their money with naked women and alcohol was hard. Besides hearing how these establishments are classier (the girls are expecting proper English, boys), one of the great things Gothamist found about the article was how it seems like many are trying to work within this new industry (the high end adult entertainment industry that doesn't involve marrying a geriatric billionaire), like how one community board asked the Scores West Side to "plant street trees and hire locally" and how more competition is welcomed by the clubs ("We look at it as an expansion of the marketplace on the West Side.").

Management at the clubs say more couples are going to clubs together, since clubs are less likely to be dingy and scary, and that's true. On a recent visit to the Penthouse Executive Club (pictured), Gothamist and friends enjoyed some of the fabulous steak at Robert's, lapdances (or watching others get lapdances), bubbly, and other frivolity. But, of course, there was no sex in the champagne room.