PETACH TIKVA - Regulars at a Tel Aviv-area pub catering to the ultra-Orthodox community say it enables religious youngsters to experiment with a more liberal, wanton lifestyle. The popular hangout, Meidale, offers revelers a strictly kosher menu, but also serves as a meeting place where ultra-Orthodox males and females can mix freely and discover the joys of sex. The pub makes ultra-Orthodox youngsters feel at home and gives them an opportunity to mingle with a variety of people, says “Zvi” (not his real name.) None of the pub’s attendees would permit themselves to be identified by their names. "It's a place any haredi (ultra-Orthodox) can feel comfortable at," he says. "We don't feel alienated here." Sex in the bathrooms One of the pub's main attractions for Zvi and his friends is the chance to meet women. After all, members of the ultra-Orthodox community are forbidden from approaching females on the street, while couples meet only five times before getting married. Zvi says he takes advantage of the opportunity to engage in sexual activity at the pub, although he frequents the pub to make friends. "It's easier to make out with an ultra-Orthodox girl who's looking to breach the wall," he says. Zvi says he does not look for full-blown sex, but admits some of his friends do just that. He says he recently came to the pub with a friend who ended up having sex in the bathroom with a girl he just met. "The girls here drink a little and open up," he says. Quarrels over girls commonplace The real action at Meidale starts late at night, says “Avi,” another regular visitor. Women and men start to dance together, drink tequila, and subsequently cannot control themselves, he says. "They have the illusion that no one will be talking about them later," Avi says. Sexual activity is commonplace at the pub, he says, and arguments over girls happen all the time. "You can see full-blown sex at the parking lot," Avi says. Not all guests, however, agree that the pub is all about sex and promiscuity. Most people just come to have a good time, not engage in sexual activity, says ultra-Orthodox journalist “Yakov.” "This is not like the TLV (popular Tel Aviv club,) where you go in and find yourself in the bathroom with someone within five minutes," he says. Owners worried about pub's reputation Meidale's owners Mickey Leizerovich and Hanan Nachmani say they invested NIS 800,000 (about USD 175,000) in the pub. Nachmani says, however, that their original intention was to run a kosher pub, not an ultra-Orthodox one. "As reality demonstrated, the ultra-Orthodox were truly deprived of a place like this," he says. Leizerovich's wife, Hani, says the pub caters to religious youngsters who feel uncomfortable going into secular pubs, where they immediately stick out because of their religious headgear. "The moment they come here," she says, "they don't give a damn about anything." Leizerovich and Nachmani, however, say they are concerned about Meidale's "sexy" reputation. The pub's kosher certificate was temporarily taken away after a local newspaper ran a story about the place, they say. The owners' concern is indeed justified, says Avi, who says he knows exactly what will happen once word of the pub gets out and reaches the ears of yeshiva heads. "A bus will arrive and they'll pull out yeshiva students and girls out of there," he says. "It will be a huge mess."