I was in the Youngstown area...

I was in the Youngstown area for the first time on a recent Friday and took the opportunity to visit the notorious Palace in the Pines, home of amazingly cheap high-mileage private dances. The club is located on US 422 a few miles east of Youngstown, just east of OH 616 and not far from the Pennsylvania line. It's not much to look at on the outside (or on the inside, for that matter). I'm told that the front part of the building is a bikini bar with alcohol, but I headed straight back to the nudie bar, which has no booze.

After paying $15 cover, I got myself a free Coke (there was no waitress) from a refrigerator and settled in to check out the scene. The bar is dominated by an unusually long, skinny stage that takes up most of the floor space, leaving just enough room for about 20 stageside chairs and a narrow passageway.

Between 10:30 and 12 there were 5 dancers and 10-20 customers. Two oddities of this unique dive bar: (1) the dancers work their way clockwise around the stage, dancing naked for up to an entire song for each customer and (2) when you are ready to play, you go to a counter and order (and prepay) for a certain number of dances with a particular girl. Then the asshat behind the counter yells out, for example, "_____! You've got 2 dances!".