I heard that Texas is starting to reopen some clubs that owners are calling “restaurants” to qualify under guidelines. Can anyone verify, and way more importantly, report on experience?
Club Onyx was successful in re-opening. They got a judge to rule in their favor. They were able to re-open because they claim they are a restaurant now. That means you can't order liquor without ordering food first. Also, they are enforcing social distancing which means all employees must stay at least 6 feet away and wear face masks. The stages have been cordoned off. You can leave your tip at a location next to the stage, but you are not allowed to approach the dancer on the stage. There are no lap dances. They are getting a lot of scrutiny from law enforcement so you can be sure they are extra careful not to break any rules. They said they had about 110 customers on Saturday night. I think when other clubs reopen later in the month, they may have similar rules.
I don't know how anyone (especially dancers) is making any money from the Club Onyx business model. If the dancers are going to be waitresses now, they'll have to make their tips without contact. I doubt any "dancers" are going to pay a house fee for the opportunity to become a regular waitress, and i have no idea how many "PLs" are going to want to tip a dancer on the stage from a remote tip box and i don't know if the club will help themselves to a portion of those tips since they're not making any money from dance fees and whatever a dancer is willing to pay to work. Some strip clubs do have full restaurant/kitchen staffs and menus, but i don't know how profitable that aspect of the strip clubs ever was. I never remember strip club food being all that expensive to begin with, with many low profit margin daily specials often running. It seemed the food aspect was just a way to bring in more customers into the strip club to spend on dances/rooms and to a degree alcohol, not dissimilar to casinos and their buffets/restaurants/cheap drinks. I have no idea how large Club Onyx is, but 110 customers doesn't sound like that small of a number, even on a Saturday if the 25% capacity requirement was strictly enforced...
"I have no idea how large Club Onyx is, but 110 customers doesn't sound like that small of a number, even on a Saturday if the 25% capacity requirement was strictly enforced..."
The better clubs in Houston are pretty big, but either way it didn't have to be 110 at the same time.
@wallanon
I did take in account that not all 110 people were there at the same time. When i think of restaurants (and Club Onyx was acting as a restaurant), most smaller mom and pop places might not serve 100 people on a Saturday dinner shift while a larger one might serve a few hundred also taking in account a two hour turnover (from entering the restaurant to leaving it). That is at full capacity including the bar. Also if they are acting as a dine in restaurant and one that serves liquor, they are not reasonably allowed to have very late opening hours either unless they're open 24 hours. I don't know the local laws regarding hours in this reopening, but in Illinois, even drive throughs (and any store) aren't allowed to open past 10pm. Strip clubs also tend to have a longer turnover than restaurants IME, where people just eat and chat a little bit and then leave. Just trying to get an idea of how "busy" this club/breastaurant ended up being on its first weekend of being open and if they maxed out or came close to maxing out their limited capacity, or if people still largely stayed away...
For now they're (the club owners) making more money, largely because their biggest fixed expense is rent/mortgage/property taxes and almost all of their "employees" are paid from tips directly from available customers. So the vast majority of any profit they make from food and drinks over the wholesale cost can go to the club to pay for their fixed expenses. As opposed to no money going toward those fixed expenses. It is a no brainer for the clubs. That is, unless the tip-earning workers/dancers don't make enough money to justify putting themselves at risk. Now the dancers probably can't fall back on unemployment, and even the other workers can't since the club (restaurant) is now allowed to reopen and is rehiring, so it might not matter if the workers feel unsafe. They have to work if they want to receive anything, even if it might be well below minimum wage.
However, if it gets too low, they don't have to work at that club and can do something else, like cams or put more focus and time on their onlyfans or SA if they go that route. If PLs stop going because of no lap dances and stage interaction and less "dancers", then the dancers will stop coming and the club is back to where they started. So the clubs will have to subsidize the dancers and workers to stay open until the rules can be eased or skirted and more PLs spend money the conventional way giving more money to the dancers. Otherwise, the clubs will become like restaurants with even worse margins than the conventional restaurants and be out of business eventually.
Not that I know of. At least not in Austin. They were supposed to open back up Friday, but that changed when our idiot mayor extended the stay at home ordee
Club Onyx has a capacity on its first floor for about 200 people so 25% capacity would be 50 people at a time. This does not count the VIP areas of which there is one downstairs. The entire upstairs is a VIP area so I don't know if that was open.
I don't believe that the dancers were charged tip-out. The club owner said he is not making any profit. He is re-opening to allow at least some of his employees to make some income.
As for hours, in Houston, restaurants can be open 24 hours if they like. I heard Club Onyx was open until 4 am.
As for the other clubs, county commissioner Hildalgo has just stated that other businesses like hair salons can reopen on May 20th, but bars will still remain closed. No date was given for bars.
We'll have to see if any other clubs will try the Club Onyx approach.
I haven't been for a few years. But at least they used to have an upstairs. It is a lot smaller than the main floor. More like a loft. They may have closed it off. They didn't open it except on busy nights.
After quarantine, I'd throw a bunch of tips to see a nekkid girl from 10 feet away, even without touching. Not what I really want, but a step in the right direction.
It's seems pretty common that black customers don't want lap dances anyway. They like to throw singles at the dancer's butt while she's turned around on her hands and knees twerking. So maybe just having to stay further back is not such an issue if this is what you're into. I'm white and I've been in clubs with mostly black guys, once where I was the only white guy, and nobody had any problem with me being there. So if you live in Houston and you're white, don't be nervous about giving this club a try.
If nobody goes to the clubs, the clubs close. You want to have free run of a club, have the managers and staff remember you showed your face and spent money when anyone with eyes knew the club wasn't playing with a winning hand.
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Even if a club opens as a "restaurant" there'll likely not be able to operate much as a strip club so likely not worth it.
The better clubs in Houston are pretty big, but either way it didn't have to be 110 at the same time.
I did take in account that not all 110 people were there at the same time. When i think of restaurants (and Club Onyx was acting as a restaurant), most smaller mom and pop places might not serve 100 people on a Saturday dinner shift while a larger one might serve a few hundred also taking in account a two hour turnover (from entering the restaurant to leaving it). That is at full capacity including the bar. Also if they are acting as a dine in restaurant and one that serves liquor, they are not reasonably allowed to have very late opening hours either unless they're open 24 hours. I don't know the local laws regarding hours in this reopening, but in Illinois, even drive throughs (and any store) aren't allowed to open past 10pm. Strip clubs also tend to have a longer turnover than restaurants IME, where people just eat and chat a little bit and then leave. Just trying to get an idea of how "busy" this club/breastaurant ended up being on its first weekend of being open and if they maxed out or came close to maxing out their limited capacity, or if people still largely stayed away...
However, if it gets too low, they don't have to work at that club and can do something else, like cams or put more focus and time on their onlyfans or SA if they go that route. If PLs stop going because of no lap dances and stage interaction and less "dancers", then the dancers will stop coming and the club is back to where they started. So the clubs will have to subsidize the dancers and workers to stay open until the rules can be eased or skirted and more PLs spend money the conventional way giving more money to the dancers. Otherwise, the clubs will become like restaurants with even worse margins than the conventional restaurants and be out of business eventually.
I don't believe that the dancers were charged tip-out. The club owner said he is not making any profit. He is re-opening to allow at least some of his employees to make some income.
As for hours, in Houston, restaurants can be open 24 hours if they like. I heard Club Onyx was open until 4 am.
As for the other clubs, county commissioner Hildalgo has just stated that other businesses like hair salons can reopen on May 20th, but bars will still remain closed. No date was given for bars.
We'll have to see if any other clubs will try the Club Onyx approach.