hours: Mon-Sat, 11:00 a.m. - 3:00 a.m.; Sun 4:00 p.m. - 3:00 a.m.

cover: day, $15 (before 6:00 p.m.); night, $20; admission is free to ASSCers on the first Friday of each month, subject to complex restrictions that I'm not going to attempt to explain.

drinks: Non-alcoholic, $4 for both customers and dancers

private dances: Lap dances in private booths, starting at $20 (but extremely variable); private girl-girl shows are available.

vip rooms: None, except that laps are all done in private, fully-curtained booths (no extra charge).

dollars & sense: No clip-joint stuff, but the red basket routine might annoy the K-Mart crowd.

state fee: unknown   tipouts: unknown

In a Nutshell

Small, friendly, hole-in-the-wall-type club with potential for serious entertainment. Some of the wildest (spontaneous) things I've ever seen on strip club stage happened here. Unfortunately, the really out-there antics seem to be less common now than during the peak ASSC days of '96 and '97. The club's connection to ASSC is evident by the 'net-enabled PC in the northeast corner of the club.

Full Review

After management problems at the New Century Theatre, the Chez Paree became the hub of activity for the San Francisco contingent of ASS-C, and not without reason. The club is, at least for regulars, a pretty cozy little hangout, and is as good for socializing as for stageside perving or serious lapping.

CP has a policy that dancers may not ask customers for dances until they have been there for two songs. The idea is to prevent dancers from nagging customers for dances the minute they sit down, but customers aren't even allowed to ask for dances until they have been there for two songs. A good idea turned into bad policy.

Owner Steve is customer-friendly, as are most of the staff, but don't piss off Linda. Drinks are hardly pushed at all, except if you are sitting at the tip rail, in which case you must have a drink in front of you. This club has the unique practice of circulating a little red tip basket at the end of each dancer's three-song set; each customer is politely (occasionally not-so-politely) asked to tip the stage dancer a dollar, and all the regulars do this without complaining. Hey, $4-5 an hour ain't too much to ask, so I recommend following this custom without complaining.

If I Could Change One Thing...

Bring back that lovin' feeling...! Okay seriously, the "wait-two-songs-before-wanna-dance" is a good idea, but it should be fixed so that customers can ask for dances when they want to.

The Bottom Line

Club Quality   Anti-glitzy; more the neighborhood bar kinda feel.

Dancer Quality   4-8 Diamonds in the rough.

Dancer Attitudes   Choose right and you'll make friends for life.

Heat   Amazing things have happened to me here, but it ain't MSC.

Go?   There's too much history to this place to not see it at least once. Go on Thurs-Sat nights.