Kayes said the bar serves a deeper purpose than mere socializing. "We walk in, and it's like, `Oh, the lesbians have arrived,'" she said. Recently, Kelly Carrasco of Berwyn shared a pitcher of beer with her partner, Cyndee Kayes, as they explained why they hang out here, even though women are in the minority. David Steinhart, pastor of Forest Park Baptist Church just down the street: "Other than just being there, they certainly haven't been in your face in any way." Others in the community agree the tavern has kept a low profile. Zych said that for many years, he tried to avoid trouble and handle incidents without calling the cops, fearing a crime report might become a pretext to shut down the bar. Legend has it that Al Capone once ran a still downstairs. For a time, it operated as a speakeasy with a hidden system of tubes that brought liquor from the second floor down to hidden taps, Zych said. The Nutbush itself is marking 30 years, but the building has a storied if boozy history that stretches back to the 1920s. Zych joined the Nutbush about a year after it opened. Zych's former partner, who opened the bar, borrowed the name from Tina Turner's song about her hometown in Tennessee. Inside, the lights are dim and regulars start gathering in the afternoons. There is a door out in back for those who, in the past, wanted to slip in without being noticed.
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It is a nondescript wood-and-brick structure, its windows bricked in to provide the privacy and safety its customers once demanded. Located on Harlem Avenue a block south of the Green Line `L' station, the Nutbush presents a poker face to the middle-class community around it. "So what they've done really is quite amazing." "The Nutbush has been going it alone for a long time," Johnston said.
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Where such bars have succeeded, they have tended to be surrounded by a large gay and lesbian clientele, as on North Halsted, which has become "the Main Street of gay Chicago," Johnston said. The last of the strip clubs will reopen next week as a gay bar.Twenty-five years ago, gay bars tended to last little more than four years, facing pressure from police and other authorities, said Art Johnston, an owner of Sidetrack, which opened on North Halsted Street in 1982.
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The strip joints were often the first stop for people arriving in the area, looking for work in the oil fields. The next night, the club was nearly empty and the stage lights dark well after the doors opened.
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In stark contrast to earlier days, on one evening this week just two customers sat at the bar as night closed in. After two men died as the result of confrontations that spilled onto the street, police began standing outside the bars every night at closing time. The two strip clubs became known for fights, underage drinking and over-zealous security guards. Now, though, nightly earnings don’t add up to the cash that rolled in during the height of oil industry activity, when rowdy crowds of more than 200 passed through Heartbreakers, and bouncers with names like Beefy, Angry and Creepy were charged with keeping order. She moved to Williston from Chicago after hearing about the money to be made as a dancer here. “It’s just super sad to me because it’s a family here,” Alix, 23, said. The city passed an ordinance earlier this year that banned strip clubs from selling alcohol.
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The Grand Forks Herald reports today that last Friday marked the end of topless dancing in the city that grew by leaps and bounds during the oil boom. In Williston, N.D., the oil boom is officially over. When the last of the strip clubs close, an oil boom is officially over.