Visited again on a Thursday night;...

Visited again on a Thursday night; the website claimed 4 dancers would be working but when I arrived around 9pm, there were only 3. Over the next hour or so, 3 more showed up. Talking to one dancer revealed that only 1 of the scheduled 4 showed up, the other two had been called in as had the others that rolled in later. As in my earlier reviews, the atmosphere is laid back, the waitress is cute and friendly, and the drinks are not too expensive for a strip club. There was no hustle for lap dances; to be honest, I felt somewhat ignored that no dancers came by but after watching the rotation I tipped my favorite at the stage and she asked if I wanted a dance when she was done. She did spend some time at my table before the dance and I learned if the customer buys her drink, it's $5 but the dancers can buy them for $2.75. I also learned the waitress is not allowed to sit at a table and gets yelled at if she spends too much time at a table - the place has a bunch of cameras and apparently someone is watching. That's a shame as the waitress (and bartender) are usually two of the three hottest women in the place, and the waitress is really quite nice. I suppose management wants the dancers to hustle but it hasn't really happened during any of my recent visits. The place only had a half dozen people in it and all were at the bar when I arrived, no one sat at the stage until later when a few more customers came in. There was never more than a dozen customers in the place all night and 5 was the biggest crowd at the stage.

What really set this visit apart was the lap dance; unfortunately, it was not the dance itself but the setup and seeming attempt to scam more money than was agreed on afterward. The lap dance itself was quite good - nothing extra, but a good dance with lots of contact, touching, and grinding. No complaints on that front and about what I've come to expect there, but having been to this club several times in the past few months, I know the lap dance prices but always see what the dancer will offer. This one claimed that the "room" (really just a couch behind a curtain upstairs) required a 15 minute minimum and buying any number of songs meant they were done in the curtained booths. That conflicts with all my recent past visits, where buying two or more songs (at the slightly discounted two for $45) got you into the "room". The 2 song deal is what most girls there push for. I liked her so I agreed to the 15 minute dance. She checked in with the DJ and I am fairly certain I did hear her tell him 15 minutes, but I did not hear the entire conversation she had with him. The dance went long; long enough that I asked if someone was watching the time and she said the DJ was. She even went out to check with him and came running back in and said we had a minute left. He came over and said our time was up, so I paid her the agreed 15 minute rate, with a tip. Here's where the drama starts; about 5 minutes later she comes down and said the DJ claimed it was a half hour and charged her out at that rate. Apparently he also said she should be fired for the dance, but there was nothing that was any different from other dances I've had there - and I'm not being coy, because I have never had or been offered anything "extra" there.

Honestly, it probably was closer to a half hour dance, but that's not what we agreed on and I brought up the time limit around the 17-20 minute mark (I wasn't watching my watch that closely, but I did do cursory checks to make sure I wasn't shorted as can happen in some clubs). While she didn't demand that I pay more, she did ask. My buddy was ready to leave anyway and said he felt it was a shakedown. The dancer did complain to all the other girls about it, but it could've been a show for our benefit. I won't name the dancer only because I'm not sure who is really at fault; was it the DJ's mistake, or did she set that up when she talked to him? After getting me to agree to the 15 minutes, she did try to upsell more, but that's their job so I didn't think anything of it - every girl tries to get another dance. But as I said earlier, in my recent experience two songs would get you the "room" because the Cricket isn't the type of place where 15, 30, 45, or 60 minute dances are really common.