When I go to a topless...

When I go to a topless place, I like the familiarity of it. The similarities appeal to me, in the same way that marketing people see branding (Starbucks, the Howard Johnson's roof, McDonald's) as working to bring people in by providing them with a known quantity, whether it is coffee, fried clams, a Big Mac, or titties! So when I decided to stop into Joy, I was expecting something somewhat similar. The best word to describe this place is "uneven". I think that the last time I was at Joy was sometime during the Clinton Administration, but I was in Round Rock on business and thought "What the heck". Well, the ladies ranged from 3-10, literally all over the map. The dances ranged from 3 feet of air to Houston-standard grinding and groping. The waitresses literally disappeared for 30 minutes at a time, and I got someone else's tab (which would have been less than mine, but I spoke up and they found mine). The club has a lot of sight lines that are blocked by the columns, but open to the rest of the room. It is as if someone read about topless places in a magazine, and was working off of those notes. Like a KGB replica of an American strip club or something! It was just ... not quite right. I was pleased that the ladies did put some effort into the stage shows and I appreciated that (and I tipped). I did eventually find a young brunette looking to make some money who was discrete and who appeared to not have any gag reflex at all, but it took some effort. This is certainly not Treasures.

The place brings out a whole bunch of people from all parts of society, but everyone was friendly. Quite friendly, in fact. The place had a sort of "Cheers" feel to it, and I think that a lot of these people were regulars. I think that there were some drink specials, but I was recovering from my flu shot (yeah, there's irony for you) so I was sticking to cranberry juice and Tylenol. A tatooed Mexican fellow said that the food was good and an Anglo accountant fellow on the other side of me agreed, and both suggested the strip steak, so that might be worth trying. Both agreed that the quality of the ladies varied to a frightening degree and both said that it had always been thus. They didn't know why. Beaurocratic inertia, perhaps.

Austin traffic is terrible, so you probably want to avoid rush hour up there given Joy's location right on the freeway.