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Hooters Coming to Former Peep World Space in Midtown

By Mathew Katz | August 7, 2012 12:35pm

MIDTOWN — Devotees of a closed-down porn shop near Penn Station will soon be able to gawk at voluptuous ladies inside its former home — but from now on they'll be wearing clothes, if only just barely.

The space that housed longtime fixture Peep World will soon become a Hooters restaurant, according to liquor license records.

In July, Community Board 5 received an application from Hooters of 33rd St. Inc. for a liquor license at 155 W. 33rd St. — the same spot where Peep World spent decades peddling adult films and sex toys.

The board recommended the State Liquor Authority approve the license without comment at a July meeting.

Peep World closed on March 26 after a close-out sale, prompting widespread sadness from its devoted clientele.

"It's a sad state of affairs that this city's perverts have so few places to go these days,"  one regular customer lamented at the time.

The location, in a prime spot across from Madison Square Garden, was set to become a rooftop gastropub run by the owners of the Overlook Lounge on East 44th Street. That deal apparently fell through.

Neither Hooters nor the Overlook Lounge responded to requests for comment. It's unclear if the Hooters location will take advantage of the building's rooftop as the Overlook planned.

The West 33rd Street location is also a stop from BoltBus, where dozens of customers regularly line up at the curb their way out of the city.

"I'd go to a Hooters while I wait for the bus," said a rider who identified himself as Matt.

"They've got good wings. I'd go for the wings."