New Owners, New Depths

Imperial was purchased by the Synn chain, effective in December. Unfortunately, this change is not for the better, IMO. Synn has raised the admission price to $10, drink prices to $10, added a hard drink push, eliminated most of the old specials, removed the curtains from the VIP suites, moved most "VIP" dances into an open room of cubicles and restricted the private VIP suites to the $180 half hour dances, and (like most CA clubs) switched the dances from independent contractors to employees under terms which appear to cause financial hardships to dancers (modified splits, "drink sale" fees, fines, etc.) which is having the impact of causing many Imperial dancers to leave. However, there is some influx of new dancers from the "empire" of other Synn clubs, apparently due to location and Imperial's "low mileage" reputation. At least for now, there seems to be less dancers (particularly the veterans who knew how to test the limits of the Disneyland-adjacent low mileage restrictions), less privacy, and higher costs. At least Synn retained the linked (but separate) full alcohol bar area, which can be accessed as part of the same admission.

Apart from the removed VIP suite curtains, the physical layout remains the same and is mice and comfortable with two stages (although in days only one is used). Sound volume is louder now, as there is a different DJ and playlist (more modern EDM house hip hop pop type stuff). Upstairs "juice bar" area converted benches into open cheap lap dance areas. All dances remain technically "bikini," although wardrobe failures still occur with some girls, and some mild 2-way contact and SSTP is possible. But the suites are a little weird as they look right into each other, so with no curtains you get a voyeur show as well as the dance (and sometimes it is a little hard to look away, as with the guy across from me who spent the entire time kneeling behind his dancer, running his hands up and down her hamstrings and buttocks like he was playing a saxophone. Fucking mesmerizing...).

Dancers are still pretty attractive and young, although less blonde/beach/white girls and more Latinas. Synn clubs (other than COI) seem to have a "type" IMO (thick Latinas without a lot of personality or enthusiasm) so should be interesting to see if that develops here as well. I'm going to keep my dancers' names confidential this time, as they mostly ranted about the adverse details of the changes and discussed where they would go and do next. I left unsatisfied, in any event.