From Strip Club to Southern Food: Bootay's House of Soul

Looks like we might have an early winner for "restaurant name of the year": An Arlington building once occupied by infamous topless bar Fantasy Ranch will soon become a Southern comfort food restaurant called Bootay's House of Soul.

Developer Justin McWilliams tells the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that Bootay's "will be open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, feature an all-female waiter staff and have room for about 300 patrons." (Anyone care to speculate on the uniforms of the "all-female waiter staff"?) It will feature live music in the evenings and offer shuttle service to Arlington's nearby sport stadiums.

According to the paper, the 10,000 square foot space dates back to 1979, when it began life as Bobby Gee's Steakhouse; since then, it's spent 17 years as the aforementioned strip club (and the city's "most notorious violator" of strip club-related ordinances) , with a brief stint as a bar & grill that ended in 2011. McWilliams estimates construction on the restaurant will take about 90 days once the appropriate permits have been secured.

· Former Fantasy Ranch Property to Become Southern-Style Restaurant [FW Star-Telegram]
· More Arlington coverage [-EDFW-]

[Photo credit: City-Data]