N.Y. Skin Club Ducks Ban by Welcoming Kids

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani thought he found a sure way to decimate the skin trade in the city by banishing “adult” clubs in most neighborhoods.

But one enterprising club and its lawyer may have found a loophole in the rule: Put the welcome mat out for children.

Ten’s World Class Cabaret in Manhattan did just that, and state Supreme Court Justice Stephen Crane ruled Thursday that Ten’s “cannot be defined as an adult eating and drinking establishment if it does not exclude minors.”

“You could take your 15-year-old son to see the movie ‘Striptease.’ Why can’t you take him to see a striptease?” asked Ten’s lawyer, Mark J. Alonso.

The mayor disagreed.

“I would suggest that if a parent was bringing a kid into a place like that, we should question whether the parent should have custody of the kid,” Giuliani said Friday.

Since opening its doors for children last year, Ten’s has had only one minor customer: a 14-year-old who came in with his parents, tourists from South America, Alonso said.

The city will appeal.