Stonewall’s top floor to become male strip club

Exclusive: Stonewall Hotel’s top floor will be turned into an upmarket, all-male nude strip club with a cover charge, as part of plans to revitalise the 27-year-old Oxford Street gay bar.

Following news that Stonewall Hotel had been acquired by US-based Pride Holdings Group, Gay Sydney News can now reveal the venue’s top floor will be turned into a club named Johnsons Sydney. It will be modelled on two Florida-based bars in Tampa and Fort Lauderdale with the same Johnsons branding.

Pride Holdings director of business development Matt Colunga, who owned both Florida Johnsons venues until he recently sold them to Pride Holdings, will soon fly to Sydney to organise the new fit-out.

Although the financial terms of Stonewall’s sale to Pride Holdings have not been disclosed, Colunga confirmed in an August 7 phone interview that he sold his Fort Lauderdale and Tampa Johnsons venues to Pride Holdings in exchange for shares.

Stonewall Hotel renovations

In order to make way for the new Johnsons bar, Stonewall’s top floor would be stripped back and renovated, Colunga said.

“It’s just the top level for now, until we fill it up, which shouldn’t take long, and then we’ll take over the level underneath,” he said, adding that the top floor’s renovation would involve it being “gutted”, which included the removal of booths.

“The bad thing about having a large booth is, if two people sit down, the whole booth is gone,” he said.

“I’d like to seat as many people as possible.”

The top floor will be redesigned to “look more like my club [in Tampa and Fort Lauderdale], where there are stages in the room that three dancers can fit on, seating all the way around, with some dance areas”.

“I’ve already had lots of conference calls, Zoom meetings with Sydney on what I want done,” he said.

“I’ve drawn up the plans and … the engineer and the architect actually meet today there [in Sydney] to go over the budget of doing the club the way I want it.”

Opening hours and cover charge

He said Johnsons will start out operating four days a week, from Wednesday to Sunday, and ramp up to five days.

“And honestly, we can possibly go to six days. We just have to fill it out first.”

The cover charge would be around the $15 mark, although the pricing model would be in line with how Johnsons operates in the US, with entry likely to be free until later in the night.

“My clubs are $US10 ($A15) at the door after eight o’clock,” he said. “In Fort Lauderdale we open at five, so at five it’s free to get in, you get happy hour pricing, and then you have a door cover after eight o’clock.”

Dancers to go full nude

In relation to the nude aspect of the dancing, Colunga said Stonewall already had a licence to allow it, “but they chose not to do it”.

If tipped enough by patrons, Colunga said dancers would go full nude – an experience he had been unable to offer at Florida Johnsons venues due to local government restrictions.

“We run it [Johnsons] like a female strip club. This isn’t the [male striptease dance troupe] the Chippendales or Thunder from Down Under. There are no skits.

“They dance the way they want to dance, they wear what they want to wear on stage. They go up there for three-song … sets. By the third song, if they’ve been tipped enough, they go full nude.”

Private rooms to be installed

While the Stonewall brand would remain for the ground level, Colunga’s vision for the top floor and its potential expansion to the floor below would involve the installation of “private rooms” for dancers to mingle with patrons.

While acknowledging that the top floor was a small space to work with, Colunga said the private rooms would be installed in the corners.

“At my Fort Lauderdale bar … they have four chairs in the back where the curtains don’t close all the way around them … and then you have a VIP room in the corner.”

But those rooms would come with a strict no touching rule.

“It’s enough to see it. You don’t have to grab it,” he said.

A former dancer himself who ran full nude clubs for 18 years, Columba said that he would travel to Sydney within the next 30 days to organise the fit-out at Stonewall.

“I’ll be there for six months to make sure everything goes nice and smooth, everyone’s trained.

“I’ll bring a couple of my dancers up from Tampa to teach the [Sydney] dancers the proper way to dance … because go-go dancing and stripping are two totally different things.”

What Johnsons bars offer in Florida

In Florida, Johnsons bars are described on their websites as upscale speakeasies with live male burlesque and VIP offerings.

In a recent online video, Colunga described the clubs as having thought about “every little thing … from the scent [Black Bamboo] of the club [to] the lighting”.

“Everyone’s tight and toned, they’re humble, they’re nice. You don’t feel like you’re getting hustled. We have great time. We make sure you leave with a smile on your face,” he said.

At both the Fort Lauderdale and Tampa Johnsons, only men are allowed in the VIP lounge and a “liquor locker” provides a member and three guests a reserved table and bottle service every visit. The liquor locker service also includes a plaque with whatever name a member wants on it, as well as reserved parking.

For the locker service, there is an initial two bottle buy-in of alcohol typically costing between $US500 ($A766) and $US700 ($A1,073), with an ongoing requirement to purchase at least one bottle per month.

A “gold card” membership, which can be used at both venues, is $US350 ($536) a year and includes two guests and reserved parking.

Without a gold membership, the VIP room at Johnsons Tampa is $US10 ($A15) entry and includes access to a private bar, lounge seating, and a private bathroom, entry and smoking area.