I visited 2:30-6 pm on a...

I visited 2:30-6 pm on a Thursday during the 1st month this club was open.

Hip-Hop strip clubs like Miami’s King of Diamonds have created a nightclub / stripclub mashup that’s proven quite popular in many cities. Architecturally Vivid is one of the clubs that’s trying to do something similar for the white community. The club has a downstairs area with two stages, the first stage is a traditional strip club stage while the main stage has a 25 foot stripper pole designed for complex routines clearly visible from multiple levels with a balcony for “making it rain” on the dancers. There are couch areas where groups of people can party together and buy bottle service. The chairs all over the club are leather and very comfortable. There are bars on the first and second level. Except for size, and after all this is midtown Manhattan, architecturally they met their goal of being an elegant stripclub / nightclub mashup.

But, only one of the dancers I saw was strong enough to really use the 25’ pole if anything most of the rest did well below average stage shows that were truly bland. The customers were middle aged professionals mostly disinterested in the stage show and focused on LDs and rooms. The dancers were primarily focused on getting off stage to hit up customers for a room sale and make money fast. All the girls were focused on earning all the time, just like a traditional Manhattan club. The dancers weren’t there to party, hang out and make so/so money. So there is a misfit between the staff and the architecture. Is this going to evolve towards a new style club or be a traditional NYC strip club with a weird layout? I’d love to see Vivid on a weekend night, and I think I will try to see how the club was being used.