Maxing Out Its Potential

Ah, Haven Place. Blue collar neighborhood, free onsite parking, no cover, no security. For a while there, you used to be such a terrible place to spend time. Disinterested over the hill (Cathy, Princess) and/or overly inked (Niki, Malibu, Sydni, Stormy) or I just plain wasn't interested (Sweetie, Sparkle, Shay) girls in a run-down physical space. The music was too loud. Sometimes the TV would cut out. The only thing saving you was the relatively lower drink prices, occasional out of the blue good dancer (here today, gone tomorrow), and perhaps a pretty bartender who may have doubled as a dancer (MJ... but she seems to be gone, sigh, I really liked talking to her, she had a brain and she did a decent dance, too) or may not have branched out into dancing (Olivia... very cute but alas), and those rock-bottom dance prices ($100/15, $200/30, and so on). When it's bad, it's very bad- no dancers, no patrons, and that cycle would feed itself, and the place would be dead.

But Haven Place is doing a little better these days. Seems like Charlie (the owner) is there more often, and he's a nice guy and as I'm going more regularly he kind of knows my face now. There are new stools by the bar (not sure if I mentioned those in my last review) but those terrible wooden seats in the "balcony" area are still there. There's still no food (I don't care), the bathroom is still atrocious (we all should care), it's still a low-pressure place (although Stormy and Niki did come over on different days to try their luck, but I wasn't having it).

I did make an overture to Bambi, though, who has returned after an absence of two or more years. Bambi is very pretty and ink-free, which is a rarity and always a plus. Let's just say she's a lot more comfortable in her role than she was a few years back. : )

Everyone is looking for something different, and if there's a girl I like, that's certainly the overriding criterion for me as opposed to ambiance or food or anything else. (Millstream, take note.) Haven Place is not upscale, and most people are there to have a drink or two and simply look but not spend big bucks. But if you are looking for more, you might find it more easily these days as opposed to in months past, just remember to temper your expectations on other factors.