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Manhattan lap dance clubs

schmoe31415

Whatever

I had a few nights in Manhattan and checked out three of the not-a-strip-club lap dance venues. This included the Rosewood Theater and their "Die Happy Tonight" event, and two separate "Lido" places, both calling themselves the "real" one. Rather than writing them all up as separate reviews, I figured I'd just post a quick summary of my experiences in one place.

Rosewood Theater is in west midtown, not too far from the Hudson Yards development. I walked from my hotel (a few blocks from Times Square), which worked fine, though the last stretch of the street to get to the venue felt a bit sketchy. They have an email list and ask you whether you have that invitation. With it, the cover charge was $20, without it the charge was $40. One big change from my last visit is if you wanted the VIP wristband to get dances in the slightly more private space, it was $100, yes $100. The last time I was there (August 2021), the email invitation was good for a free regular entry, and a VIP band was $60. On top of the high cover charge they wanted another $3 for a coat check, which just felt petty.

Their drinks were Manhattan pricey - $12 for a tiny bottle of water, most cocktails about $25. There's a small bar and a large room with couches where you can sit with the ladies. There's no stage show. It wasn't too loud to start, but later in the night the volume was cranked up despite not having any stage or other performance. The dancers were mostly white, but from diverse origins. They were pretty, but not as stunning as my last visit. Most were natural, and there was some variety of thin to curvy. All started with chatting and pressure for dances was low.

Lap dances were $20/song, but song changes were hard to distinguish, they often started mid-song, and one told me they expected a minimum of five songs when I tried to stop before that. Clothes (typically cocktail dresses) came off gradually. That hustle was similar to my previous visit. The dances themselves had gone downhill by comparison, though. My hands were allowed to wander a bit. There was very little in the way of grind, with one exception who provided a talented and aggressive grind. The dancers were friendly, but the dances were overall lackluster compared to my visit last year.

Prices were way up, dancer number and quality was down somewhat, as was the fun level of the dances. After having a pretty good time previously, I was disappointed with my Rosewood visit this trip.


There are two places calling themselves some variation on "Lido". The first I tried goes by the "Lido Lounge" and the "Le Rouge Lounge". It's a separate room inside the Wonderland strip club, on 20th street, which I also walked to from my hotel. On arrival I told the guy at the counter I had the email. They walked me back to the room. Then Joe Lido walked me back to the front and I paid a $20 cover to get a wrist band for the Lido room. I think that cover was just to gain access to the separate room, and that when I arrived (around 9pm) there was no cover for Wonderland itself, but it was unclear. When I asked Joe about the other "Lido" he was grumpy and dismissive, saying the other place was a knock-off run by a guy that used to work for him that he fired.

The Wonderland club is large and glitzy. There's a big bar, a sunken seating area with a large stage backed by two giant screens showing sports. They also had an upper mezzanine with more seating. The Lido room is through a door and was a modest sitting space with a small bar at the back. There were a handful of dancers there when I arrived, but no one else. A regular sized bottle of water was $8, a rum & Coke was $22.

There were only a few dancers when I arrived. They were fine, but unremarkable. They were friendly enough and chatty and applied no pressure at all for dances. Even the one that took me on a tour of the club didn't ask for a dance or even mention the pricing for the private rooms we walked past upstairs.

Dances, at least from the Lido women, were $20/song. The regular chairs were comfortable to sit in, but not great for dances with high arms. There was a folding screen set up in the room around a couple of couches, which were decent enough, though the screens fell more than once and made the whole thing feel a little cheap compared to the rest of the club. In the Lido screened area, touching was allowed/encouraged, including breasts. I went up to the mezzanine with a dancer. The couch was comfortable, but she said touching the boobs was against the rules out there. I had one terrible dance - the dancer knelt on top of my thighs with her shins digging in while making the most ridiculous, mugging, "sexy" face. Another dancer tried to sell me on Christ. The other dances I had were fine, but forgettable.

I might go back to Wonderland some time. It seemed a decent club and more dancers were about as the night went on. Watching sports on the giant TVs with a dancing stripper in front of them might be entertaining. But it seemed like the dances might be a bit lame, and I'm not sure the "Lido" room added much.


The last of these places I tried was the "Lido Room". Their emails go on about being the "real" Lido room, and how the "Lounge" is a strip club. When I was there about a week ago, they were at 96 Greenwich Street, above the Cat Sports Club, which was running some sort of weed based karaoke night. There was no cover before 9, and it was $20 after.

The venue was one small room. There was a small bar and a couple of couches. The space felt very much like an afterthought. A rum & Coke was $19. There were only a few dancers. Lap dances involved a $10 club charge and then $25/song. These were done on couches back behind some screens, sort of crammed up against some random crap in the room. Very makeshift. The one dancer I went back with, however, gave me a very nice dance. She was attentive, encouraged contact, and provided a nice grind.

This may all be moot, however. The last email they sent out said they were no longer at that location and were working on a new one. So as makeshift as the space was, it was apparently temporary.


Overall I was disappointed with my foray into non-strip club lap dance venues this trip. There weren't many dancers, and those dancers, while fine, weren't special. And the lap dances themselves, presumably a selling point for these places, weren't great. The one place I had been to before was a definite step down in every way except prices, and neither of the competing "Lido" venues impressed me. I'm not sure if I'd return to any of them.