Old Club Charm Doesn't Quite Cut It

I was back in Montreal for a while and visited several clubs. One of these was Cafe Cleopatra. It's the furthest from the center of downtown where I was staying, but was still walkable despite the somewhat wintry weather. The club was much like I remembered, though somehow more disappointing. The entrance is up a set of stairs from the street, admission was a "tip" with $5 recommended. I didn't get asked for a separate fee (other clubs have a cover charge and then the hosts/bouncers expect something on top of that). Inside the club is very dark, darker even than I remembered. The night I visited there were maybe ten other customers. Service was good; bottles of water were $7.

The stage show was less interesting than my previous visit. Most of the dancers gave a pretty subdued performance. The dancers were not on the whole particularly attractive. As before, they were older and heavier than at most of the other clubs in Montreal. They were also even less interested in conversation than my last visit - lots of "wanna dance". The language was a bigger issue here than some places (I don't speak French), but I also didn't get the impression the dancers were looking for any sort of chat even if there'd been no barrier.

I stayed a while to give a variety of dancers a chance on stage, and tried out a few dances as well. Dances are only $10 each, so the investment is low. They take place in small booths with not quite opaque curtains. These are typical Montreal "contact dances", where you can touch the dancer fairly liberally. There's little if anything back from the dancer though. One dancer, a blond with large implants, kept trying to kiss my neck and face, which I was not into. She wouldn't take the hint of pushing her away and leaning back, and otherwise she just sat on my legs so I ended things quickly. Another dancer was a little more active but still mostly boring. I did get one half decent dance from a thick black dancer with big natural curves. She did something approximating a grind and at least attempted to form a connection.