Teen spirit (without the spirits)

On any given Saturday, as teenagers the country over shrug off the school week and slip into their weekends, they'll chew over a perennial question: What to do?

Alyssa Ratell, just 15, will prepare to hit the nightclub scene. She'll spend at least a half hour on her clothes.

"They have to be comfortable, and they can't be too revealing or too tight that you can't move," she says.

Here in Escondido, as many as 500 teenagers like Alyssa will primp and preen. Folded into their finest low slung or baggy jeans, they'll walk a red carpet, pass grim-faced bouncers, and enter Inferno. They know the nightclub drill and are ready to show IDs. But here, if you're over 20, you'll be turned away at the door. Inferno has nearly all the attractions of adult clubs: loud music, flashing neon and laser lights, and plenty of space for dancing. The main difference: There's not a drop of alcohol; the bar is stocked with water and soda.

More than 2,500 miles away, at another Inferno - no relation - in Depew, N.Y., the local teenagers will perform a similar ritual. But there, fewer than 350 will show up at the cavernous club, open just one night a week.

This is a tale of these two teen nightclubs. They share a name, but beyond that their stories diverge. The longevity of the first, near balmy San Diego, makes it an anomaly among under-21 clubs; in some incarnation its been thriving since the early 1980s. The other, not far from the frigid climes of Buffalo, N.Y., opened in September and is already struggling. With New Year's Eve - one of the biggest nights in the business - tomorrow, a comparison of the two venues offers insight into why teen nightclubs are few and far between.

In many ways it's counterintuitive. Parents are desperate for safe places for their children, free of alcohol and drugs. Teenagers have more disposable income than ever. Meanwhile they're discouraged from what can be viewed as loitering at popular hangouts, like malls. And fewer are participating in traditional types of entertainment, such as going to the movies. Still, the country is littered with failed under-21 clubs. The reason lies in the formidable confluence of a volatile industry and the overwhelming array of entertainment options available to young people today.

But for tonight, at least, to the sounds of hip-hop and reggaeton - Latin-flavored dance music that blends rap and reggae - hundreds are grooving at Escondido's Inferno Young Adult Nightclub.

Alyssa says she knows a simple "no" should keep away any boys she doesn't want to dance with. And if there's trouble, Inferno has plenty of security people ready to step in.

It was the early '80s when an under-21 nightclub called Distillery East first opened in a building that a century earlier had been used to store ice. A few years later, it was bought by Stojan Mitich, still a teenager himself. His parents, immigrants from Macedonia, were in the restaurant business, and they helped their son make a go of it. In a nod to the building's past, it became the Ice House. Next Fusion. And finally, in July, Inferno. All have proved successful under Mr. Mitich's ownership.

Around the same time that Distillery East opened its doors in Escondido, Depew's original Inferno Club opened a block from where the current Inferno Teen Dance Club now stands. The cover charge was $10, and, back then, the club drew up to 1,000 kids a night. Twenty-five years later, the new Inferno charges 14- to 18-year-olds just $2 more. But despite a capacity of 1,800 in a 15,000-sq. ft. space with five raised dance floors, state-of-the-art sound equipment, VIP booths, pool tables, and two glass-block bars, on a good night they only pull in about 350 young people.

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