Decided to give the Raven a...

Decided to give the Raven a try, since it's in the neighborhood and I've driven past it plenty of times.

After my eyes adjusted to the dark, it made a good first impression. The club was well kept up and clean, and extremely sizeable, which is good for me. I'm not a smoker and don't appreciate clouds of secondhand smoke that accumulate in smaller places, but this one was so big that the smoke didn't drift over to bother me. Bar is square, tracing around two different stages with a small space between. I don't know if they do two dancers at once when it's busier, but for my afternoon visit there was one dancer at a time, who switched between stages as she went.

Unfortunately, the good first impression didn't last. The dancers were middle-of-the-road attractive, but nothing special Each did a few uninspired songs and was nothing special either in looks or technique. (Their taste in music tended towards classic rock, which is another positive, I suppose. Much better than the stuff in rotation at most places.) After their set, each girl just went back to her place at the bar, far away from everyone, and stayed glued to her phone. Only one of them bothered to even chat me up. She was nice, but couch dances at the Red Raven are $25, and when I heard that price I had to bite my lip to not laugh in her face. It's $20 at Delilah's, guys, and you're a far cry from Delilah's.