Dylan Brogan
“Smut-N-Eggs” (below right) is part of a longtime weekend tradition at Bennett’s, on Freeport Road.
Carolyn Fath Ashby
A man with a red flannel jacket issues a word of caution to patrons entering Bennett’s Meadowood Country Club on a recent Sunday afternoon.
“Look out,” he says. “There are going to be some boobies in there.”
The friendly warning is an understatement.
Bennett’s is Madison’s only tavern where breakfast is served with a side of sleaze. Pornography is played at the bar and grill until noon on weekends as part of a 40-year tradition called “Porn in the Morn” or “Smut-N-Eggs.” The entertainment was started by the bar’s former proprietor and namesake Gene Bennett, who died in 2018.
Today, Jan. 26, Bennett’s observes another yearly ritual: A stripper show.
“It’s always the Sunday afternoon before the Super Bowl. We’ve been doing it forever,” says Ashley Martino, Bennett’s bar manager, who organized the event. “All of the regulars look forward to it.”
Joe, a longtime customer, says he figures strippers have been performing at the bar on Freeport Road, once a year, for 15 to 20 years.
“I haven’t been to all of them. But it’s been going on for a long time,” says Joe. “[Bennett’s] could do this all the time because they have a burlesque license.”
But no such license exists in Madison.
Matt Tucker, from the city’s zoning department, says that Bennett’s has an adult entertainment establishment license, which allows the bar to show pornography, as does Lover’s Playground on East Wash (formerly Red Letter News). But to his knowledge, Visions — which is the middle of a 90-day suspension of its licenses — is the only business with an adult entertainment tavern license in Madison.
Martino, when pressed, insists the show is perfectly legal. So does the bartender and the employee working the door, who is Gene Bennett’s nephew. Martino explains the license the bar holds to show pornography on the weekends covers live nude dancing, too.
“We have a certain kind of license that lets us do it. I think it’s called a burlesque license,” Martino tells Isthmus. “We couldn’t do it if we didn’t have the licenses. We have advertised it pretty heavily.”
Martino says Bennett’s will also host male strippers on Feb. 9.
“We haven’t had the guys for a while. It wasn’t very busy last time we did,” says Martino. “This year, I’m just going to try it again and see what kind of crowd we get because I had a little bit more time to promote it.”
Bennett’s advertised the Jan. 26 event on Facebook and in newspaper ads as an “all female revue.”
The crowd is diverse, equally comprised of men and women, young and old. It’s mostly white people but plenty of people of color are also in attendance. Several couples are there, too. It feels like a typical Sunday afternoon at a Wisconsin tavern. That is, until the show begins.
Shortly after 3 p.m., makeshift stage lights are switched on. The music is turned up. And like that, Bennett’s is transformed by flesh. All eyes are fixed on the show’s three dancers, Emily, Scarlett and Tiffany. The trio — essentially naked — greet and tease patrons one-by-one.
Scarlett is crawling on a long table at the center of the bar, receiving tips along the way. Tiffany is sprawled on top of the bar rustling a customer’s face into her chest. Emily is chatting it up with a man wearing a bandana on his head as she sits on his lap. Patrons are alerted to an area cordoned off by a tarp if they desire a private dance.
“I was just on my way to church, took a wrong turn, and found myself here,” one man jokes to fellow attendees. “Why are you here?”
“I’m here to write about what’s happening here today,” this reporter replies.
“Sure you are,” the man says, rolling his eyes. “You got a blog?”
An hour in, the show becomes more explicit. Paying customers take turns licking whip cream off dancers who sit with their legs spread on a blanket on the bar’s floor. Then, a collection is taken up “to really get the party started” as the announcer puts it. What transpires is far more than dancing. Amanda and Jen, two customers, were invited to sit up close to watch. They looked on, mouths agape.
“I knew there would be strippers here today,” says Jen, who usually comes to Bennett’s with a group of friends for the bar’s Sunday meat raffle. “That was a sex show… I’m not one to judge.”
George the Stripper, which is how he’s introduced, owns Wisconsin Strippers, the company that has provided adult entertainment for Bennett’s annual shows for 14 years. He says the show is properly licensed.
“I’ve been talking to the manager about doing this maybe once a week” says George. “But I’m not sure how serious [Bennett’s] is about it.”
However legal, a woman in her late 60s or 70s is watching the show with a bemused grin on her face. She says she’s there because her male companion, who uses a wheelchair, “doesn’t get out too much and likes coming to this every year.” She doesn’t plan on returning for the male dancers.
“I don’t think so. Not my cup of tea,” says the woman. “But it’s all in good fun.”
