15651 E. Valley Blvd., La Puente
Exit 60 E. Fwy at Hacienda, left on Three Palms, left on S. Hacienda,
right on E. Valley
(626) 336-3700
Sun - Sat: 8pm - 2am
Cover: $5 (VISA, MC, ATM), $4 soft drinks
Dance fee: $27/hr 10 minute minimum
Map
Closed: 2002
Although I haven’t verified this, I’ve been told they round the
clock-in time down to the earliest 10 minutes and they round the clock
out time to the next 10 minutes. If you put the tip on a credit card, a
10% surcharge is added. Currently, however, they are not giving cash
back (for the tips) on credit cards, so if you prefer to pay with your
ATM or credit card I advise you to bring sufficient cash to cover the
amount you expect to tip.
A sign outside advises that a “minimum tip of $27 an hour is
required.” I’m not sure how strictly this is enforced. Legally they
can’t force you to tip any more than a restaurant can. I suppose they
could ask you not to come back if you don’t at least match the bill,
but that would be extreme.
This is the smallest of all the clubs. There is an entry door opening
onto the bar/clock stand area. They were using the new computer type
method for keeping track of the time and cost of the dances. However,
recently the ABC (Alcoholic Beverage Control board) raided them and
confiscated their computer (supposedly on suspicion of labor code
violations, although that’s another agency’s jurisdiction).
On busy nights they have around 30+ girls. I would say that the
quality is similar to VIP, which is to be expected as
there are several ex-VIP girls working there. Most of the girls don't
start coming in until 9 PM, and there are a lot of stragglers who don't
show up until 10. Apparently they have a very liberal attendance policy.
You will frequently see Sheriff’s squad cars parked nearby. Not to
worry – the nearby Beef Bowl is one of their hangouts.
There is a main room consisting of a dance floor that no one uses and
several groupings of red velour couches with plastic palms, etc. placed
around the area. The available girls sit on couches at the far end of
the room, across from the bar area. Many also congregate out front (on
smoke break) as at VIP and act as "eye candy" advertising for
the place, I guess. Behind the girls' seating area, just underneath the
large fish tank, are about six or seven "cubicle" type booths
with partitions on the sides. A partition screens most of this area from
view of the rest of the club.
There is a “couples only” area next to the main room. This
consists of a partitioned off space with 2 rows of "typical
HC" red velour love seats with small tables. This area has room for
about 10 couples. The lighting intensity seems to vary from one day to
the next, as at CF. There are no cameras. The rear entrance to this area
has been blocked off and now the only access is through the entrance by
the fish tank booths. The couches are positioned so that they are facing
all traffic that enters the room, which makes privacy a problem. To the
right of this area, the former dance floor has been converted into a
temporary VIP room. Admission to this area requires purchase of a VIP
card (I heard the cost just went up to $150), which is also good for one
year's free admission to the club. It is very small with room for
only four or five couples and doesn’t offer as much privacy as the old
VIP room, which I understand is being converted into a kitchen.
The club recently lost their liquor license. I don’t know if it’s
a permanent situation or just a temporary suspension. There is a
one-drink minimum when you clock in a girl and they usually like to add
the drinks to the bill, in which case they automatically add a $1 tip
per drink. Sometimes the waitresses will ask you if you want the
drinks added to your bill first, but often they don’t.
They recently instituted a dress code:
No shaved heads.
No baggy or oversized clothes.
No baseball caps, beanies, or bandanas.
No sports jerseys.
No tank tops or plain T-shirts.
Gang related tattoos must be covered
No open buttoned (I guess they mean unbuttoned) shirts??
[Reader Reviews]
 
16025 Gale Avenue, Hacienda Heights
Exit 60 E. Fwy at Hacienda, left on Three Palms, left on S. Hacienda,
right on E. Gale
(626) 369-7573
Sun - Sat: 7pm - 2am
Cover: $5 (VISA, MC, DISC, ATM)
Dance fee: $27/hr
Map
Closed: 2002
This is a huge club as HC’s go, about 5,000 square feet. When you
enter the club, you are facing north and first you go through a little
alcove about six feet long. As you enter the inner door, you see the
cashier to your left (west). As you face north, you see the area where
the non-dancing hostesses sit. It used to be enclosed but is now open by
requirement of the Sheriff’s Dept. To the west of this area is the
snack bar.
Like the other COI clubs, they use the Starlight-type “maitre d’”
concept. You identify the girl you want to dance with and one of
the staff goes and gets her for you. She goes to the cashier and clocks
in and the two of you are off. As you face north at the cashier's area,
if you turn to the right (east), you see a dance floor at the east end
of the club. It is about the same size as the Fantasy dance floor. There are several
sitting areas for couples and they have varying levels of illumination.
There are sitting areas north and south of the dance floor.
There is one more sitting area west of the sitting area south of the
dance floor and east of the entrance. To the west of this area and east
of the entrance another sitting area has been converted into a poolroom.
Looking west from the entrance, there is another sitting area at the
west end of the club. This is the TV room and is probably the darkest
area of the club. All of the sitting areas have cameras, although you
can’t see them.
The club has only been open a little over two years and already has
gone through two ownership and format changes. When the club first
opened it was an integrated club. As a result of an LE harassment
campaign, the original owner decided to switch to a Latino format. He
also installed cameras and floor lamps like they have at Fantasy. Last
year he sold the club to two partners, an older American man and a
younger Asian man. They changed the club back to the original integrated
format.
Earlier this year the Asian partner sold his interest to the
remaining former owners of Dreamland.
For those of you familiar with the ex-Dreamland owners, Joe, Johnny, and
Sammy (the tall, thin Asian guy who owned the club during its brief,
post-HC pool hall era) are now all partners in the club. Pepe, who was
also a partner at one time, has since left to pursue a career in
computers.
Unfortunately, the club isn’t anything like Dreamland used to be.
It never seems to have gotten past the Catch-22 situation that most new
clubs go through: Not enough girls to bring in customers in significant
numbers, not enough customers to keep the girls busy enough that it’s
worth their while to stay. On busy nights they’ll have only half as
many girls as the other COI clubs.
[Reader Reviews]
17351 E. Gale Avenue, Rowland Heights
Exit 60 E. Fwy at Azusa, left on S. Azusa, right on E. Gale, left on S.
Hatcher
(626) 964-1511
Sun - Sat: 7pm - 2am
Cover: $5 (VISA, MC, ATM) No minimum charge on ATM/credit cards
Dance fee: $27/hr
Map
Closed: 2002
Physically, this is the Spearmint
Rhino of hostess clubs. The place is beautiful with lots of plants,
nice comfortable couches and sparkling marble restrooms (at least at the
beginning of the night). Reportedly the owner spent $100K remodeling it.
As you enter the club there is a small anteroom, with a counter to the
left where the girls sign in and also serves as the doorman's station.
Velvet curtains similar to the ones at VIP partition off the entrance to
the main club area. As you enter the main area of the club, the bar is
to the right, with a wall separating it from a small, raised stage
(complete with pole) that is occasionally used by features from Paradise
Showgirls (one of the owners also has an ownership interest in
Paradise). I understand that sometimes they’ll come over and do a show
after their show at Paradise is over.
The couch area is in a separate room beyond the girls' seating area.
The entrance is curtained off and just opposite the last booth, on the
way down the hall to the rest rooms. I peeked inside and noticed that it
was similar to the setup at LA Grand.
There is a small dance floor with a smoky partition just like the ones
at VIP and LA Grand in the front of the room on the
left. The room was not as dark as at VIP.
They used to have lingerie nights like VIP, but I hear they’ve been
discontinued as well. Like VIP, they also have cameras. For nearly a
year they struggled to get business (as well as girls) and for a long
time only charged $18 an hour. However, when I went back last April
after an absence of several months, I was surprised to see 33 girls
working on a Friday night. This is comparable to what VIP would have on
a Friday. The dance fee has been raised to $27 an hour like the other
clubs.
[Reader Reviews]
15455 E. Valley Blvd., La Puente
Exit 60 E. Fwy at Hacienda, left on Three Palms, left on S. Hacienda,
left on E. Valley
(562) 943-9915
Sun - Sat: 6pm - 2am
Cover: $5 (VISA, MC)
Dance fee: $27/hr
Map
The club is located in the same strip mall as the Spearmint
Rhino. There is a Pho Hoa (Vietnamese noodle place), a massage
parlor, a bar owned by the same owner as the Spearmint Rhino called
Mahoney's where a lot of the Rhino dancers hang out before their shifts;
a Wells Fargo ATM and a Denny's within walking distance.
This club is almost as nice as its’ sister club, the Sugar Honey. As you enter the club the bar and
cash register is to the right. The girls sit on couches across the room
from the front door. Between them and the door are small tables and
chairs for the customers to sit. To the right of the bar is the main
"couples only" area, which includes a cabana-like TV room and
a small, dance floor enclosed in smoked Plexiglas. There are additional
couches outside and behind the TV room.
Privacy is not as good as at Club
Fantasy. I’ve seen some pretty good grinding occurring on the
dance floor, although if you go when it’s busy you may feel like a
sardine. This club has a system similar to Starlight, where instead of
picking the girls yourself, they prefer that you let one of the staff
(usually the waitress/waiter or the floor manager) know who you want to
dance with and they will get her for you. They use a computerized system
to keep track of the girls’ time. The girls who are available are
listed, along with their number, on the left side of the screen. When
you clock in a girl they click on her name, which starts the clock
running and transfers her name to the "With Client" list on
the right side of the screen. When you bring her back they reverse the
process. The program also has the ability to run a tab for drinks.
Pricing and minimum dance time is the same as most clubs. There is no
minimum charge on ATM/credit cards. If you pay by ATM or credit card
and, presumably, put the tip on the card as well, there is a 15%
surcharge on the amount of the tip only. The club is smaller than
Fantasy, and prior to their installing cameras they had between 40-50
girls on busy nights. Now they’re usually in the high 30’s.
There are no set shifts per se as at Fantasy. The girls are supposed
to work a five-hour shift and then they can go home. The club doesn’t
start happening until 9 PM, and a lot of girls arrive between 9 and 10.
Looks-wise, the quality of the girls overall is not as good as at
Fantasy. I understand they have discontinued the lingerie nights.
Both the TV room and the larger, adjacent couch area have cameras,
although you can’t see them. There are usually at least two, sometimes
three, security guards who periodically patrol the rooms, sometimes with
a flashlight in hand. The lighting in the TV room, which used to be
quite dim, has also been turned up a bit. The cameras and stepped up
security were prompted by the discovery of condoms on the dance floor
and other areas.
This is what my friend Old Smoker had to say about this development:
“When you have a situation where condoms are being found on the dance
floor, sitting areas, wastebaskets, toilets and in the urinals, what you
are saying to the club management and LE authorities is, "F**K
YOU!" You cannot do that with impunity. In the past, police have
actually gone into bathrooms at clubs (i.e., Danceland, Flamingo,
Dreamland, etc.), gone through the garbage, and made condom counts.
Augment your Carnal Implementation Kits! Carry rubber gloves, plastic
bags, etc. Don't leave any evidence at the club of your dastardly deeds.
Dispose of the evidence away from the club. Make yourself a mental
checklist. Make sure that you don't leave any "mood
enhancers," neck massagers, body oils, aqua-lube, lotion, etc. at
the club to be found by guards, waitresses, etc.”
[Reader Reviews]
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