Sunday, April 10, 2011

A Comment From Joe...

Wow, I definitely remember the Chesterfield. I spent many, many of my college age nights there (1980-1984). It's been a long time but it was around Glenwood Road, give or take a block. It was the first and only topless bar in our area of Brooklyn me and my friends knew about. Later we discovered another one also on Flatbush Ave. a few blocks north off of Ditmas Ave. We went in one night and were the only white guys in there! Kind of like the bar scene from "Animal House"! Anyway, Chesterfield had 2 rotating older bartenders; a hefty Irish guy named Billy and a feisty 'broad' named Dixie. A 7 oz Bud was only $1. until 8 pm when the girl started to dance for the night. Then they were like $3 or so. So we would get there around 7pm and pound a bunch of Bud nips before the price went up! There was another woman pushing 70 at the time (whose name escapes me) who would waitress the few tables & booths there. She was a burlesque dancer in her day, and there were some pictures hanging up of her from that time. She looked pretty darn good and was well-endowed. She would occasionally hop up on the stage and do this sort of jerky dance and lift up her top, exposing her old lady mega-bra! Somewhat disturbing now but back then it cracked us up. There was a Chinese take-out place right across the street that had a thick plexiglass barrier like banks do. It wasn't the best of neighborhoods there if you remember. We would stumble across Flatbush all drunk to get some food, making fun of the workers there while we waited. Not cool, I know, but we were young, drunk and stupid. Anyway, thanks for reminding me of that place and all the great nights I had there. All the best. - Joe A.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The name of the old waitress came back to me! It was Betty. - Joe A.

Pete said...

I know nothing about the Chesterfield but can relate to much of what Joe writes... I knew the neighborhood and similar joints...I found myself laughing at his comments remembering similar things that you (Ron) and I did through our teens and twenties in Brooklyn and Manhattan...all of the inappropriate comments and sticky situations where we easily could have been beaten up or killed...but which were hysterically funny at the time. Thanks Joe, great story.

Elliot James said...

Thanks Joe, great recount. I'd go to the Chesterfield with a cousin before we hit other bars on Friday or Saturday night. It was an unusual kind of topless bar because they seemed to have only one dancer. If I'm remembering correctly, the stage was a small circular deal more or less in the middle of the room, and all the customers would stand around it and ogle the dancer. It was kind of an off-putting sight--you don't see stage set-ups like that in most topless bars. We would stop at the 2001 in Bay Ridge where Travolta shot Saturday Night Fever. They had the main disco room and also a lounge to the side with a dancer where we hung out for a couple of beers. This was around 78-79. Overall, there were very few topless bars in Brooklyn in those years. There are probably even less today or none at all. Manhattan was the place for that.

In Fort Lauderdale/Miami, they're everywhere.