Vanier really is just unbearably sketchy...and...

Vanier really is just unbearably sketchy...and that hardscrabble, roughshod vibe definitely seeped into the club on the Saturday night that I visited.

Just walking on the street outside the club I immediately felt a creepy vibe. A man in a beret chose to stare me down - really don't know what his deal was - but he looked mentally unstable. Went down a small flight of stairs, was greeted professionally by the bouncer and paid a reasonable $4 cover...that literally was the best part of the visit. After being given a very long sales pitch by a dancer in her 40s who offered a "money-back guarantee" but whom I was just not attracted to, I was approached by an okay looking brunette in her 30s and decided to go for a dance. Her dance was mediocre at best so I did just one. She tried to tell me we did two. I literally laughed right there. Trying to overcount from one to two? Just silly. Thankfully she didn't press the matter. I didn't feel like there was a point staying after that (there were only a handful of dancers and I had just been with the most attractive one who tried to scam me) so I left - but as I did and opened the club door, a silly stripper who was smoking and standing in front of the entrance was grazed by the door as she was almost leaning on it. Right as I said "Sorry", she said "Ow, you owe me $100." I just looked at her and started walking away. Realizing her ploy wasn't going to work, she then said "just kidding." At least the ripoff attempters in this place are polite - I'll give 'em that. They both balked quickly after failing to extort their money and left on okay terms...a weird first in all my time clubbing.

Nonetheless, the desperation and economic hardship faced by people in this area and within this club were very palpable to me on my visit and that led to a creepy vibe that it made it impossible to enjoy myself. I only stayed like 35 minutes in total and I encountered a crazy, angry-looking staring man, a desperate dancer offering the obvious red flag of a money-back guarantee, an overcounter who had the gall to try to pull an overcount from 1 to 2, and someone who wanted to be paid $100 for getting grazed while standing in front of a door. That's just way too many coincidences not to conclude that something strange is going on here. People here are hard-up and you should expect to feel their erratic, uncivil behaviour and desperation should you choose to go to this club...something I don't plan on doing again.