Where is the Center of the Strip Club Universe?
JackKash
New York City
I was going to say "Mecca" but in this day and age, I'd rather not mix metaphors.
I was just in Las Vegas and wondering if it indeed was the center of the strip club universe. I've been to many clubs all around the nation but for number in close proximity, efficiency, professionalism and expertise in separating us from our money I have yet to find a place that compares to it. NYC, in the bad old days of titty bars, peep shows, porno houses and hookers walking the beat may have been the place for hounds of the past but in this modern age, is Las Vegas the gold standard? Personally, I feel I have some sort of advantage in going to local clubs because I've been to the clubs of Vegas and that they in someway are the "real deal."
What do you say? Especially our international members, what other city in the world besides in the US do you think can compare?
I was just in Las Vegas and wondering if it indeed was the center of the strip club universe. I've been to many clubs all around the nation but for number in close proximity, efficiency, professionalism and expertise in separating us from our money I have yet to find a place that compares to it. NYC, in the bad old days of titty bars, peep shows, porno houses and hookers walking the beat may have been the place for hounds of the past but in this modern age, is Las Vegas the gold standard? Personally, I feel I have some sort of advantage in going to local clubs because I've been to the clubs of Vegas and that they in someway are the "real deal."
What do you say? Especially our international members, what other city in the world besides in the US do you think can compare?
48 comments
I'm not there yet, but I will be in both of these places.
SJG
Detroit clubs are too spread out. It could literally take you an hour some days to go from the clubs on the East side to the clubs by the airport.
Not only that, Detroit is a very large city...land wise. It doesn't have a lot of residents, but there is plenty of land inside the Detroit city limits. They just happen to be empty lots or abandoned homes.
No joke, there has been talk of farming the land that is vacant in Detroit. And in fact, urban farmers have been popping up in areas where blocks of houses once stood.
So as far as having strip clubs "close by" each other, in a central location? Not Detroit.
But if you are looking for extras or using it as a criteria.... It just might be the center of sex in the USA for strip clubs.
But given this, the places which have lots of strip clubs seem to be:
1. Atlanta
2. Portland
3. Greater Los Angeles
4. Houston
5. Dallas
6. Areas of Florida
7. New Orleans
8. Detroit
But there are also other much loved strip club areas, and then also some rural areas too.
SJG
Extras have to be fairly available. Not as rampant as Detroit, but perhaps at a Phoenix or Miami level.
What else can we do to help wittle down the list and set a standard?
My ATF is a witty, smart, sweet girl that will sit and chat with me for much longer than she should, will return my texts, and is never super demanding, but will also provide a very good (yet sadly completely legal) lap dance. If I even could find a girl like her in Vegas, I would have to sell my condo, my ex-wife's house, and 700 million gallons of plasma to keep her.
Vegas clubs are fun enough for staring and splurging but not at all why I have been spending time and money in strip clubs for the last 20 years.
Sounds like it is mostly the same in Las Vegas, except for that Palomino building, along with Club Lacey, in North Las Vegas
Still, based on what people keep saying and saying on this forum, I'm inclined to pick Detroit.
SJG
Sex, Drugs and Gnosis Roll in the Bible
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewtipZlq…
I can respect @Clubbers and @Meursaults point of view that the center of the universe is where ever your ATF is. I've had some much better experiences in clubs in other cities besides Vegas. Still, as a perceived standard to which other places compare themselves, would Vegas be it?
And props to @chessmaster. One thing that happens when you think of yourself as the center is taking advantage of it and getting sloppy and expensive and wanting more for less because it's "Vegas baby."
A shout out to @eyeamlong for bringing up cities in Bangkok and the Philippines for an international perspective. Both places would probably best Tijuana. Anybody have any thoughts on Berlin? Paris? After all, the topless showgirl sort of started there.
Every PL should make the SC pilgrimage to Vegas once, just to say [s]he's been there. If nothing else, the high prices and hustle factor will make you appreciate your local clubs more!
Arnies in Harvey, and then Passions in NOLO, and then closer to home that San Gabriel Valley and Tijuana.
Detroit still sounds like the best in the US, but by the time I get there I'll be drained dry many times over. :)
And I still have to emphasize that though we are talking about the best strip clubs, these are the places which least deserve to be called strip clubs.
SJG
Real Full contact two ways dances are available in philadelphia
I would say that most of the people weighing in on this want more than that. They want what in any other country would simply be referred to as a brothel. And if they think the way I do, they want the girls to be openly and aggressively completing with each other by encouraging front room GFE before any back room agreement is reached.
SJG
As far as the black strip Mecca, that is Atlanta.
I'll say Miami is the center.
Vegas may qualify in some ways but for most experienced SCers perhaps Vegas may be better described as the show-club center of the universe.
Obviously everybody has their favorite areas and there is a "personality" to each of them. Singling out Las Vegas as the lowest value though is not necessarily true. I've been to some clubs in Ohio where a dance charge was $30 and it was all air (chickie actually moved my hand off her leg as if it was a dirty napkin). I waited for the 2-fer-1s in that case.
My hat's off to my fellow travelers, @mrdeuce and @ desertscrub. Would be interested to hear one day your take and strategy as a transient man in a regular's club.
MBOT in San Francisco may have invented the lap dance. Alan Markovitz in the Big D may have developed the independent contractor model. But Joe Redner revolutionized strip clubs. He claims to have invented the nude lap dance.
From a historical perspective, our modern strip club experience can be directly attributed to what Redner did in Tampa in the 90's.
From the current perspective, I counted 32 clubs in Tampa and another 25 in Pinellas County/Clearwater/St Pete. Pretty formidable numbers. And there's something for everone. Bikini clubs. Black dives. Nude full contact clubs. Party clubs with booze.
Ybor Strip used to be well reviewed but I'm not sure how it is now.
I think Tampa gets points for their history.
I've been to Las Vegas 3 times and never had a good SC experience.
This is an excellent point as well. Having never been, seems like most of Detroit are really whorehouses disguised as strip clubs. Nothing wrong with that per se but naturally the dancers are bound to be a bit more attractive in extras optional cities elsewhere. But I digress.
If Detroit or Vegas is the census for the strip club universe then who I am I to argue. I actually think it would be easier to name individual clubs that could be the center of the strip club universe.
:)
Detroit is probably the center for the sc monger looking for extras in the US.
There are plenty of US cities to get high contact dances with no extras with pretty dancers. That's a little harder to define.
Prostitution is legal in many international counties so it's harder to pinpoint the best place to be the center. That might be more personal taste based on the type of woman you like.
Strip clubs developed in the US because of what our laws do not allow. And so where such laws are not enforceable, you don't really have strip clubs.
SJG
But this is a PL board. I haven't been to many of the places mentioned here as being off the chain, like Phoenix, Atlanta, and Detroit. But for me, the PL center of the universe would need to have either ITC extras or abundant OTC, a wide range of options from skanky cheap clubs to high-end no-extras clubs to mid-range and high-end extras clubs -- I think that last bit is the trickiest to pull off.
SF might be one of the worst cities today, but late '90s, the SF crew all felt SF was the best SC city in the country. PLs from SF would go to other cities (including Tampa, Atlanta, etc) and come back with reports about how spoiled we are in SF. What made it so great?
Market Street Cinema: easy, abundant extras, in curtained off rooms, complicit management and police (NEVER an issue or fear of management or police busting in) so whatever sex perversion you wanted, it was just a matter of whether the stripper would do it. Extras were VERY inexpensive for SF standards, but quality was relatively lower also, and the club seedier.
Mitchell Bros O'Farrell Theater: a high end club, easy abundant extras, in curtained off rooms, complicit management and police (NEVER an issue or fear of management or police busting in) so whatever sex perversion you wanted, it was just a matter of whether the stripper would do it. Super sexy stage shows, including the occasional girl-on-girl sex shows, and occasional open public sex in some of the common rooms. The quality of the girls easily matched any of the most beautiful LV strip clubs, although prices were relatively higher to match. I wonder if ANY club today can compare to MBOT's golden age. Is there anywhere today lineups packed with 9s all offer extras?
Between those two, 10 or so clubs with varying degrees of beauty, price, extras, alcohol.
THAT is what I think the standard is. "Lots of extras from skanks in dumpy clubs" doesn't particularly excite me, and unfairly or not, that's the general impression I get of Detroit. There should be lots of options to match whatever mood you're in, from cheap & fast to "lineup full of 9s and sex available" to "super hot lineup and alcohol available". From the reports here, it feels like Atlanta or Phoenix are closest
You know that when DA Terence Hallinan steered it that way, saying he would never enforce in the indoor venues of SC's and AMP's, he was also going to new extremes in cracking down out on the sidewalk. So while in many ways it was great, the sidewalk is usually the cheapest and he was destroying that as no one had tried to do in decades.
Most people see Hallinan as a great liberal. But he was not pro-prostitution. He was just looking at the whole thing from a harm reduction vantage point. He figured that indoors was safer than outdoors. So he tried to drive it indoors. But this shuts out the bottom end of the provider and customer market.
Then to enforce out on the sidewalk he went to a never before seen level of busting johns. And one of the ways he was able to do this was by getting everybody to plead guilty, via this Norma Hotaling program.
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/No…
So what I am saying is that Hallinan was a mixed bag. And then once he was voted out of office, enforcement at SC's and AMP's resumed. While it is still a good scene, it is not like what it had been.
SJG
I'll go along with the area that there is no "center of the universe", to the SC experience, and there are various adult disneylands that flourish across the country for a while (or at least until local ordinances become more restrictive e.g. Memphis, Providence RI, SF Bay as mentioned earlier). While some would say Detroit might be the center, as a local who frequents the Hamilton dives I would say it is closer to Ground Zero. Yes, the extras are out of this world- its almost like the Alphaville red light district on Mars from "Total Recall" was recreated in the US rust belt. If you want the closest experience to that possible in 2016, by all means HenryVIII's-Inkster, Bogarts, HenryVIII's-South and Club Venus (before the curtains were removed) are your kind of place. Not as big on Extras but Centerfold on John R by 8 mile also has that kind of 'ambiance', and the Criket in Dearborn, BT's on some nights and Subis all get 'honorable mentions'. Now Get Your Ass to Mars (and yes for the less adventurous, Flight Club, Penthouse, Players, Landing Strip are pretty much sure things with a lot less of that Alphaville vibe, Bozoukis no extras but just awesome time with great eyecandy as well. There's something for all tastes and all wallets, but I had to prop the total freak show that some of the lower end clubs entail- once again its out of this world!
While I am strongly for decriminalization of the entire sex industry, from the selfish point of view of an SC customer, he basically extra-ified the scene nicely.
I'm not aware that enforcement at SCs has ever resumed. It is still open in a few places. AMPs get busted, probably rightfully so.
And since Hallinan we have lost Market St. Cinema and Pink Diamonds.
SJG
Ok, with MSC, my hazy memory is, DJV drove it into the ground. In the end days, the girls hit a new low of skankiness, and pimps actuallly gathered IN THE CLUB to watch their "strippers", since many of the girls working there were street girls formerly. I believe the place closed due to lack of business, no customer wanted to be in that environment.
Pink Diamonds, by contras, was a clusterfuck. Fights, violence, and crime in and out of the club. I wouldn't be srprised if police actino closed it, but again, it had nothing to do with extras enforcement, but closing a public nuisance.
In short, you can't name a single raid or police pressure on, say MB, despite open extras ... There is and has been none
I think that's true of most of us.
SJG
No, the city had nothing to do with MSC closing. And yes, they closed Pink Diamonds, but you implied that was because Hallinan left -- he almost certainly would have closed it also, not for prostitution reasons (again, those are not being enforced and have not been enforced even after TH left), but because it was a den of crime
I know there are more wrinkles to this. My point is simply that SC's and AMP's can't be totally fearless anymore.
With one big day of AMP busting, which people on RedBook called Black Friday, Mayor Gavin Newsom took point when they went into a large AMP.
I don't know how it is on the street now. But Hallinan was the most aggressive in street enforcement.
We will see how things go.
Overall San Francisco does not have enough strip clubs. So it is not that competitive. Clubs worth more for their name and real estate than for the money they take in. This means they don't take risks.
SJG