A topless doughnut shop? See the South Florida businesses that showed some skin to sell

South Florida has a nude beach and plenty of topless bars.

But did you know that in the 1980s and ‘90s, a few regular businesses tried to sell with skin?

Topless doughnut shops and a car wash set up shop for a few years in Broward and Palm Beach counties.

There were some protests, and eventually the thrill was gone for customers.

Roadside hot dog carts with workers dressed in revealing thong bikinis also dotted the area. The law caught up with that trend.

Let’s take a look back at these businesses through the archives of the Miami Herald:

R Donuts

Topless doughnut shop

First published Nov. 11, 1985

There were no salacious poses next to the Bunn-omatic coffee maker when Fort Lauderdale’s topless doughnut shop opened at 6 a.m. Wednesday.

Denise and Charlotte are two nude dancers simply trying to pick up a few daylight dollars.

So they fetched doughnuts and poured coffee. They endured sidelong glances, stale jokes and chilly air conditioning. They even allowed themselves to be bathed in the harsh light of competing television news crews and interviewed dozens of times by reporters.

But Denise and Charlotte did not try to radiate sex appeal amid the Formica decor and Burger King architecture of R-Donuts, 2101 S. Federal Highway.

The effect, as customer Dave Harwood of Orlando noted on his way out the door, was not particularly naughty.

“It’s a normal coffee shop,” he said. “They just don’t wear tops.”

What they wore was matching coffee-brown, beltless hot pants and shoes (sneakers for Denise, white high heels for Charlotte).

Charlotte gave her age, 24, but not her last name. When she dances at men’s clubs at night, she has the benefit of a drink first.

“But at least you don’t have to deal with drunks here,” she said.

Denise, just off her 7 p.m.-to-4:30 a.m. nude dancing shift, said the job suits her as long as her mother doesn’t see her on the television news in Texas.

“She’s a gospel radio preacher,” Denise said. “She would kill me.”

Denise, who also declined to give her last name, said she is 19.

The women, who work mostly for their tips, chatted with the dozen reporters and photographers who accounted for most of the business during the first hours of operation.

Photographers had plenty of requests for the waitresses (“Girls, can I get you to turn around and work with those doughnuts?” one television cameraman asked.) Shop owner Andy Emery did his best to keep things under control.

“No photos from the front, guys,” Emery pleaded several times.

He had help from the Fort Lauderdale Police Department, which had three squad cars and a motorcycle officer posted at the business at 6 a.m. Someone heaved two bricks through the front glass of the shop last week, but there were no signs of trouble Wednesday.

A dozen protesters, mostly residents of the surrounding area, arrived at 8 a.m. and marched back and forth on the sidewalk.

“We’re sick and tired of it,” said Peggy Holly, who lives four blocks north of the shop. “This area has too many (adult) bookstores and nude places. Where are the children’s rights?”

“I think it’s great,” Emery said of the protest. “Everybody’s got their own thing.”

Business was light at first for $1 mugs of coffee (no refills) and $1 doughnuts. There were just three customers at 7 a.m. But by 11:30 there were 19 customers, including two women.

Joie Tipmore of Fort Lauderdale, who did her waitressing fully clothed in a Fort Lauderdale restaurant 20 years ago, said she was not offended.

“I don’t think there’s a porno effect,” she said.

The fare was not noteworthy.

“It’ll pass, nothing spectacular,” Tim Denning of Fort Lauderdale said of his chocolate-glazed doughnut.

“Andy,” Charlotte called out at one point, “the coffee’s coming out cold.”

Revealing car wash

First published April 27, 1992

Broward’s only topless car wash has gone out of business.

David Souza, owner of the Hands On Car Wash, which was at 207 N. Federal Hwy. until mid-March, said he’s a victim of the recession.

“The economy really put a crunch on me,” he said.

Business dropped off and customers who were willing to pay $20 to have a topless woman hand wash and wax their cars slowed to a trickle.

The tourist trade was slow, Souza said. Not as many tourists from the Northeast and Midwest passed by the car wash, so the scantily clad women stood idle some days.

The car wash went topless last year. The women washed from behind a blue curtain.

Now, Souza said he wants to mobilize. He’s trying to set up topless car-wash nights with sports bars. The women would wash cars in the bars’ parking lots.

If the mobile car wash is successful, Souza said he might take it on the road.

“I’d like to tour it up the whole East Coast,” he said.

Hot dog vendors

First published Nov. 13, 1994

On Bunky and Sherry’s last day at work selling hot dogs on Copans Road in Pompano Beach, their customers came for one last look -- and a hot dog, too.

“What’s wrong with it? They wear that stuff on the beach,” said Lou Viola of Coconut Creek, watching the two bikini-clad vendors at work.

The City Commission unanimously approved an ordinance Tuesday that prohibits all vendors -- including the hot dog hawkers who wear revealing thong bikinis -- from selling along the road.

The ordinance was in response to numerous complaints from residents who say the women dressed in thong bikinis create a traffic hazard by distracting drivers along Copans Road west of Powerline Road.

“I just felt that public nudity is improper in the city,” said Pompano Beach resident Suzanne Geyer.

The news of the new ordinance angered Sherry and Bunky, who were out for the last time Wednesday selling hot dogs and sodas. They were dressed in thong bathing suits and suede boots.

“We won’t have jobs. We won’t have a way to pay our bills,” Sherry said, leaning on her cart after the lunchtime rush.

Sherry and Bunky, who wouldn’t give their last names, were given 24 hours to move their cart. The half dozen other vendors usually lining the road abandoned their spots in fear of ending up in court, facing a fine of up to $500 and 60 days in jail.

“Why don’t they have a dress code?” Sherry said. “I’ll wear a snow suit if I have to.”

But her customers prefer the tiny bathing suits, attracted by the hot dogs -- and the buns.

“We came out for the novelty,” Tom Brigtweg of Worcester, Mass., said as he finished munching on a hot dog. “I don’t find it objectionable.”

The city’s ordinance prohibits all vendors -- no matter what they’re wearing -- from selling their food or merchandise to drivers. The new law only allows vendors on the move -- such as an ice cream truck -- to stop and sell to people in an adjacent building.

To work in Pompano Beach, the vendors must get permission to be on private property, where they have access to restrooms and can provide sufficient parking.

Getting the vendors off the streets was a necessity, said Pompano Beach resident and mom Melanie Cook.

“It’s a matter of safety,” Cook said.

It’s also a moral issue, she said. The women’s bathing suits barely cover the unmentionables. Cook called it pornographic.

But for vendors who wear shorts, not bathing suits, the law prohibits them from conducting what they say is legitimate business.

Fort Lauderdale and Broward County passed similar ordinances limiting vendors from roadways, mainly in response to complaints about women in thongs.

This story was originally published February 4, 2025 at 8:12 AM.