Best Club in DSM

If you are new to Des Moines, or just visiting, I would recommend Beach Girls over all the others. The Northeast section of Des Moines has a lot of clubs close together (Minx, Outer Limits, Lumber Yard, Big Earl's) but the prices are higher and they all have the typical big city approach of unfriendly/confrontational male staff, painfully slow shifts from one dancer to the next, and fake personality girls who only want all the money in your wallet. Beach Girls is none of that. History lesson: Beach Girls was just a teenager/20-something hang-out summertime bar/beach/live music venue back in the 70s and 80s. That same "summer of love" friendliness and laid-back attitude continues today in its modern strip club incarnation. It's way out in the country, so if you feel like you are almost lost, you are almost there! The details of my visit are next.

Monday night, I stop in about 7:45pm (they open at 7:00). Right away, the young guy taking door engages me in a conversation about the band on my t-shirt which then segued into a discussion of English pub ales. No stink-eye or silent treatment, no pat-down from a neanderthal bouncer. Just, "Thanks, man!".

Inside, the place is hoppin' with girls. Not all hid-away in the dressing room, just out talking to customers, or eating take-out Chinese, or headed to the patio for a smoke.Several greet me right away. even though we've never met, and not at all in a way that feels like they are already working you for a private. There's about 20 guys in there. I'm 47, and I never feel like a pervy old man here, because there are always guys in their 60s and 70s, which you don't see any place else (except maybe Outer Limits) again because I think they don't feel alienated here. The rest of the crowd is younger single guys and a few small groups of work buddies. Some are playing pool, some are sharing a beer and laughs with a dancer.