Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Strip club operator floats sports bar-strip club hybrid; or where The Insider practices his double entendre skills


Strip club impresario and author Alan Markovitz is back on Detroit’s east side and like any leading businessman he’s looking to “shake things up” a bit.
Markovitz recently purchased the former Players topless bar on Eight Mile near Schoenherr, just across from Warren, with plans to create a combination sports bar/strip club.
We’re told the new facility would be titled Cheerleaders and staffed with young ladies in various stages of athletic undress. The club will be equipped with large-screen TVs for deluxe sports viewing.
Naked women and sports? One on hand, it sounds like peanut butter and jelly.
But upon deeper reflection, The Insider wonders if the two are really compatible. Where will customers settle their eyes during a particularly fetching number on stage when the Lions score a touchdown?
(Insert your own ‘that will never happen’ joke here. The Insider’s above it.)
In the same vein, will it seem creepy to high five a fellow patron, all the while wondering where those hands have been? The kind of language eruptions offered by The Insider’s coarser friends during grinding gridiron moments could also pose a problem.
“Kill him!” works much better at a sports bar than a strip club, for instance.
Exterior work on the building is currently under way and more enhancements to the interior are planned for the coming weeks. Cheerleaders is expected to open Sept. 1.
Markovitz, who formerly operated Tycoon’s on Eight Mile near Groesbeck Highway, owns several Penthouse Gentlemen’s Clubs and has been ranked by the Ultimate Strip Club List as one of the top ranked adult entertainment club owners in the country.
He also co-authored the 2009 book “Topless Prophet: The True Story of America’s Most Successful Gentlemen’s Club Entrepreneur,” which detailed the competition, corruption and celebrity side of the strip club industry and how he survived being shot twice in the  business.
Will his strip club/sports bar idea allow him to be the subject of the next book? Only time will tell. Until then, we’re titillated by the idea.