Pumps is my favorite in NYC

While I don't go there very often, Pumps in North Brooklyn is my favorite strip club in the city. I prefer divey, friendly clubs "for the locals", and Pumps really fits that bill.

Pumps is VERY small. It's a narrow bar with a couple of seats in the back and around two dozen seats around the bar. Three poles closely spaced together behind the bar make up the stage. Dancers don't have much room to move, so they focus on pole dancing skills. The music is typically loud hard rock/metal, though hip-hop mixes in occasionally. Men's room is consistently clean. The bar has an ironic biker decor with TVs playing in two corners. No DJ is there.

The bar gets packed on Friday and Saturday nights; the crowd is a mix of biker dudes, hipsters, black and Hispanic guys, lesbians...I'm telling you, a whole rainbow of customers comes through. But not the business traveler and Wall Street crowd that'll hit FlashDancers and places like that. Lap dances are done in a curtained little alcove there in the room.