The Change Was Not For The Better

I visited AJ's on an early Wednesday afternoon and, at that time, there were very few other customers (a total of 3) as you would expect. The place is still set up the same way with the one large rectangular bar and stage directly in front of you as you first enter, then a couple of pool tables to the right with the VIP room next to the pool table area. The rest rooms are located along the back wall behind the pool tables. There are more upscale private rooms upstairs, but I have never seen any of them actually utilized so I don't know if they are completely off-limits or if just nobody wants to fork out the extra $$$ for them.

The friendly attractive bartender immediately greeted me when I came in and I ordered a Blue Moon for $8, maybe a slightly inflated price, but not terrible. There were two girls dancing on stage, neither of whom I had ever seen before, both I would rate a 5 or a 6. I believe there were a total of about 8 girls working and I was not familiar with any of them which was a good thing because, over the past several years even before the pandemic, every time I would visit this place I would usually see the same handful of dancers so I was anxious for a shake up to the lineup. However, the different faces and bodies unfortunately did not equate to an increase in my personal satisfaction of the selection since I didn't find any of the women to be above a 7. Furthermore, during each pair's stage set which lasted 10 minutes, some of the other ladies on shift would rapidly circle the bar to collect tips and them either immediately return to their seat at the bar where they would bury their faces in their Smartphones or disappear into the dressing room. I had to re-confirm that I was not at Breathless since this dollar parade was a bit too reminiscent of that place and I had not experienced this during my previous trips to AJ's. After about half an hour of being constantly hit up for dollars and not being the least bit impressed with who was available, I cut my losses and left and did not partake in any private dances which would have been $20 per song had I been inspired to do so. I prefer to go during the day when things aren't quite so crazy, but next time I may just check this place out at night to see if the overall quality is better. However, I don't plan to do this anytime soon.

I know that the lineup can potentially vary greatly from one day to the next and these ratings are just my personal opinion and others may feel completely differently, but this experience was simply a big miss which has seemed to be the case far more often than not in the NJ clubs since the pandemic.