A Slow Saturday Night In The Mountain State

This review is from Saturday Aug 10. I was staying in downtown Morgantown and wanted to check out a local SC. With the demise of the Blue Parrot it appeared that Southern Xposure was probably the closest to my hotel so that is where I ended up. Coming from the downtown you go through a couple of small, unincorporated areas called Osage and Pursglove before you hit the club. The club is not too far from the WVU Coliseum. This location is one of several in The Mountain State within the Southern Xposure family.

Even with Waze I wanted to try to get there before it got dark since I was in unfamiliar territory. I arrived around 8:30. Parking is free and the lot seemed plenty large enough to accommodate a big crowd. At the time of my arrival there were no more than 6 vehicles in the lot. I didn’t have to pay a cover which was nice. I later learned that if there is only one dancer on duty there is no cover. Once additional dancers arrived the cover became $10. WV has this odd doorbell system. You pay your cover and then you are buzzed in. I have encountered this setup elsewhere in WV in the past, even at a regular restaurant. The purpose of being buzzed in has always puzzled me. Maybe someone can explain it to me.

The club itself is huge. There is a long L-shape bar on the left just after you enter. The stage is at the far end of the building from the bar. This makes it difficult to see the stage when seated at the bar. There are also some round tables in the main seating area. These are closer to the stage. There is one rectangular stage with a pole and a tip rail. I sat at the bar much of the evening but did venture over to the tip rail for a while and threw a few singles at the dancers on stage. There were 2 others at the bar whom I later learned from the manager were “bar rescue”-type consultants. The manager said there were some big changes potentially in the offing, like maybe the addition of a kitchen.