The Blast: Rock and Rollo's

Carman Rollo and partner John Travaline stress the fact that Bare Necessity is clean, even by "sophisticated adult entertainment" standards. No illegal substances or behavior. "We're doing clean, drug-free, prostitution-free adult entertainment, strictly for fun," says Rollo. "Before we opened Bare Necessity we looked at a lot of different bars and the one thing the bad ones all had in common was that the DJ ran the club. Here the DJ just keeps the music rolling and announces the dancers. He doesn't have to go into the dressing room to pull a dancer onto the stage because she's too stoned to hear her cue."

Adds Travaline, "When we made the decision to switch to nude entertainment, we decided to go first class. If I'm gonna sell smut, I'm gonna sell nice smut. Our doormen wear tuxes. The girls are fully covered when they're not dancing, nothing poking out or anything like that. And no hustling drinks."

Bare Necessity is still a strip joint, of course, not exactly a stronghold of the Women's Christian Temperance Union. It is a saloon where women bare their nether regions and undulate suggestively while men drink $3.75 Budweisers and pretend to look at the dancers' eyes. Five bucks still buys an up-close-and-personal table dance, and buying a dancer a drink will get you some conversation complete with expertly feigned interest. Travaline says that a lot of men come by just for the conversation, the chance to talk to an attractive woman with no fear of rejection.

The interior of the lounge has been completely modernized and updated, creating a tasteful, glittery showcase for the dancers to do their thang. As strip clubs go, Bare Necessity is one of the classiest. Rollo's was the kind of place where the sexual conduct these dancers work so hard to suggest was actively being sought, agreed to, and occasionally consummated on the spot, an Animal House without university affiliation. Bare Necessity is safer, cleaner, more expensive, and, if a guy can't exactly grab for all the gusto, at least he can get a good look at what he's missing. It's like the difference between actually going to France and visiting the French pavilion at Epcot Center -- not an unpleasant way to pass the time, but ultimately it whets your appetite for the real thing.