Risque

The last time I was in this place was several years ago when it was called Ponytails. It was a certifiable dive bar back then—a dump with dumpy girls. Now it is called Risque and has moved up a couple of notches on the strip bar scale. It’s not an upscale club by any means, but has moved up from dive to blue collar.

Cover was $10. Inside the club is smaller than it was before, but much nicer. The bar used to be an island bar immediately past the entry with seating all around and everything looked worn out and dingy. Now, the bar is against the left wall with seating only on one side. The stage is to the right of the bar in the middle of the club. Past that against the far wall are what look like bottle service areas, but there was no one using them while I was there. Immediately to the right was a row of curtained cubbies for private dances. I also did not see those in use while I was there. Everything looked new and clean.

I got there at about 11:00 pm early in the week, so this was definitely not prime time. Beer was $4 at the bar. There were probably about a half-dozen guys there and the same number of dancers. Both customer and dancer demographics were about 50/50 black/white. Dancer quality was also definitely improved from Ponytail days, but that is not necessarily saying a lot. They were mostly 4ish to 6ish, with one cute Latina running around that looked a definite 8. Most of the girls were already sitting with guys at the bar. A couple of the marginal looking girls stopped by to say hello and ask for dances ($20 or $25, can’t remember exactly), but I wasn’t interested. I had my eye on the cute Latina, but she flitted around and never stopped by during my short, one beer visit.