Meh

I did a mini road trip out of Grand Rapids and made a stop in Jackson, and visited Cracker Jaxx while I was there. It's probably fine for a local joint, but not something I'd make a special trip for. I got in around 8 and stayed for about an hour.

Cracker Jaxx is a bit southeast of the main part of Jackson, in a somewhat industrial (or abandoned) area criscrossed by railroad tracks. The area doesn't look dangerous or anything, just a bit desolate. The building itself is fairly nice on the outside and has a decent amount of parking. The sun doesn't set until 10pm or so these days, so didn't get a chance to see what the lighting situation is. Inside is a big room with a bar on one side and the stage behind that - there's no tip rail, but there is a little platform at one side of the bar so dancers can come down and get a tip from you if you want to give one (Vegas Strip in Battle Creek has a similar setup). Scattered around the rest of the room are cocktail tables. There are some elevated areas with more cocktail tables, but it didn't seem like these were any kind of special VIP seating areas or anything. Off to the left when you enter are a small boutique selling merch and the entry to the private dance room. Cover was $5, the bottled Bud I got was under $5 and the guy seemed quite pleased to just take a 5 and I left the bar without asking for change - sign out front says bottles are $3.75, but I'm pretty sure the price I heard started with a 4. Whatever. The bartender and the door guys seemed to be the only non-dancing staff when I arrived, but another bartender showed up a bit later. There are a couple TVs around, they were showing different sporting events while I was there. I don't know if they'd spilled a bottle or something, but the place reeked of Captain Morgan.

There were 6-7 dancers working, and maybe 2 crossed the threshold into the territory of "attractive" - a slender brunette white girl and a younger AA. Other dancers were homely or not anywhere near being in decent shape. One of the homely but not chubby girls was super friendly to me, so I took her back for dances ($20 a song) which were OK but nothing especially dirty or even sensual. Dances were topless and I had free range over the uncovered areas. Once were done, I went back to my seat. I figured I was in there around shift changes so I hung around to see if any decent looking dancers showed up, but all the women that walked through the door were more of the same, so I took off after about an hour.