Breakfast in Bridgetown

A random thought during a lunch break, working at home.

I was looking around for weekend brunches, and I came across the Sapphire Hotel at 50th and Hawthorne. Right there at the first of their “about us” section, they say the place used to be a brothel, and they go on to talk about everybody feeling sexy, come in and get cozy, etc.

This fascinates me. For one thing, how do we know it used to be a brothel? And did every old hotel in America used to be one, because it sure seems that way. Besides all that, who considers a brothel cool or sexy? Even guys who might be tempted to visit one — which is probably every guy who is currently breathing — would never think to tell anybody, much less that doing so would make them seem cool or glamorous. I’ve never been to one, but I would imagine brothels would be kind of depressing, certainly not glamorous, and most definitely illegal. Except in Nevada, of course, but even those can’t be too nice.

And yet, just about every old hotel will have you believe that it used to be a brothel. I guess a brothel in the 40s or 50s was cool and glamorous? The women there were more “ladies” than today’s unfortunate “prostitutes”? The men there were “gentlemen” sewing their wild oats? What difference does a few decades really make?

And for that matter, how far in the past does a brothel have to be before we call it cool? Certainly if I told you a place was a brothel 40 years ago, you’d think something different from me saying it was a brothel last week — and forget about “It’s a brothel right now”! You’d go nowhere near the place, right? Much less, eat in it. And what if I told you “Guys used to visit a brothel here years ago” versus “I was in a brothel last week”?

There are many things in life I don’t get. This whole brothel thing is clearly one of them.

By the way, has anybody actually eaten at the Sapphire Hotel?