I lowered my expectations.

I can safely say that I was not planning on visiting Stud's Pub due to their long history of poor reviews and poor experiences from past patrons. It was on the night that Gold Club had their pre-grand opening party, which my friend and I had left around 11pm after enough celebration was had.

We were driving aimlessly and somehow ended up somewhere around Orange Park, and he informed me of a club that he hadn't been to in over a decade by Merril road. After enough searching, we found the Escape Showbar - a club I had completely forgotten existed until then. There were two thuggish looking men (long dirty white tees, slouching pants, the whole getup) that were talking to each other at the front door who stared us down for a moment when we pulled up and eventually went back in the club. Since there wasn't a whole lot of recent info on Escape, I wasn't sure if this place was worth the visit, but as soon as we stepped inside, my question was answered. It was very dark, empty, and I probably inhaled more weed than oxygen. You couldn't even see the rest of the club until you walked through the wooden walkway, which we couldn't do since the 'doorman' immediately walked up and asked for a $7 cover from each of us.

Peeking behind him, it looked like a guy and his friend were casually rolling a blunt, and beside them was a dancer that did not look enthusiastic in the slightest to see us at the door. My friend and I immediately changed our minds about going in and excused ourselves from the bar. Consider this paragraph a mini review since we were only there for less than a minute. I don’t even think it was a whole 30 seconds.