Like sailors, the managers of men's lifestyle brands have sayings. One of the most important is:
"Steak before pee, fine with me,
Pee before steak, big mistake."
Not all crazy gambles pay off. At some point in the 90s, seeing his brand eroded by increasingly gynecological content in Playboy, not to mention the general pornification of culture, Bob Guccione decided to take his flagship magazine in a bold new direction. With a focus group evidently consisting of Isaac Pierce Knightley, and Isidore Preston Daley, Penthouse charted a bold course -- what IHOP was to pancakes, they would be to images of women urinating. (SFW). Fine, except for how Guccione overestimated the extent that his readers appreciated such content, and sales plummeted. The logical next step after you have hired models to soak your brand with urine? Opening a steak house! There's more than one way to make bearnaise, but I still think allowing restaurants and strip clubs each to focus on their core competencies makes sense.
And what puts The Penthouse Executive Club on the radar? Bruni's front page DI/DO review! Don't count the Count out. For a food critic, reviewing any restaurant offering a dessert called a buttery nipple* is the equivalent of cleaning fish at your desk, Office Space stizz.
*Not attached to Paula Deen, though her road to recovery was paved with the stuff.
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