Nine years ago, Casa Diablo, the world's only vegan strip club, opened in—you guessed it—Portland, Oregon, with a veggie-based menu and a ban on fur and leather onstage. It was years before Portlandia started spoofing the city's first-class weirdness, and at the time the idea seemed normal enough to locals, who have long bragged about having more nude bars and vegans per capita than any city in America.

But now the founder of Casa Diablo, Johnny "Diablo" Zukle, finds himself in a turf war. The vegan flesh peddler—who says he "puts the meat on the pole, not the plate"—recently opened a second branch of the club, Dusk 'Til Dawn: Casa Diablo 2, just feet from The Acropolis, a 35-year-old strip club-cum-steakhouse. The move angered Acropolis owner Bob Polizos, a proud carnivore who famously serves $7 ribeyes, and claims to raise some of the cattle himself on a nearby farm.

From there, things got stranger. A literal wall has been erected to keep a lid on any customer defections; hired security has been ratcheted up; and the clubs have been rocked by gun-toting drunks, family values protestors, and strippers quietly ordering food from the enemy. The proprietors of Acropolis are particularly unwilling to get along, saying that Casa Diablo is "a whorehouse" with "a bad reputation." (In 2015, Casa Diablo was sued by two strippers, who alleged they had been sexually harassed and denied back wages.)

How did it get this bad? It all started with "a good conspiracy theory." (Interviews have been edited and condensed for clarity.)

Planting the seed

Johnny Diablo Zukle, 52, founder of Casa Diablo and Dusk 'Til Dawn: Casa Diablo 2: It was 1985, and I was 21 years old. I see this guy on TV named Dr. John McDougall. He's talking about how animal products can basically kill you. He's saying government is part of a big conspiracy, that we're all being scammed, that if you look at the food pyramid it's all about meat and dairy, but it's printed by the National Dairy Council. I like a good conspiracy theory, so I started doing research. And I realized that if I don't eat animal products, wear clothes made from animals, or use products tested on animals, I can eliminate so much suffering in the world. So I went from flesh eater to vegan. When I told my mom, she goes, "Oh son, don't become a fanatic." Well, too late!

Bob Polizos, 76, founder of Acropolis Steakhouse Strip Club: I grew up in Greece in a small village up north. My parents raised pigs, so we had a pig every Christmas and a lamb every Easter. I used to do a lot of cooking before I got to America. I worked on a cargo ship, and on the ship I would cook for a crew of 40. I loved it.

I went from flesh eater to vegan. When I told my mom, she goes, "Oh son, don't become a fanatic." Well, too late!

Zukle: So I'm thinking, How can I enlighten people to veganism? And you know the old saying: "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach"? I thought, Well, maybe the way to a human soul is through his stomach. So I decided to open a vegan restaurant. But we were in this blue-collar industrial area, and every day a couple of guys would come in and look at our menu, and say, "There's no meat?" And I'd say, "No, man, it's vegan." And they'd look at me and go, "Uhhh, we'll come back." And they'd get up and leave! This happened at least once every day. And I'm thinking, You big muscular pussies! This is supposed to be Portland—the vegan capital of the United States—and you guys are too chicken to try the vegan chicken! No offense to chickens.