Filmore's is at the cusp of...

Filmore's is at the cusp of a run-down area, so you see some blight but you're close enough to the touristy part of downtown that you're unlikely to find much more trouble than someone getting annoyed if you won't give them a cigarette. The dancers' smoke break area is also right by the front door, so there's usually security personnel around if you're coming or going via Dundas. I've never seen them charge a cover.

Physically, the club won't make you feel like you're in a palace, but it's not run down either (inside, anyway). There's plenty of seating, including a standard pervs' row, a bunch of tables with a good view of the stage, and a line of booths around the perimeter. They keep it pretty dark away from the stage, so if you're not on the row, you don't need to worry about awkward eye contact with other guys or anything. If you need to go to the bar (which you do once if you're going to get dances), it's out of the way of the stage and floor, so you can take care of business quickly without having to fight through much of a crowd hanging out there. Beers are about $9-10 (after tax and tip) depending on what you get and how nice you want to be to the waitress.

All dances are upstairs, which has a $10 admission (per night, not per dancer, if you're the type who might make a couple of trips) in the form of a hand stamp visible under blacklight that you buy at the bar. Dances are in partitioned booths that are fairly wide, so you can spread out and let her do her thing. The privacy is decent through most of the setup, very good if you get an end booth. Dances are officially $20 a song, but most of the dancers here offer extras (definitely not all — a good if imperfect rule of thumb is that if she's carrying a purse on the floor, it probably contains hand sanitizer and condoms). There is a bouncer upstairs, but I've never seen them do anything other than stand by the stairs and what goes on there isn't exactly a state secret. Bathroom is around the corner from where all the booths are. There's no attendant and it's clean by public men's room standards (think mall bathroom, not fancy restaurant bathroom).