‘TWO California rolls, two sakes and a lap dance, please.”An unusual order to be sure, but Kenny Fong, who left Nobu and is now executive chef at a strip club, is fast getting used to such requests.
“This is definitely the most unusual place I’ve ever worked,” the soft-spoken Fong says of the Flatiron District’s VIP Club, where he’s attempting to create a four-star sushi-and-sashimi menu.
Though his current sushi offerings are fairly straightforward, some of Fong’s more lighthearted innovations will include a “tushi” roll and “dancing shrimp” – a live crustacean served still squiggling on a plate.
“We might call one of the chef’s creations a Rudy roll,” says Daniel Ursitti, the VIP Club’s general manager. “If it hadn’t been for the mayor, we probably would never have done this.”
The emerging fine-dining industry in New York’s “gentlemen’s clubs” is a direct result of the city’s 60/40 zoning law, which went into effect in 1998, restricting sexually oriented entertainment to less than half of a business’ public area.
Strip clubs have been forced to devise alternate plans to attract “non-adult” customers.
Times Square’s Show World developed a theater to show non-sexual plays, while Ten’s began admitting children – a short-lived plan – and selling private dances with fully clothed strippers.
Others are beefing up their menus. At Scores, considered to be the city’s top men’s club, teams of tuxedoed waiters circle tables of customers.
“I’d say, we’re probably the only topless club in the world with our own pastry chef and a wine steward,” says the club’s rep Lonnie Hanover.
“And we have a team of translators that speak 11 languages. So, if someone comes in from the U.N., we can assign a person to that table to explain the menu.”
Those menu items include chateaubriand for two and rack of lamb.
At the VIP Club, the menu isn’t the only thing being made over. The mezzanine level – once a perfect perch for wide-eyed customers to look down upon the stage – is boarded up, blacked-out and out of eyeshot from the main floor.
While sushi is available throughout the club, management is busy transforming the upstairs area into a more serene dining atmosphere, with murals of Asian gardens, indirect lighting and softer music – but no Kama Sutra-inspired illustrations on the walls.
“This will be a non-adult operation, including the ornamentation,” says a highly muscular manager named Tor, who carries a walkie-talkie and would not give his last name.
“We feel it will be a nice, quieter place to begin or end an evening here. This chef is really going to do amazing things, and people are going to be blown away.”
The restaurant also plans to serve a full menu until 3:30 a.m.
“We’re keeping our prices at a reasonable rate, so customers will have more to spend on entertainment,” Tor said.