As restaurants start to reopen in Rhode Island for outdoor dining and drinking, strip clubs are also looking to get in on the action.

Though food has never been the main draw for these nightlife mainstays, they will be able to open for dining if they have the right local licenses, get the local permission they need, and follow new state guidance to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

The strip clubs-turned-restaurants will be subject to the same restrictions as other eateries that were allowed to reopen as of Monday. That means that adult entertainment -- strip shows, nudity and lap dances -- is off the table for now.

In other words, they’ll likely look a lot like outdoor Hooters, just with fewer tables and more hand sanitizer.

It’s one stark example, in a much maligned but still lucrative business, of the tradeoffs, uncertainties and criticisms that are inevitable as Rhode Island slowly reopens.

Rhode Island Dolls, a strip club in Woonsocket, announced on Facebook that it would reopen Thursday under the new guidance. Owner Andy Noyes said strip clubs are in deep financial peril, blocked from getting federal Paycheck Protection Program support but still with bills to pay.

His plan was to set up a stage along with tables — with plenty of distance — in the parking lot.

But, the Woonsocket city solicitor told The Providence Journal, a stage wouldn’t fly. While Rhode Island Dolls could operate as a restaurant, it couldn’t do adult entertainment, and couldn’t have a stage, John DeSimone said.

Noyes said he’d still try to make a go of it even without the stage, but would probably ditch the expensive tent without it.

“I just wanted to get the girls back to work,” he said.

Rhode Island Dolls’ website describes its “award-winning” food, with a menu including three-cheese quesadilla and an eight-ounce filet mignon.

Dinner and drinks would be served by its waitstaff and its entertainers, Noyes said. Masks would have to be worn (until such time as someone wanted to eat or drink), and according to an ad posted to Facebook, there would be “NO contact!”

The move was greeted with some backlash — if strip clubs were allowed to reopen, some commenters wondered, why not hair salons? Why not churches?

Noyes responded that they weren’t considering themselves an essential business — they were just trying to make a living.

“Some people like to go to church, some people don’t,” he said. “Some people like to go to strip joints, some people don’t. Everyone’s got their own cup of tea.”

Matt Sheaff, a spokesman for the state Department of Business Regulation, said a strip club that wants to open for outdoor dining can’t have any entertainment, and still must follow all the rules.

“As long as they’re following the Phase 1 regulations and guidance, have an active food and beverage license and (don’t have) entertainment, that would seem to be permissible,” Sheaff said.

On Monday, Gov. Gina Raimondo’s administration started allowing restaurants to reopen for outdoor dining. For about two months, as the coronavirus spread rapidly aroud the state, restaurants had been restricted to takeout or delivery.

Among the new restrictions in Phase 1: dining must be by reservation, with a 20-table limit, and no menus.

In Providence, one club said it is looking to jump back in. Club Desire, in Franklin Square, is planning to reopen its patio, which is not visible from the street, its attorney, Nick Hemond, said.

The wait staff’s outfits would match the bawdy brand of a strip club. But while Desire touts its top-quality food, it still won’t be like the typical strip-club experience.

 “That’s like saying, we’re going to let you go to Yankee Stadium, but we’re going to have soccer instead of baseball,” he said.

The club is trying to work with the City of Providence exactly what the regulations would look like -- both in the short term, on the patio, and in the future, when indoor service will be allowed to continue.

Hemond said he’s concerned: The city hasn’t been responsive to his attempts to work through what reasonable restrictions would look like, he said. And it could provide an excuse for people to get rid of an industry they already don’t like, he said.

“The city’s inviting a lawsuit, because at some point, this is going to become such a losing matter that we’re going to have to take action,” Hemond said.

Adult entertainment is protected by the First Amendment, and it provides a living for a lot of people, Hemond noted. There has to be a rational basis to put restrictions in place. The club, he said, is willing to work with the city — perhaps, when the indoor portion is allowed to reopen, it could have plexiglass surrounding the stage.

City ordinances arespecific about what qualifies as “nudity,” which isn’t allowed without an adult entertainment license. That will have an effect on how Desire is able to do business for now.

But the distinction between different types of undergarments doesn’t really seem to be relevant when the piece of clothing that can stop the coronavirus is a face mask, Hemond said.

“Emergency powers are not so far-ranging that they don’t have to have a rational basis for what they’re trying to achieve,“ Hemond said.