PHC Detroit

Besides the Hustler Club in its early days, this is the first time I've been to an upper tier club in MI. Many say Penthouse is the best, but I don't know if I agree. It is a nice club. It is a luxury club.

My buddy and I arrived around 11:45 on a Friday night. There is mandatory valet with a $15-$16 entrance fee. There is probably a mandatory coat check, but we're pros (read cheapskates), so we left our coats in the car. We stepped into a crowded club. It was literally standing room only with a bunch of large goons in suits telling us we had to move and couldn't stand around. Where the hell are we supposed to stand? We walked to the bar upstairs in search of a spot, but the upstairs level was more crowded than the lower level. Smoking is allowed at the upstairs bar and the whole club is noticeably filled with smoke. That said, they sell fancy cigars with a bunch of well known labels. I don't know what the prices were for the cigars. Besides being allowed to smoke, I don't know if there is a difference between the upstairs bar and the downstairs bar. The crowd was packed so tight upstairs, I didn't really notice the bar. A handful of dancers were hustling/smoking at the upstairs bar. The VIP rooms are also upstairs. I don't know if they have VIP areas on the lower level of the club. I caught a quick glimpse of the VIP rooms. They looked like they were fabric walled cabanas . . . like a lawn tent. I didn't get any VIP dances, so I'm not certain if all the rooms are like the one I saw. After a brief stay upstairs we headed back down to the main floor.

A booth opened up at the bottom of the stairs and I engaged one of the goons to secure a spot. I shelled out $20 to sit in a booth. I don't know if there are different tier seating prices or if there are free places to sit. The booth we sat in was a crescent-shaped couch with table facing the stage--meaning, we could only sit facing the stage and could not change our seating positions. The booth was too far from the stage (I like to throw singles) and it was poorly positioned to the action in the rest of the club. At least the night I was in attendance, the club has a prescribed flow for the dancers. Dancers enter the stage from upstairs by walking down stairs onto the runway. The runway had two dancers at all times dancing in prescribed areas of the runway for one or two songs. At the end of the runway opposite the runway stairs, there is a pole. This is the first area a dancer enters when getting up on stage. The dancer does a bikini dance around the pole. Most dancers didn't lose the top until they moved to the next area of the runway near the runway stairs. Our booth was near the pole and it was difficult trying to see the tatas at the far end of the stage. From the stage, the dancers move onto what looked like the top portion of the booths on the main floor to perform for the customers sitting at tables behind our booth. Tables are a level up from the booths and I don't know how much it cost to sit there. At any rate, I was incredibly disappointed I had topless women dancing over my head, but couldn't see them based on the shitty ergonomics of the booth. From the booths, the dancers move to dancing on top of the downstairs bar. If I had my pick, I think I would want to sit at the downstairs bar or the end of the stage where the dancers enter. The guy in the booth next to us was smoking a hookah provided by the club and eating what appeared to be filet with lobster tail. My buddy said the club is known for its chef and the food is good.