Nude dining has officially entered South Florida’s steakhouse scene, with a Hollywood restaurant betting that an unconventional monthly experience can bring new customers through the door. C.L.A.S.S. Soirée Steakhouse has been hosting an adults only dinner where guests can remove their clothes while enjoying a full meal inside the restaurant.
Video
Chef and owner Maurad Ali has operated C.L.A.S.S. for nearly eight years, according to Axios, and said the restaurant is looking for ways to stand out in a difficult business environment. Explaining the name of the restaurant to NBC 6, Ali said, “C.L.A.S.S. is an acronym for culinary, luxury and superb service.”The nude dining experience is not replacing the restaurant’s normal service. Instead, NBC 6 reports that it takes place once each month.
“The first Monday of every month, we have our host, our nude dinner, when guests can take their clothes off and enjoy a great dinner,” Ali said.
The next event is scheduled for September 7. Attendance has been kept relatively intimate, with about 20 guests expected at one recent event. Tickets were listed at $250 for men, $150 for women and $300 for couples.
Privacy is a major part of making nude dining work inside a public restaurant. The windows are covered during the event and employees remain dressed. Ali described the arrangement this way:
“It’s legal because the windows are completely blacked out,” he said. “No one can see from outside. Our staff are fully clothed, so there’s no entertainment from us. It’s just dinner. That’s what makes it legal.”
Local 10 separately checked the legality with Hollywood officials. Joann Hussey, a spokesperson for the city, told the station the event is legal because the staff members working inside remain clothed.
The idea reportedly grew out of an event the restaurant had already hosted. A nudist group previously booked the establishment for a private gathering. That experience gave Ali the idea to turn the concept into something C.L.A.S.S. could offer directly.
“Once the event was finished, my idea said, ‘Let’s do it ourselves,’” he said.
There are also specific sanitation measures built into the evening. Guests are offered items intended to create a barrier between their bodies and restaurant furniture.
“We have a robe that everyone is offered, we have a leather seat cushion, which is sanitized, and we also have a lap towel,” Ali said.
While the concept is unusual for South Florida, nude dining has been tried elsewhere with dramatically different results.
In London, The Bunyadi attracted massive attention when it opened as a temporary clothing optional restaurant in 2016. According to Condé Nast Traveler, its waiting list reached roughly 46,000 people around the time of its debut. Guests could choose between clothed and nude areas, while phones and photography were restricted as part of the restaurant’s effort to create a stripped back dining environment.
Paris later had its own experiment. O’Naturel opened in 2017 as a nudist restaurant where customers left their clothes and phones outside the dining room. The restaurant shut down in February 2019 after its owners said there were not enough customers to sustain the business.
Those examples show both sides of the nude dining equation. The idea can generate enormous curiosity, but turning curiosity into repeat business is another challenge.
C.L.A.S.S. may have an advantage by making the experience monthly instead of building its entire operation around nudity. Axios reported that the restaurant’s first nude dinner sold out shortly after it was announced, while Ali said he wanted to keep attendance around 20 people. The limited format allows the restaurant to preserve its traditional steakhouse business while giving adventurous customers something they cannot find at most South Florida restaurants.
Ali has made it clear that novelty is part of the strategy.
“This is not your grandpa’s steakhouse, this is chef Ali’s experience for people who want to do something different,” he said. “The goal is to survive in this economy.”
