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• OPIllini96

OPIllini96

I remember when Melrose Park, IL was a hot spot for lingerie bars, particularly on Mannheim Road. What is a lingerie bar you ask? It's a bar where the dancers dress in bikinis, either shorts or short skirts, and heels.

And did Mannheim Road have a few good ones. I'm talking about Bobby's, Carl's, Louie's Lounge, and The Playpen. My experience with these places was about 19 years ago. I had heard about them on another website and the guys who frequented them said they were much better than anything offered in the city of Chicago (whose SC scene TBH has always been underwhelming - and I'm being nice when I say that).

At the time, I was a regular customer at Scores. Pretty soon, though, I grew tired of the expensive drinks and dancers. Worse, I personally found the dancers at Scores to have stuck-up and greedy attitudes. That's a big turn-off for me, and so I started looking at other options in the area.

I went to The Playpen, which was across the street on Mannheim from Scores, and I found it to be a warm and friendly environment. Yeah, it definitely had the look of a dive bar, but I could tell it also had character and charm. And the dancers were good ladies. There was a MILF redhead named Colleen who I instantly connected with. She was very nice, very intelligent and we would chat about anything. She was also a real good dancer. Eventually though, Colleen moved on, and while there were other nice girls, I never found another ATF at the Playpen.

My other favorite place was Louie's. It was a small, cramped bar that could easily get crowded in a hurry. But the girls there were down-to-earth and lots of fun, and more often than not I spent more than I intended to during each visit; it was worth it.

I did go to Bobby's and Carl's as well. They were solid, but IMO not as good as Louie's and Playpen were.

Unfortunately, those are all memories now. Carl's is still open because technically it's in Stone Park. But after a shooting at J's Bar a couple of years ago, Melrose Park flexed its muscle and banned lingerie shows in the Mannheim bars. In fact, it banned all dancing, and forced the owners of Playpen to close after a long dispute. The site is now a restaurant.

Both Bobby's and Louie's hung in as long as possible and rebranded themselves as neighborhood bars. In fact, Louie's expanded and became more of a nightclub with bottle service. Eventually though, both Bobby's and Louie's tried to bring back dancers gradually and in a discreet manner. However, Melrose Park shut down both this year - Louie's in February and Bobby's last month. J's never reopened after the shooting there as well.

Carl's is open, but I was there recently and wasn't impressed. The dancers and atmosphere were both blah, and there were also a few sketchy guys hanging out. It just didn't feel inviting to me.

I wonder why Melrose Park acted the way it did when the J's shooting occurred. The town had the attitude of one bad apple spoils the whole barrel, and I don't think that was fair. I feel bad for the many good employees of the closed places who did nothing wrong, and those places had absolutely nothing to do with what happened at J's. Seems like MP was looking for an excuse to shut down the lingerie shows; guess they didn't mind the loss of revenue the bars brought to their coffers.

I hope one day, new SCs with lingerie shows will happen again. They were a great value and I miss them.

Adjudicators

rickmacrodong

DickyDoo2

rugrat

Had some great times at Bobby's. Melrose Park was definitely unique in the strip club scene.

IfIGottaBeDamned

BadBob