NO FRILLS, BUT SOME THRILLS

I was visiting Memphis for the first time, and checking TUSCL reviews in advance I knew that Memphis clubs today are not the kind of fun they once were. But sometimes when you're armed with low expectations, you end up have a better-than-expected experience.

About 10:15 on a Thursday night, I pulled into the small Candyland parking lot, where there were a few cars but still spaces available. I knew from reading the reviews that this place was small, but wow, this place is tiny. In retrospect, I think the building might have been a gas station many years ago, the kind we used to call a "service station," with a small room up front for customers to wait while a tire was changed, a single restroom off the waiting room, a small back room serving as an office, and then a large space on the side that would have held a bay or two to work on cars. Whatever it was, it looks like it was converted to a strip club quite some time ago. Make no mistake – this is by no means a high-end club.

Walking into the small front room, I paid a genial young man the $10 cover and $2.00 for a bottle of water. (It's BYOB for a fee of some kind.) I was greeted by a friendly, cute and statuesque African American gal – 5'10" *without* heels, and well over six feet tall with them – who led me through the curtain to the main room. There were about six women working and one customer besides me, but there were already two women on the small stage, who seemed to be dancing for each other as much as anyone else. About 10 minutes later, the other customer left and it was just me for a while, but others came and went while I was there and at one point there might have been five customers, so the girl-to-customer ratio was very favorable. I never lacked company, and though the loud music made it hard to hear the girls at times, the conversations were all friendly and upbeat, with no pressure for dances.