With dim lighting, separate bars and plush carpeting, the San Francisco club could pass for a late-night jazz lounge if not for the mirrors and stage in the center of the room where dancers take turns gyrating around the requisite pole.
But because Flynt covets a more genteel audience than the those who favor his videos and magazines, the clubs lack the in-your-face raunchiness often associated with Hustler.
Don't get Flynt wrong -- he's not mellowing -- he's just picking his market.
"We are not necessarily catering to a local working guy," Flynt said. "We are primarily catering to travelers on a business account -- people with money to spend. We want to get this business out of the gutter so to speak."
That may require some heavy lifting. Flynt's name has proved a double-edged sword in San Francisco, where the new club in the city's North Beach tourist district has drawn opposition from city officials as well as anti-pornography advocates.
While the club sits on a street already known for its female entertainment, massage parlors and adult video stores, critics say Flynt's arrival heralds a new low. Nobody, they charge, has done more than Flynt to bring hard-core pornography into the American mainstream.
"Larry Flynt is one of the most despicable people as far as woman are concerned," said Diana Russell, a former professor and expert on violence against women. "We are really distressed to see him here in San Francisco."
Honeys vs. Bunnies
Flynt also has to prove he can succeed where Hugh Hefner's high-profile Playboy clubs -- once a staple of 1970s bachelor glamour -- failed.
Flynt believes Playboy, which shuttered its clubs in the 1980s to focus on cable television and home video, lost its way by focusing too heavily on big-name entertainers and food. Instead, the Hustler Clubs will stick to Flynt's tried and true formula: showcasing the "girl-next-door" rather than what he called the airbrushed, surgically-enhanced Playboy image of beauty.
"There is a big difference here," Flynt said. "Hefner booked named entertainers and was focusing heavily on food," Flynt said. "And as far as the bunnies go, it was a look but don't touch situation."
Don't show up at the Hustler club looking to get physical, though. In fact, the action in the San Francisco club is fairly tame by Hustler standards, in part because the club's permit forbids the performers from showcasing too much, and allows topless dancing only during a portion of the club's hours.
Instead, dancers prowl the club in lingerie and gowns with strategically placed pasties -- enough to titillate, but not incriminate.
"I'm positive the club will be a success," said one performer who dances under the name Raven. "Sex sells and there has always been controversy surrounding Larry Flynt."
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