Venus of Full Nude Club Mons and its fiery owner Joe Redner helped Tampa gain a reputation as the “country strip club capital.”
Now, the 2001 Odyssey – a strip joint across the street with a spacecraft on the roof – is set to carry on that legacy.
In 2001, Odyssey acquired “world-famous” Mons Venus at the 2040 N. Dale Mabry Highway in January, owner Don Kleinhans told the Tampa Bay Times on Thursday.
“What’s going on is that we bought a business, not a real estate,” said Kleinhans, president of 2001.
The goal is to maintain Mons Venus rather than seeing out-of-town companies take over – there are some improvements.
“For the past 15 years, Joe has been our peers. But he is also our direct competitor, and we have always worked together rather than against each other,” Kleinhans said. “And in October he called me and said, ‘Hey, listen, I think the time is right, and I always said I’m interested in him.” ”
Kleinhans said the 2001 Odyssey would pay Redner’s rent and consulting fees.
“It wasn’t a sale. It was a management agreement,” Redner said when he contacted reporters over the phone. “I don’t want to tell you about it.”
![Mons Venus has received several upgrades since the 2001 Odyssey team, including the DJ booth, intervened in January this year.](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 620 465"/%3E "Mons Venus has received several upgrades since the 2001 Odyssey team, including the DJ booth, intervened in January this year.")
Before opening Mons Venus, it was believed that Redner launched Tampa’s first full nude club in the 1970s. Some call him the father of lap dance. In the late 90s, he led a highly publicized war with Tampa over the “6-foot rule” and was an ordinance that required naked dancers to maintain six feet of distance from their clients.
Kleinhans was quiet about the new management contract as his team worked to give Mons a facelift. He hopes it will “same club, just refreshed.”
“It really needed modernization and I think it was one of the last clubs in the United States that operated by Jukebox,” he said.
All 2,000 light bulbs on the iconic Mons Venus sign have been replaced. Redner used marquees to spread the political message and even punished former Tampa mayor Dick Greco.
![Venus of Mons, located on Tampa's 2040 N. Dalemabury Highway, used Mayor Dick Greco using sign space to enforce contactless ordinances after the city passed. "6 feet rule" To ensure that nude dancers don't get too close to patrons in the late 1990s.](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 620 432"/%3E "Venus of Mons, located on Tampa's 2040 N. Dalemabury Highway, used Mayor Dick Greco using sign space to enforce contactless ordinances after the city passed. \"6 feet rule\" To ensure that nude dancers don't get too close to patrons in the late 1990s.")
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Other upgrades include new upholstery, lighting, sound and adding mirrors to “all flat surfaces.” There is a private VIP room with full nude dancing. The bathroom quickly gets a door to the food stall.
Redner always had female leadership on Mons Venus, so Kleinhans hired former Miss Nude World Bambi Wilde as general manager.
“I think Joe Redner allowed every club in Tampa to get the success they have because of his position in fighting for his morality and the industry, and I always admire Joe,” Kleinhans said. “I think it’s extremely important as a world-renowned location and a landmark in Tampa, where legacy continues.”
