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Strip club and strip loin – Charlotte’s perfect travel option

North America » United States

By Marc Atchison

Customers get a royal welcome at the Men’s Club.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - It was around noon when our US Airways flight touched down at Charlotte’s International Airport. It was closer to 1 p.m. by the time we collected our rental car and headed out on I-77.

Hungry, we pondered the options offered at each exit – fast food joints … roadside restaurants … The Men’s Club.

Men’s Club?

“The last time I was in Charlotte, someone told me the Men’s Club has a four-star restaurant. The food is reputed to be excellent,” said my co-pilot.

My antenna went up at the thought of a four-star restaurant in an adult entertainment venue. But being the Curious Georges we are, we decided to stop and see for ourselves.

There were few patrons in the Men’s Club the afternoon we arrived – Charlotte business people, one of the main groups that frequent the club we were told later, eat early and get back to their banking towers.

The décor was a mix of disco and country club – wing back chairs and colorful spotlights vying for attention.
A blond-haired beauty named Lisa – fully clothed – made small talk, took our order and returned with my crispy salad topped with roasted chicken and a clubhouse sandwich my partner claimed was “one of the best” he’d ever tasted.

Off in the distance, scantily clad women danced on stage to the Black Eyed Peas but the few patrons in the Men’s Club that day didn’t seem to be paying much attention.

“It’s always slow around this time of day,” said Lisa with the laughing eyes. “Come back tonight and there’s a whole different atmosphere.”

It was a few days before our golfing trip through South and North Carolina brought us back to the Men’s Club. It was a Sunday evening and, as Lisa had predicted, the “place was jumpin’.”

A group of young men celebrating a bachelor party were engaged in some serious conversation with a table of women, there to honor a friend who had been given a banking promotion. Couples sat off on one side of the restaurant/club placing their food orders.

We decided to join them.

“Can I help you gentlemen decide what to order,” a burly man named Ryan Register, the club’s general manager, asked?

“Tonight is crab legs night and it’s all you can eat.”

We told Register we were golfers and that seemed to hit a cord with the man who has been in the adult entertainment business for the past 10 years – eight of which he’s spent as GM of the Men’s Club, one of a number of such clubs spread throughout North America. Mexico City, Dallas and Houston, where the club’s head office is located, also have Men’s Clubs, the Playboy Clubs of the 21st century.

“May I join you?” asked Register who said he hadn’t eaten and would also like to enjoy the crab legs “because I’m rarely here on the days when they are on the menu.”

The Men’s Club menu selections looked like they had been created by a chef from a high-class New York restaurant. The “Kick Ass” steak dinner caught my eye, but so did the strip sirloin.

“I guess strip loin takes on a whole new meaning in an adult entertainment club,” I jokingly told Register, who didn’t break a smile while suggesting I order the “Kick Ass.”

I was afraid if I didn’t he might just kick mine.

While waiting for our selections to arrive, the congenial Register told us the Men’s Club was one of the most popular entertainment spots in rapidly growing Charlotte, the banking capital in the southern United States.

“I’m happy to say our restaurant is where many of the biggest banking deals are conducted,” said Register, who “chills out” from his “demanding” job on the back of his prized Harley Davidson motorcycle.

“Bankers love to bring their clients here and it’s mostly because of the food.”

From the club’s earliest days, Register, who sits on Charlotte’s hospitality board, put an emphasis on food.

Funny, you don’t see the Men’s Club promoted in local tourism literature, though.

“Anyone can open a strip joint but there are few adult entertainment clubs where you can feel comfortable bringing your wife or most important client,” said Register, who is adding a $300,000 VIP lounge in a secluded area of the club above the main floor.

“We get a lot of celebrities and sports figures from NASCAR, the NBA and NFL who like to come here and have a drink and be entertained. They don’t like to be hassled by other customers so we decided to add the lounge so they could feel more comfortable,” Register, who said John Daly – naturally – is a regular visitor, told us.

The food at the Men’s Club is the finest in Charlotte.

So we weren’t the first golfers to show up at the Men’s Club?

“We do get some golf groups and a lot of the area golf pros drop in on occasion,” said Register, who holds a charity golf event each year in either May or June where the entertainers become caddies for a day.

“It’s all great fun and the event is sold out a year in advance.”

The charity foursomes consist of three golfers and one adult entertainer, who drives the cart, holds the flag on putts and cleans clubs and balls. Some have even been known to expose their assets, bringing a whole new meaning to the golf term “skins game.”

The golf groups pay $675 a team and the tournament lasts from 8 a.m., when the players are treated to a huge buffet breakfast at the Men’s Club, until late into the evening, when a bus delivers the golfers back to the club.

In between, the groups have lots of fun and plenty to drink at a course that always remains a secret “because we don’t want news people coming out.” The Men’s Club also supplies transportation back home for those golfers who had too much to drink, a service Register’s venue provides customers on a daily basis.

The atomic shrimp Register suggested we have as an appetizer arrived and the first order of his crab legs landed a short time later. In between bites of the sumptuous shrimp and the cracking good crabs, Register told us he too plays golf because “it makes me relax and puts me in a better mood.”

The Men’s Club attracts different clientele throughout the week. Fridays and Saturdays are when locals drop by; Tuesday to Thursday is when the business crowd shows up and Saturdays is big with couples looking for some good food. The Kick Ass steak is high on their list of favorites.

One bite of the tender, juicy steak that came swimming in a delicate au jus sauce surrounded by perfectly prepared vegetables and plated in a manner that would make a food artist envious, quickly convinced us to put it at the top of our favorites list as well.

The Men’s Club employs 300 entertainers and another 65 employees who, according to Register, “make the operation run smoothly and make me look good.”

“Some of the girls have been here from Day One,” said Register, who told us to “leave room for Sex in the Sack.”

“Pardon me?” I blushed!

“Sex in the Sack is our most popular desert. Come in the kitchen and I’ll show you how they make it.”

The Men’s Club kitchen was spotless. The stainless steel walls gleamed and the staff was decked out in chef’s uniforms. The kitchen wouldn’t look out of place in a Michelin star restaurant.

The young pastry chef, one of 10 kitchen staff at the Men’s Club, was completing our Sex in the Sack that Register had pre-ordered. The “Sack” part of the desert was an eatable chocolate bag and the “Sex” was the sinfully good ice cream – mocha and vanilla – that was stuffed inside it. The plate it was served on came surrounded with fruit topped with a dollop of rich cream.

“This is better than sex,” my friend and I both blurted out as we dove into the rich offering.

The food at the Men’s Club is not just fabulously good; it may be the best value in the culinary world. Daily specials like steak and crab legs cost around $10 and the buffet breakfast where over 40 items are presented costs even less. There’s also a breakfast offered around 3 a.m. that attracts people returning home from other clubs, according to Register.

“We make very little in the way of profit on our food,” said Register. “We do charge $6.25 for a beer, however, and that’s above the average price at most clubs. You can get a margarita, our daily drink special, for just $1.50, though.”

The meal over, Register bid us farewell, told us to “stay and enjoy the entertainers,” hopped on his Harley and disappeared into the hot Charlotte night.

Most tourists traveling through Charlotte would never think about stopping at an adult entertainment club for a meal. They don’t know what they’re missing at the Men’s Club, which really qualifies as a couples club.

So don’t be shy – Sex in the Sack is too good to turn down when you’re traveling past the Men’s Club - the ultimate safe sex haven.

INFORMATION

- The Men’s Club is located at 444 Tyvola Road in Charlotte, just off Exit xx on Interstate 77.

- For information, go to www.mensclub.com

- The Men’s Club group is owned by David Fairchild out of Houston.

- The Club is open every day until 3 a.m.

- There is some live music at the club and Christmas is one of the most popular times of the year for office parties.

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