In Philadelphia one recent night, I...

In Philadelphia one recent night, I spent about three hours in one of the large strip club in the area, Christine’s Cabaret. This large club is in an elegant building in the southwest part of town and has a large, free, well-lit parking lot. The club had a modest cover charge, only $5. One has to enter through a metal detector but that is no problem. The main room is large and interesting with a high ceiling and an overlooking restaurant. In the center of the room is a long, elevated, central stage with three tall stripper poles, surrounded by a pit for servers, a bar and bar stools. The room is overlooked by a DJ booth. On the walls three very large TV screens show sports scenes, none of which seemed to be live when I was there. Although undoubtedly useful for showing live feeds from local teams when they are playing, I found the large screens distracting when I was there to watch the dancers. Beer was $5, again very reasonable. A fancy looking steakhouse restaurant overlooks the main room, separated by large plate glass windows which perhaps muffle the loud music. The club takes credit cards but there is no ATM in the club itself. The club had only about 40-50 customers when I was there, growing slightly over time - although the room could have held many more - perhaps 300. I think that may be the main problem, for the many vacant seats limited the festive atmosphere. The other problems that I saw were that it was hard to see the performing dancers, for many reasons: the dancers were rather distant from most customers, they were poorly illuminated, and the glitter lights didn’t add much useful light. And as mentioned earlier, the large screens showing meaningless recorded sports scenes were a distraction.

The dancers in this club were only topless (not nude) only but they were good dancers, friendly, and rated 6-9 on looks. Perhaps 30 dancers were working when I was there. Dancers rotate up to the central stage and dance around a pole at one end, then at a pole near the other end, and then leave the stage and circulate along the bar for tips. Not bad for a process, but most patrons will have been able to see only one of their two dances because of problems with distance, lighting, and obstructions. Often dancers that I never saw dance on stage came up to me for tips - kind of a hassle.

Lap dances are given in a room down one hallway, overseen by a bouncer. The rate is $20 for 4 minutes, and dancer must tip the overseer who is supposed to keep track of the time, which is a good idea as I know sometimes performing lapdancers overestimate the passage of time. Lapdances are given on cushioned benches which are rather open - with little privacy. However, few people were there when I was, so I had no problems with the arrangement. If all the benches were occupied by customers getting lapdances, there would have been no privacy at all - but that arrangement then may have been rather festive (looking like an orgy), and even more fun. My favorite dancers were Ilena, Rio, Victoria, Mohnica, and Skylark. In particular, Ilena - a slim blonde Russian from NYC - gave me several nice lap dances and curled up next to me for a while hoping for more business. Very friendly. I also recommend Rio - an enthusiastic local - who seemed challenged to outdo the others in giving lapdances. I had lots of fun with various lapdancers. I didn’t try any champagne room experiences - if Christine’s has them.