Seattle: a new club is opening in the old Dancing Bare space

Not sure if it’s enough for me to leave kittens day shift….

That guy:yep!

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@ThatXguy: yep! Kittens, Playground, Pandora’s.

Thx Drew, good to know.

Years ago there was a club called "Sugars" on Evergreen Way in Everett. The girls would line up against the back wall so you could give them the once over before they went on stage. Those were the good old days!

@wise: I did a bit of digging around, and found that the new Sugars is operated by a company called Talents West, which is the same name as the company that operated the old Sugars and a few other clubs back in the day. The old owner passed away many years ago, and there was quite a bit of a scandal surrounding his clubs, and I believe Talents West was closed too? I suppose that the son has now opened a new company with the same name. Btw she also said that TW owns Kittens, so I guess you can expect a similar approach at the new Sugars. That’s 3 clubs in <15 minutes driving distance from Ballard!

Frank was the former owner of Rick's, Sugars, Honeys and fox's. Shell company was something at least very similar to talents west (maybe talent northwest).

After years of issues with law enforcement (not all issues regarding these clubs) they shut them down and auctioned them off. Ricks and Fox's remain.

When Kittens first opened I saw some rumor about it being run by a former manager or dancer from ricks, and they hired Frank's son as a "consultant".

Talent West, I'm sure as a legal entity, is a "new company". But probably same faces from the old company and a very similar name.

Part of the legal issues that shut them down was illegal campaign contributions. Found someone tied to Frank's businesses repaying their employees to make campaign contributions to city council members. At the time city council had a ban on new clubs until they could complete a zoning study, which they never funded the study for like 20 years, effectively banning new clubs. Which gave Frank's clubs no competition and apparently he was trying to keep that going.

City was sued, lost, finally had to create a zoning plan to allow new clubs, but it's pretty damned restrictive. The only two that opened so far under that was Pandora's and kittens (maybe the VU by stadiums, that might have been somehow grandfathered prior zoning, not sure). There was one other, forget it's name (I never went, reviews all said it really sucked), actually opened by the guy that kept suing the city over zoning (made more money suing the city than running clubs, apparently), and I was always kinda confused if it was a strip club or comedy club, apparently it switched back and forth (Giggles maybe?)...

But the old clubs have grandfathered zoning use. So, easier to buy / remodel an old club than start a new one, I guess.

Old Sugars was on aurora, kinda northish, can't remember if in Seattle or Shoreline or farther... Far enough that, from Seattle, I'd either stop at Rick's or continue on to Honeys. Was just never impressed with the old Sugars.

Thanks, Drew. Let's hope the price is right.

I may have to check it out. Although I do have a good friend who says, "Nothing good ever happens on Aurora Avenue."

@kisow: I’m going to say that your friend is probably right about that.

I went in and checked it out. It has the same vibe as old Sugar's. I'm not sure who owns it but they did a good job capturing the feel of the original. I'm certain that once this place is open for a minute, they'll be at the top of the strip club list in seattle!

Seriously, asspounder? “Asspounder”? One comment, no reviews, and this what you say? Is that you Frank Jr? I never say “shill / club ad” and I’m going to say shill. Say something useful or go somewhere else, please.

It’s cool more clubs are popping up but damn I wish they would put some up north in Snohomish county. The old Honeys is just an overflow space for a used car lot. Such a waste of a great location.