THE FOLLOWING IS EXCERPTED FROM THE OCTOBER 5, 2008 EDITION OF THE NEW YORK TIMES… End of an Era on Wall Street: Goodbye to All That By TIM ARANGO and JULIE CRESWELL Published: October 5,2008 Of course, there’s another much-watched barometer of Wall Street buoyancy: traffic at some of the city's high-end strip clubs. During the heyday of the Wall Street boom in the 1990s, Lincoln Town Cars, Rolls-Royces and Bentleys were often found idling outside places like Scores. Inside, according to people who were present at the time, groups of brokers routinely dropped $50,000 and even $100,000 in a single night. In the "presidential suite" at Scores, with its own wine steward who delivered $3,200 bottles of Champagne, the tabs grew quickly. While dancers may not receive gifts like the ones once lavished upon them — say, a $10,000 line of credit at Bloomingdale’s or a pair of $125,000 earrings — the clubs still appear to be filled with brokers, bankers and foreign businessmen. On a recent night at Rick's Cabaret in New York, men in suits and ties were in full force. At around 10 p.m. — early for a strip club — 10 of the club's 11 private rooms on the second floor were booked. "Men will never grow tired of the high-class strip-club experience," said Lonnie Hanover, a spokesman for Rick's Cabaret International in New York. Rick's, which is publicly traded on the Nasdaq and has 19 clubs across the country, even plans to expand. "When times are tough, there is no better form of escapism than a night at a gentlemen's club," he added. Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company