Inside the Insane Feud Between a Vegan Strip Club and the Steak House Next Door
In Portland, Oregon, a vegan strip club and the steak house-slash-strip club next door are locked in an intense rivalry; protests have ensued, and a wall has been erected between the two businesses. We spoke to several of the employees and customers to find out more.
Nine years ago, Casa Diablo, the world's only vegan strip club, opened in—you guessed it—Portland, Oregon, with a veggie-based menu and a ban on fur and leather onstage. It was years before Portlandia started spoofing the city's first-class weirdness, and at the time the idea seemed normal enough to locals, who have long bragged about having more nude bars and vegans per capita than any city in America.
But now the founder of Casa Diablo, Johnny "Diablo" Zukle, finds himself in a turf war. The vegan flesh peddler—who says he "puts the meat on the pole, not the plate"—recently opened a second branch of the club, Dusk 'Til Dawn: Casa Diabo 2, just feet from The Acropolis, a 35-year-old strip club-cum-steakhouse. The move angered Acropolis owner Bob Polizos, a proud carnivore who famously serves $7 ribeyes, and claims to raise some of the cattle himself on a nearby farm.
From there, things got stranger. A literal wall has been erected to keep a lid on any customer defections; hired security has been ratcheted up; and the clubs have been rocked by gun-toting drunks, family values protestors, and strippers quietly ordering food from the enemy. The proprietors of Acropolis are particularly unwilling to get along, saying that Casa Diablo is "a whorehouse" with "a bad reputation." (In 2015, Casa Diablo was sued by two strippers, who alleged they had been sexually harassed and denied back wages.)
How did it get this bad? It all started with "a good conspiracy theory." (Interviews have been edited and condensed for clarity.)
Planting the seed
Johnny Diablo Zukle, 52, founder of Casa Diablo and Dusk 'Til Dawn: Casa Diabo 2: It was 1985, and I was 21 years old. I see this guy on TV named Dr. John McDougall. He's talking about how animal products can basically kill you. He's saying government is part of a big conspiracy, that we're all being scammed, that if you look at the food pyramid it's all about meat and dairy, but it's printed by the National Dairy Council. I like a good conspiracy theory, so I started doing research. And I realized that if I don't eat animal products, wear clothes made from animals, or use products tested on animals, I can eliminate so much suffering in the world. So I went from flesh eater to vegan. When I told my mom, she goes, "Oh son, don't become a fanatic." Well, too late!
Bob Polizos, 76, founder of Acropolis Steakhouse Strip Club: I grew up in Greece in a small village up north. My parents raised pigs, so we had a pig every Christmas and a lamb every Easter. I used to do a lot of cooking before I got to America. I worked on a cargo ship, and on the ship I would cook for a crew of 40. I loved it.
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Get some boobs up there!
Zukle: The thinking was: I have a building that's going into foreclosure. What do I have to do to get guys to come in and eat? So I put up a stage. And I got some boobs up there. And you know what they say now? They say, "This is some of the best food I've ever had." It's the happiest place on earth. It's Disneyland with tits!
Polizos: The ladies helped me; they brought the customers. They are good ladies. I love the ladies. Now people come here night and day. After I brought the dancers here, a lot of other businesses in Portland started doing it.
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Tit for tat
Zukle: I heard—from an Acropolis dancer actually—that the space next door to the club was available. And I thought it would be funny to open a second vegan strip club next door to a strip club that's a steakhouse. That was 2011. We opened in 2015. You can have a great meal here without hurting an innocent creature.
The old guy, Bob [Polizos]—I like him, he's a nice guy. When were first getting started, he said, "I like competition." And I said, "Good, because you're gonna get it!" People go over there for $5 steak bites, then they come here for a $500 lap dance.
Bob Polizos: I don't want them here. We are a real restaurant. They're nothing but a whorehouse!
Andreas Polizos: They have a bad reputation. When they opened, there were anti-strip club protests. We got screwed because it looked like neighbors were protesting us.
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Andreas Polizos: Culturally, it's two different worlds. It really is. They're vegan, and we're all about meat. That has to have something to do with the conflict.
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Zukle: People say, "You don't exploit animals, but you exploit women." And my answer to that is humans don't exploit animals—we murder them. We torture and murder and eat them. Exploiting an animal would be like having a poodle, making it pretty and taking it to a competition to win fifty bucks. You might spend that fifty bucks on a dog toy—or you might spend it on marijuana for yourself. That would be exploitation. But chopping up these creatures while they're still alive, pulling off their skin and watching them scream in agony? That is murder and torture.
Broadly: So... women are the poodles in this analogy?
Zukle: Look, I don't cut up women. I don't eat women, either.
Customer feedback
Blake Rauch, 33, customer: Acropolis is a destination spot. They're famously farm-to-strip-club-table. Their strippers are a little more... seasoned.
Molly Torbert, 31, customer: The strippers at Casa Diablo are punk rock and grunge, which I like. It's cool and different. I can appreciate a beautiful woman—but their shows with dildos and sex acts are too raunchy for me.
Nate, 33, customer: Casa dancers have a higher level of skill and freakiness and the chicks have a wide knowledge of art. But Acrop is, like, historical. Plus there's a weed dispensary across the street. Only thing is, I'm nervous I'll run into my dad there someday.
The future
Zukle:
The plan was never to run a strip club forever. I'm really into real estate; that's my main thing now. I want to build a vegan housing complex. I'd like to build a whole vegan city, maybe somewhere out in Willamette Valley. But I'm the founder of the club, so I'll always be around. It's kind of like KFC and Colonel Sanders: They'll just use me as a mascot. I'll be the vegan Colonel Sanders of the strip club world.
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Originally Posted by phill4paul
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