Sometimes, one dancer makes the visit worthwhile

Booby Trap Pompano is the poor relation of the three main clubs in Pompano Beach. It's been over a year since I stopped in despite multiple visits to the Ft. Lauderdale area--the drinks and dances are essentially the same price at Cheetah and Diamond Dolls, and my experience has been the dancer talent is far superior. Cheetah is still my favorite for its high energy, while DD is typically packed with sexy, open-minded Latinas. Despite this, I decided to have lunch at the Booby on Thursday, and had a good enough time to repeat the next day. During the day there is no cover and $1.00 to park. The place still appears to be under construction (the plywood ramp at the entrance is a clue) but no one seems to ever be working on the project. My assumption is that the owner ran out of money. At least they removed the scaffolding that was interfering with stage views on my last visit. Inside, the place is as crappy as ever; three separate bar areas, two stages, a low ceiling and oddball lighting reinforce the idea that nobody thought anything through here, The one positive is that they keep the music volume low enough to allow conversation.

At 1:00, dancers and customers were still rolling in, and as a result it was tough to get an idea of the total dancer population. Overall, there's a pretty wide range, but the median is older and less attractive than Cheetah and DD. There's more of a "neighborhood bar" vibe here, which I found relaxing. As luck would have it, I connected with one of the few AA dancers on shift--a little bit older, but a great smile, friendly manner, good sense of humor, and soft hands. Conversation and contact at the bar was exciting enough to lead to some lappers. One key difference between the friction dance area here is that nobody seems to pay attention once you're back there--at Cheetah, a bouncer walks through the area on every song. This lack of adult supervision plus it being slow enough that the booths weren't full made for a fun time. IMHO, you know your day is about to improve when your dancer pulls a bottle of Astroglide from her handbag on the first song! A nice, unhurried warm-up dance and a very professional HJ later, I was refreshed and ready for lunch. The burger (free, $1 for fries) was actually very good, and my new friend shared a drink and hung out with me.

Overall, the Booby is still at a competitive disadvantage to its neighbors. That said, all it takes is one dancer to make for a great visit to any club. The Booby Trap came through with an experience I will seek to repeat on my next trip to So Fla.