Spearmint Rhino Charging Into Dallas

By Robert Wilonsky Mon., Apr. 9 2007 at 12:42 PM

Categories: News

Man, the Dallas Business Journal has all the good stories -- like this one from today, about how the internationally renown Spearmint Rhino topless joint's has taken over the old Old San Francisco Steak House spot on Composite Drive, off Walnut Hill Lane and Stemmons Expressway. Now, you have to be a subscriber to get the whole story, but it goes something like this: Forty-two-year-old Brad Keller of Houston is a partner in the Cali-based gents-club franchise -- he runs clubs in West Palm Beach, Toronto and Melbourne, Australia -- and he's the dude who snatched up the real estate on Composite. Why come? "I've always had my eye on Texas, being a Texas boy," Keiller tells the DBJ. "The Dallas opportunity presented itself, and I jumped at it."

This comes about a month after Houston-based Rick's Cabaret said it too was entering the Dallas market -- though we're still not sure where and won't even know till April 30, when the deal's supposed to close. (Incidentally, FinancialWire is reporting today that Rick's Cabaret International just sold some 425,000 shares of restricted common stock at $9.40 per share, and that the company's using the $3,595,500 to open the Dallas club.) The Spearmint Rhino has some 14 clubs in the U.S., not to mention a couple of adult bookstores; nonetheless, Keller tells the DBJ, "it's a misperception that the club is about sex." Absolutely not. It's about science. (Update: Yeah, I probably shoulda mentioned that's not a particularly work- or kids-friendly link there.) --Robert Wilonsky