![]() There's also a stage for live music and Kalman himself loves to perform. ![]() SoulBelly BBQ is often described as a place you'd see in Nashville or Austin full of Americana charm with murals painted on the wall and banquettes made of reclaimed wood. Now in Las Vegas, the chef is serving up barbecue (something he once did alongside Dave Grohl for fun) with a gourmet touch in the Arts District. Assisting local law enforcement efforts has been the federal government`s Operation Safebet sting operation to detect illicit uses of credit cards, and the Illinois Liquor Control Commission`s tough new stance denying liquor licenses to taverns engaged in prostitution.SoulBelly BBQ is the culmination of a long journey for Bruce Kalman-one that saw the chef make impressive appearances on shows like Top Chef and Chopped while earning nationwide acclaim at restaurants like Union in Pasadena. Since July, his officers have been using female decoys in order to nab the clients of prostitutes, and this month`s coordinated effort with Hammond police added foot patrols in the area. Police Chief Steven Rhoads said that dancers all now wear G-strings, tassels and other items that pass for attire. ''We`ve got three dancing clubs where we used to have probably two dozen.'' ''Compared to the 1970s, it`s like a morgue around here,'' said Calumet City Police Capt. The list of go-go clubs that have vanished from Calumet City`s hurdy gurdy tavern district around State Street and State Line Road is prohibitively long, but includes the Rumpus Room, Top Hat, Club 500 and Club 300. Lake County has lost the Cabana Club, Cheetah, the WW, the Roman House and numerous massage parlors, including the cleverly named Businessman`s Consultants, in the wake of legal crackdowns over the past few years. One adult bookstore and a nude dancing club are all that remain. Supreme Court ruling upholding a similar law in suburban Seattle, and an April, 1988, favorable ruling by the Illinois Supreme Court have apparently cleared the way for the final cleanup of Mannheim Road and the Cook County side of Rand Road, where one bookstore remains in operation.įranklin Park Village President Jack Williams, who is now mounting a legal effort to bulldoze My Friend`s Place in order to build a village access road, said the business climate along Mannheim Road has risen as the smut has fallen away.Ĭleanup efforts along Rand Road in Palatine and Ela Townships have similarly deep-sixed the Torch Club, the Renaissance Club and the Roaring `20s Bookstore in recent years. In 1981, Cook County passed a land-use ordinance that restricted sexually oriented businesses such as adult bookstores and erotic dancing clubs to industrial areas. Only Cicero, with its historic tolerance of late-night shennanigans and its no-alcohol sex clubs, still retains a sin strip worth the name. And many of those clubs still in operation, such as My Uncle`s Place in Lyons, the Spot Lounge in Cicero and My Friend`s Place in Franklin Park, are now fighting legal threats to their continued operation. The Lyons strip-tease clubs and others have found themselves caught somewhere in the pincers of federal investigations of racketeering, renewed local enforcement of anti-prostitution laws, vigorous action by the Illinois Liquor Control Commission and new, restrictive county zoning ordinances. ![]() ''This will really change our image,'' said trustee Judy Petrucci. ''This town is glad we`re coming to the end of an era,'' said police chief John Pankow, a 24-year veteran of the force who has watched with pleasure as four of the village`s five humid nightspots have closed in the last two years. ![]() Similarly, Lyons is teetering on the brink of wholesomeness. ''Now that there`s just one club and one adult bookstore left, things are noticeably better,'' she said. ![]()
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