Casual lunch diversion

My second Manhattan club visit consisted of a slightly ridiculous "businessman's lunch" at Rick's Cabaret. The club was conveniently located in midtown, just a few blocks from the Empire State Building. I wasn't sure it was open because the doors were closed and no one was around. But I received a friendly greeting upon entering. My ID was checked, but not scanned, on the way in. There was no masking or other covid considerations. I wasn't charged a cover.

The room was dim which, while typical of a strip club, made reading the menu difficult. Fortunately there weren't too many choices to wade through. Rick's offered a fixed-price lunch at $15 for a soup/salad, entree, and dessert. The Caesar salad was ok, with not much other than lettuce but at least not drowning in dressing. My burger was decent, and pleasantly not overcooked. The fries were good. The lava cake dessert was also good, but I didn't care for the salted caramel ice cream that came with it. All told, it was a good deal for $15, especially in New York. On the other hand, each of the two small glasses of Coke I got were $5, which reminded me where I was.

The club space was a bit deceptively sized. The main room I sat in was sort of average, with a bar, some tables and a stage. But there was a space in the back with more tables, and looking up there were multiple floors above. I didn't go exploring so I'm not sure what those spaces were like, but the entire club must be fairly large.