I get to Philly once a...

I get to Philly once a year. Having read the reviews on this place since I joined TUSCL, I was curious to see it for myself. Even though others have described it (see the excellent description in Papi Chulo's 9-17-2016 review), I was not fully prepared for the scene.

Arriving about 8:15 on a Friday night, I parked on the street just a couple of doors down and ambled up to the door. The neighborhood looks a little sketchy, but I did not feel unsafe. There were about five guys milling around outside the door, and because it was cold out, there was a warming fire going in a 55-gallon drum – like what you'd see in a TV depiction of an urban hobo jungle. I paid one guy the $10 cover and another guy gave me a very serious pat-down, which I didn't mind. They were all friendly and all was good.

The first floor is La Pearl (with separate reviews on TUSCL), where I grabbed the only open seat at the bar and got a $2.00 bottle of water. La Pearl is really, really small, and it was all guys sitting at the bar with only one or two (scantily clad) women in view. The guy next to me, probably sensing what I came in for, kindly told me there was a stage upstairs, so I thanked him and up I went to the Outer Space Club.