"You have good pussy eating lips." These sweet "SS" words emanated from a naturally buxom athletic build gymnast dancer. I was at an OBT area club in Orlando. No, I didn't eat her pussy. We had a make out session so long as I kept buying overpriced drinks. Besides expressing her opinion of my lips, she mentioned that she'd danced at Mons Venus in Tampa, and how it allowed much more contact than the club we were in. This was the late 80's, and I'd been hearing good stuff about Mons Venus lately. Several months prior to this, I encountered a hot blonde dancing at "Pirates Den" in Key West. I thought "if these 2 dancers are typical for Mons Venus, this is a club that I must go to." This coupled with several Miami club patrons saying that Mons Venus was wilder than the Miami clubs had me put Tampa on my vacation bucket list for next year.
EARLY 90s
Finally in early 1990, I spend my week vacation in Tampa. I approached first visit with eager anticipation. Parking lot was sparse then as now, but I managed to find a spot on this afternoon visit. As I best recall, cover charge was $10 back then. Even though off peak hour, I got a bit of sensory overload. There were 2 dancers on stage, and WOW, they were naked, and would rub their tits over you. Although no dancer was as eye popping as the Key West hottie a few years back, neither were they painful on the eyes. There were no fatties or fuglies, I'd peg dancer attractiveness overall as being slightly below Bare Elegance - LAX, Shotgun Willies- Denver, but better than a lot of mid-tier clubs elsewhere in CA, TX, and the Midwest. I recall being taken aback by the aggressive hustle of the dancers. Individual lapdances were $20, with 3 for $50 being touted. This price structure lasted throughout the 90's, though the cover charge inched its way up to present day $20 in multiple stages.
Some perspective is in order. Circa 1990, virtually nobody offered nude contact lapdances. Not Los Angeles ( Options were light contact bikini, or private stage nude air dance, $10 per song for later). Not Miami/ Ft. Lauderdale (options were nude dance on portable stool in front of you, or limited 2 way contact bikini dance in a few topless clubs.) Not in TX (several cities were no touch, Austin and probably Houston had one way contact). Not in Tri-State (OH, IN, KY). The few nude clubs there were no contact, air dances. Ditto for many topless/bikini clubs. Not in DC (Still true today- nude, no contact.)
With all this as a backdrop, I was working to wrap my finger (no pun intended) around the concept of nude dances where a naked female would grind on your lap, and let you fondle her tits. On this short vacation (I had other things besides Mons Venus visit on my agenda.), I managed 3 visits to Mons Venus (2 afternoon, 1 evening), plus 1 evening visit to 2001 Odyssey across the street. Later in the year, I'd manage 2 weekend trips to Tampa. It took the second weekend visit to get past the (then) very high hustle factor at both clubs. Ditto for the lapdances conducted in open back walls of club.
As the 90's rolled on, the already attractive dancers became more so and numerous. Mons still had a cutting edge feel to it, but I noticed more mainstream, and accepting things happening. About 1995 or so was when I first saw the Mons Venus calendars available for sale. (I still have some of them.) Pictures were mostly, if not all nude, with a few personal fill ins from dancers. (favorite color, sexual fantasy, etc.) Mons Venus (along with Bare Elegance-LAX, Cheetahs- Atlanta, Scores - NYC, and several others) were featured in a 1997 Playboy Magazine Special Issue on Gentlemen's Clubs and Exotic Dancers/ Strippers. Alas, I never met the Mons Venus dancer who was featured. (I did meet one of the Bare Elegance dancers featured, but that's another story.) I can confirm that at least one dancer from that era was featured in a Men's oriented magazine (Tabitha Tigress in "Leg Show".) There were probably others from that era with pictorial features to their credit, but I wasn't going to let that be a deal maker/breaker.
The Mons Venus dressing room was featured in Playboy special, which showed 2 dancers eating from a fruit tray. It mentioned that owner was health conscious, and provided fruit tray rather than junk food snack machine for dancers to snack on. Recent conversations with dancers confirm that this feature still exists to this day. At about the same time, Mons Venus instituted a no smoking policy long before any non smoking ordinances were passed.
ON THE THRESHOLD OF A NEW MILLENNIUM
1999- With this year as a snapshot, Mons Venus was looking great. More and more attractive dancers were choosing to ply their wares there. With being the local leader in the non smoking policy, One could enjoy interaction with scores of beautiful women without choking on smoke. If you visited club on a Friday or Saturday night, you needed to claim a stage side seat by 830pm, or you weren't going to get a seat. Crowds were SRO, 3 deep by 1030pm. Day shift could be characterized as the best kept secret. There were smaller crowds, more laid back, but no real drop off of dancer attractiveness. Afternoon shift wouldn't have the college age hotties of the weekend, but a good sampling of well toned, more mature Milf's in the sweet spot (for me anyway) 25 to 32 age bracket. On my vacations to FL, I'd cut my daytime activities to make room for the day shift.
On a business trip to Central FL in late 1999, there were signs of a dark cloud looming on the horizon. A local paper ran an article on a "6 Foot Ordinance", and how it was going to be more vigorously enforced in the coming months. The new year (and millennium) was going to be a new era. During my trips there in early 2000, things were quiet with business pretty much as usual. Some changes in my work schedule resulted in nearly a year absence from Central FL trips. During that absence, the raids started, with several arrests made. A wait staff cutie that I spoke with after my return in 2001 told of some SWAT style raids there.
With that, I'll conclude Part 1. Part 2 will be in a follow on article, going from 2001 raid adjustment era, to the return of business as usual (more or less) shortly following 911, and leading up to today.
Very nice - always interesting to learn about the history of clubs.
The only thing missing from Mons is VIP/extras - but then again IMO good-chance it would not have as many hot-babes if it was an extras-club.
1990s Mons as you described it was probably ahead of its time and probably what put Tampa on the map as a SC destination although I think other areas may have more to offer SCs-wise these days.