Cafe Cleopatra worth the visit

I was in Montreal for a week-long conference and my hotel was right around the corner from Cafe Cleopatra, so I dropped in on a Thursday night around 11 pm. The place doesn't look like much, on the outside or on the inside - it's a pretty seedy part of town and the club matches the neighbourhood. The bouncer asked for a tip instead of a cover charge, but you got the feeling that the tip was not optional even if the amount wasn't specified. I gave him a five which seemed to work. Went to the bar and ordered a beer for $9 and took a seat near the stage. There was a steady rotation of girls dancing on the main stage - I was there for a couple hours and there was never a long gap between the main stage dancers - when one finished, you usually only had one song before someone else was back on stage. There was good diversity in the dancers - lots of different backgrounds and body types. Private dances were 10$ apiece - the VIP area was just a set of small booths within eyeline of the main stage so not very private - looked like one or two of the booths were slightly more isolated than the others and those were the ones that were used the most. I got private dances from two different girls - both very enthusiastic and friendly, with no pressure to go to VIP, chatting until the next song started so you got the full song, and happy to let your hands wander almost everywhere. Cleopatra is definitely a bit run down but it's seedy and disreputable in exactly the way you want a strip club to be. Lot of fun and a good place to kill a few hours if you're in Montreal.