Patrick, Nev. ? The champagne flowed, employees milled with guests sampling hors d’oeurves and the hostess proclaimed the grand opening a success.

It wasn’t an ordinary opening, though. The hostess is a madam and the employees are prostitutes who say the luxurious Wild Horse Resort & Spa has elevated the brothel business to a new level.

“I want to be the finest in the world,” owner and real estate developer Lance Gilman said at Saturday’s open house. “I want it to be known as a resort and a spa and a fine restaurant that also has a brothel license.”

General Manager and madam Susan Austin, who supervised everything from the African hunting trophies in the parlor to the paint schemes in the private suites, echoes Gilman’s quest for excellence in decor and employees.

“I tried to create a feeling in the house that … makes it clean, elegant, beautiful,” she said.

The parlor is masculine and classic, reminiscent of a library in a men’s club or fine hotel. Leather couches, heavy wood tables, framed paintings and etchings and mounted heads of gazelles, elands and other animals from an African hunt dominate the room where the patron and the employee meet for the first time.

A short distance away is the negotiation room, which Austin likens to the impersonal closing room used by car dealers. Unlike most brothels, prices at Wild Horse are arranged outside the bedroom.

Prices range widely, depending on the customer’s interests.

Austin said costs begin around $150, but quickly soar well beyond $1,000 for a session. An extended stay in one of the theme suites, like the Marilyn Monroe suite with wall-to-wall mirrors or the African safari suite, can cost thousands of dollars.

The brothel is 15 miles east of Reno in Storey County, one of a dozen Nevada counties where prostitution is legal.

Emily, left, and Ricki take a smoke break outside the Wild Horse Canyon Resort & Spa. The women were relaxing before the start of their night's work at a new brothel near Patrick, Nev.

Wild Horse also is three miles from the famous Mustang Ranch, which was shut down in 1999 after years of tax problems. But the two brothels are worlds apart in decor.

While former Mustang owner Joe Conforte’s taste leaned toward reds and purples and pinks — sometimes all together — Austin prefers muted tones and understated furnishings.

For Emily, a 19-year-old blonde, Wild Horse is her introduction into the world’s oldest profession.

“This is my first and last brothel,” she said. “I won’t work anywhere else. There is no need to work anywhere else.”

Ricki, a veteran of several Nevada brothels including the Mustang Ranch, said it is difficult to compare the two brothels because each is its own entity.

“Mustang was a lot of fun and it was well known and it had a lot of history. But this place is definitely more upscale,” she said.

“This is so classy, so well done. The building, the furniture. It’s a class act.”