Semi-sweet Saturday Afternoon

I visited Sugar44 in Phoenix, Arizona on the afternoon of Saturday May 27, 2023 from about 3 to 4:15 pm. The club is on the north side of Thomas Rd just east of 44th Street. This is a commercial area between a McDonalds and a bank and right across the street from a large newish shopping center. The club has self parking but the lot is tiny and I don’t know what the parking situation is if the club is at all busy. A rectangular standalone building with the entrance in the center of one of the long sides. Nobody at the door when I entered so walked in without any cover or other formalities. The club is pretty small. The building is basically two halves on either side of the entrance. To the right is the bar room with the bar along one long side and to the left is the showroom with a one-pole oval stage in the center with about 8 seats at the tip rail and small tables with 2 or 3 chairs each sway from it and some bench seating along the walls.

The club is very dark and it takes a while for eyes to adjust after coming in from daylight. The lighting is not extensive and is fixed, mostly blue and purple. This is a problem for me since one of my eyes has a cataract that completely filters out purple. After sitting down a waitress came by for my drink order, generic bottled water for $5. There were a few screens showing sports, but not very many. Music was varied and songs seemed full length.

There were about 9 customers and an equal number of dancers. The dancers were a variety of ethnicities, definitely not a large percentage of Latina’s. They were generally good looking. Some were full bodied but none were really overweight. Mostly they were just sitting and drinking with customers at the bar. The stage was seldom occupied although the DJ called for dancers to come up frequently. When someone did dance top came off if there was any interest in tipping, which however was rare.