Had my first (and probably last...

Had my first (and probably last ) visit to Pony Cabaret in Carbondale a few weeks back. The interior of the place is actually pretty nice, decent amount of space, two bar areas (full bar), good sized stage, seating with tables on the floor and booth seating lining the walls. Although I did not eat anything on this occasion this place brands itself as a steakhouse and has a dinner menu.

I showed up mostly out of curiosity on a Tuesday night fairly late (after 12:30am). I had heard that they had opened up a s?t?r?i?p? bikini/cabaret club in Carbondale, and that somewhat surprised me. As a Southern Illinois native (and some one intimately familiar with the political climate of the city of Carbondale) I know that city ordinances absolutely forbid any strip club type establishment, this why the Carbondale area strip clubs have all been located in Desoto IL (and at one time Murphysboro IL) - because of this I did not expect a whole lot and I basically got what I expected. There were about 5 dancers working that night and I recognized a couple of them as rejects from two of the Desoto Strip clubs. The bartender I also recognized from from Desoto (Club Coyote). It was extremely slow at this time maybe two other customers other than me. I stayed for about 20 min, saw a couple of dancers on stage (standard c level strip club dances except with no nudity), had a drink, talked to one of the dancers for about 5 min (very forgettable), and dipped out. The dancers I saw were nothing special and as I said I recognized at least two of them from other clubs - outside of the niceness (newness) of the club the environment was mostly dead.

Because this club is located in a collage town (and it serves food) I think It may have a chance at taking off and becoming a college spot if (and this is a big IF) the city of Carbondale does not force it to close down, there are already rumblings from members of city government who are not happy with the club being in town. Once the place is discovered/embraced by the collage students it may end up being a kinda fun place. But for me at this point in my life that is just not my type of environment and since from a rules/dancer standpoint the place is extremely tame (it will have to be if they want to stay in business in Carbondale) I probably wont be back - but if you like the that type of atmosphere then it may be worth checking out (on a Friday or Saturday night while school is in session).