La Bodeguita closed it’s doors last week.
The word on the street is that the club owners had reached an agreement with the Bern company, who recently completed building and opening a new hotel next door, on the corner of Calle Uruguay and Avenida Balboa. The hotel didn’t want a club of ill repute operating next to their main entrance.
La Bodeguita was supposed to have closed and moved a year ago. They built and opened La Bodeguita VIP on Via Espana. However, the original club never closed.
I heard a rumor today that the club was served with court papers and that there was a lien against the property and the club’s equipment.
Long story short, the club is closed, and as there are people removing equipment from the club as I type this, it appears that La Bodeguita is closed for good.
The independant hookers are pretty upset. For a long time now, there were really only three places to ply their trade; La Bodeguita, Habanos Cigar Cafe, and the Veneto Hotel and Casino.
The Veneto hasn’t let girls come in without an escort for at least two months, and in the last two weeks, they’ve stopped allowing the girls to come in, even with a customer of the hotel. Dark days indeed! The girls currently hang out at Manolos resturant across the street, but rumor has it that Manolos is employing a security guard to keep the girls out.
So, that leaves Habanos.
Sure, the girls can try other casinos, and possibly other bars. Most of the other casinos are fairly low-rent places, and they don’t draw the types of customers the girls need to survive. Sahara Club on Calle Uruguay used to be a good place to girl-watch, but it fell out of favor quite a while ago. I don’t know if the club discouraged the patronage of the prostitutes, or vice versa. I would expect to see the girls migrate back to Sahara, should the club allow it. Business had sucked at Sahara for months, so it wouldn’t surprise me if they let them come back in.
