South Bend home of Notre Dame and a recent presidential candidate lost Peaches a crappy strip club to fire this morning.
The Torch (ironic huh) is literally feet away unknown if it was damaged. If it indeed survived it would be the last club left in SB. The next closest clubs would be 60 miles away
There's a reason Peaches hasn't been reviewed in 3 years but still a shame
Fifteen years ago when I moved to the area I live in now, I noticed a rundown shack a mile down the road. The sign said RJ's Go-Go and another one said Jammers Cafe. I like dive bars so I stopped in one day on my way home from work. The parking lot was a mix of gravel and tall weeds and the door was halfway falling off its hinges. The inside was even worse than the outside. It looked like they hadn't seen a customer in months, if not years. The "stage" was 8-foot square - a plywood box raised about 6 inches above the floor, with a dozen folding chairs randomly scattered around.
A scary looking anorexic woman with bare feet, hot pants, and a guinea tee undershirt was sitting there, and music was playing from a "boom box" like kids used to carry on their shoulders back in the 80's. I was the only customer in the place.
I ordered a beer from the bartender who looked like Mel from the old TV series Alice. Before he had a chance to bring it to me the "dancer" was all over me. She pulled her shirt up above her tits, which I can only imagine were what MackTruck calls "those flapperjack tiddys" on his lot lizards. She kept trying to stick the nipples in my mouth but I avoided that. After about a minute I handed her a 5 dollar bill and said, "Thanks a lot."
Mel brings my beer and flapperjack is doing a two-step side-to-side thing on the stage, now totally naked which was more difficult to endure than the titties in my mouth. She's sticking her tongue out and telling me "take it out so I can suck on something." I guzzled down half the beer and hit the road.
A week later I drove past and the place was all burned up, but not burned down completely, but obviously burned. I was at another bar, a nice place, and met a dancer that had a conversation with me. I mentioned that I had stopped at RJ's and it had a fire. She said "Oh yeah Jimmy tried, but he did a bad job."
To this day, the place looks the same except that it's got fire marks above the windows. The signs are still there. I guess Jimmy really didn't do a good job.
Is it bad a cynical part of me wonders whether somebody was angling for an insurance money cash-out?
NiceSpice - I thought something similar. With business being down and likely remaining depressed in the near future - an insurance payout could be very useful.
I know some NJ Diners have done it. But, they seem to always catch the perp. It usually an uncle or cousin with a couple of gas cans and matches.
Desperate times call for desperate measure for some clubs. I guess they got too impatient waiting for the next PPP loan or whatever small business stimulus gets passed next.
Obviously it was an attempted insurance fraud because the business was failing, but this was 15 years ago.
