Club Onyx is a mainly Black...

Club Onyx is a mainly Black club at the location of the former Rick's Cabaret. It is part of a chain of clubs marketed as "upscale" clubs oriented toward African-Americans. But there's no problem with a person of any race

working there or coming there. The location is safe.

the Philly Club Onyx is set up as an upscale club, with valet parking available (but self-park available two), heavy security at the entrance, and a very large club divided into two bars, one a standard strip club layout with a huge stage in the middle of the room, and the other a sports bar with one small stage for a dancer. You can move freely from one to the other.

When I arrived at 9:30PM it seemed relatively empty (though it is so large that even with fifty patrons it could seem relatively empty). There were about twenty dancers lounging around; only one onstage dancing, most looking rather bored. I have to say that for an upscale club most of the dancers looked pretty "street". Some looked outright rough. As time went on, more dancers started appearing (one dancer told me there were forty on the premises at that point) and the attractiveness quotient went up. There were a number of very sexy ones, though even they tended to have a "street" vibe.

A dancer who had very a attractive "around the way girl" look--very down-to-earth, not flashy or edgy--came up to me and started talking. She had a nice body, was friendly and we had a nice long talk. Absolutely no hustle. In fact she told me she never hustled dances. She asked me once if I was contemplating a private dance but when I said I didn't think so, she didn't bring it up again. The options, according to her, were a table dance in the open for $20 a song, lapdances in the V.I.P. room for $25 a song but with a four song mininum and the champagne room (she didn't know the rates there). We chatted for at least half an hour, taking in the various dancers and rating them.