Dancers pissing you off? Close the Club!

The owner of Shotgun Willie's[Rapid City, SD] says his decision to retire the bar's stripper pole and reinvent the place as a neighborhood bar came down to one thing: The ongoing drama of working with dancers who are often young and frequently unreliable.

Financially the business is doing fine, Aaron Johnson, who has owned the West Main Street business since 2007, said Monday.

“I'm just ready for a change,” he said, adding that he has been considering the idea for more than a year. “It's not worth the headache.”

Dancers will take the stage at Shotgun Willie's for the last time on Saturday. The business will then close for several days while workers complete minor remodeling that includes removing the stage and replacing it with a pool table, foosball table, dart boards and TVs.

The bar will reopen with a new name, which Johnson isn't revealing just yet. The bar will continue to be open daily from 3 p.m. to 2 a.m.

Not surprisingly, news of the change hasn't gone over well with the topless dancers who perform at Shotgun Willie's, some of whom are local residents.

“They're a little upset with the deal, but they'll figure it out,” Johnson said.

Johnson knows, too, that he will lose some regular customers when the dancers leave.

“I'm hoping to gain more than I lose,” he said. “This thing needs to change, and it can probably be more profitable than what it has been with being a neighborhood bar.”

Shotgun Willie's has been offering adult entertainment at the same location since 1984. The bar has “always kind of been a sensitive area with the city,” Johnson said.

It featured nude dancers up until 2003, when the city passed a more restrictive adult-oriented business ordinance. Only topless dancing has been allowed since that time.

More recently, since the state's smoking ban went into effect in November 2010, Johnson said he has heard complaints about scantily-clad dancers smoking in front of the bar.

“We've had several phone calls with the city and stuff like that, saying that we need to address this issue,” he said.

That's another hassle he won't have to deal with after next weekend. It's going to be “kind of a welcome change, I hope,” Johnson said.

Johnson said he plans to keep his adult-oriented business license current in case the neighborhood bar concept doesn't work out.

“The worst thing that'll … happen is I have to go back to it,” he said.