A club of this quality should have more attractive dancers
I arrived around 9:00 PM on a Friday to see the first game of the World Series. Club has a $20 cover, but $5 discounts are available. I immediately went to the third floor where I knew I could watch the game and get dinner. Seeing the dancers would have to wait. The sports bar floor has lots of TV screens for game watching, a full bar, a pool table, and a stage with some sort of gymnast contraption from which the dancers could hang from when performing. I ordered a beer (bottled, since draft was not available) and dinner and proceeded to watch the game for the next 60 minutes. The club seems to have a decent menu and the chicken siracha was excellent. After the meal I limited my drinking to water ($4 for a small bottle). Excluding the bartender, I had the floor to myself when I arrived. Eventually other patrons trickled in. The big attraction on a Friday night in the sports bar is karaoke. This starts at 10:00 PM and I decided I would leave before people started to sing. Strippers do come to the third floor and perform on the stage even during the karaoke performances. Very odd.
I headed down to the second floor a little after 10. This five-floor club has an elevator but there are also stairs, some prominent and ornate like the stair between floors 1 and 2, and others that are more practical and discreet. The second floor has a small bar and is open to the first floor with a balcony that allows patrons to see the mainstage from above. This feature allows a lot more viewers of the performers on the 1st floor. From here I could see that the mainstage allows 2 dancers to perform simultaneously and each side of the stage has its own dancer pole. These poles extend to the ceiling of the second floor, and some dancers would ascend all the way to the ceiling, at least 20’ up. At this main stage the two dancers would rotate from one side of the stage to the other after each song. Dancers would remove their tops sometime during the second song and their bottoms during the third song. I really enjoyed this vantage point and hung out here for most of the night. The second floor also has a mini stage that is a few inches off the floor where one dancer can perform. This stage has a ring that can be used by the performers or detached if desired. I was told that the two dancers who finish their performances on the 1st floor are directed to next perform on either the second floor or the third floor. On the upper floors the performances are not as consistent with some dancers only removing their tops and others not disrobing at all even when tipped substantially.
The club had about 25 dancers performing. Most were white with one Asian, one black and two or three exotic that were most likely Hispanic. There were some dancers with long, lean, stripper bodies, but most were substantially overweight with excessive tattoos. This is my biggest challenge with strip clubs right now and if you've read my other reviews you've heard this from me before: too many overweight dancers are being hired. The big bellies, fat asses and cellulite are simply not attractive. These girls would not turn my head in public, and they are not going to get my attention even when naked at a strip club. What is surprising about Rick's is the club itself is really nice from a design standpoint. Whomever is responsible for this facility has an aesthetic. Unfortunately, that aesthetic is not impacting the dancer selection. There were 5 to 6 girls that I would consider attractive and a couple had definitive stripper bodies. Another positive is that all dancers appeared to have real boobs. Unfortunately, the overall dancer attractiveness was pulled down by the number of heavier girls.
An element of this club that I have never encountered before is how infrequently the dancers approached the patrons. From my vantage point on the 2nd floor, I had a clear view of most of the first floor and all of the second floor. Not once did I see a dancer circulating and asking patrons for a private dance, and only one dancer approached me all night. The dancer strategy was to sit at a table either alone or with guests and hope that the conversation would eventually lead to a private dance. I did learn from the one dancer who approached me that there are rooms for private dances off the 1st floor and 2nd floor and that the 4th and 5th floors are champagne rooms where you could take the girls. I was told the private dance price structure is the same for everybody at $35 for a single song lap dance, $95 for three songs, and $265 for 30 minutes in a private room. The same dancer who told me about the pricing indicated that the main strategy for the girls is to make money off the private dances, somewhat surprising considering how unaggressive the girls were about these. As we watched from the 2nd floor together, she agreed that the dancers didn't seem to be “into it”.
After a little while I did go to the ground floor and was able to find seats at the mainstage even on this somewhat busy Friday night. The mainstage is about 30 inches off the floor, is rimmed by a small counter and has comfortable lounge chairs around the perimeter. The first floor also has a bar and many tables held in reserve that seemed to be empty for most of the night. In addition to the club layout, I was impressed with all the amenities available at this place: drinking, eating, sports viewing, shooting pool, karaoke, and watching naked dancers. The club even offers a breakfast buffet that is available after alcohol consumption ends at 2:00 AM until closing.
In summary, the club has a lot of nice features and seems to attract people interested in more than naked women. The clientele were diverse, the staff members were friendly, and the dancers were the opposite of aggressive. I would visit again if I ever return to Pittsburgh, but I would go on a night when there is a game I wish to watch on TV and Karaoke is not part of the program (from the dancers that sang, it is clear why their “entertainment” skills are limited to removing their clothes). If the dancer quality improves this could be one of the top clubs I’ve ever visited.
