Are you sick of strip clubs that lack sophistication and taste? Do you want to go to a place where you can pay for lap dances from girls who really (no, really!) like you? Are you craving Italian? Today’s your lucky day.
It’s Thursday night at the dimly lit Financial District club Quest, and a 29-year-old male investment banker and a 22-year-old gallery girl in a short, tight sweater dress exchange flirtatious banter. Her favorite artist is Picasso. He’s always had a fondness for the Midwest, where she grew up. “You’re a good egg,” the banker says. “You’re a good egg, too,” she responds with a coy smile. They get another round, while dudes in crew-neck sweaters awkwardly linger by the bar, shelling out $18 a drink, and a group of girls dance by themselves in a circle to Rihanna’s “S&M,” some with plates of baked ziti in hand.
Fifteen minutes later, the young man finally musters the courage to ask her for a dance. “Sure,” she says. “It’s $20 a song.” He nods assent, and she grabs his hand and leads him to a back room. There, dozens of guys are seated thigh-to-thigh on three long rows of red banquettes, while nearly nude girls in their early 20s gyrate atop them, the men groping with wild abandon. Welcome to Saint Venus Theater — a roving amateur strip club that caters mainly to young finance guys looking for a less tacky, more girl-next-door stripping experience. Launched in 2009 by a man known to his employees as “Rob S.,” a mysterious character who favors a top hat and long ponytail, Saint Venus started off as a members-only, application-based strip den for a small group of Rob’s financier friends. Since then, it has grown, largely by word-of-mouth among its high-spending and attractive clientele, as a much-whispered-about alternative to the typically trashy strip club.
Whereas at a typically trashy strip club, the ladies appear to be in it solely for the cash, at Saint Venus, patrons get the sense the girls they’re financially compensating for their time actually want to be there and would stick around even if they weren’t getting paid.1
“You go to a regular strip club, and it’s like a f – - king factory,” says Josh, a 24-year-old who works at a digital marketing company and went to Saint Venus for the first time in November. “Those girls are there to make money . . . if you try to talk to them and not get a dance, they’ll say, ‘This guy is a waste of my time,’ in some weird foreign accent and walk away. “The thing at Saint Venus is I could’ve gone to high school or college with any of these chicks,” adds Josh, who’s now been to the club 10 times.
And they’re actually really intelligent.
Last Thursday, Frank, a 31-year-old lawyer, had Christine perform four lap dances for him, but she was “so smart and attractive, it made me a little reluctant to have her strip for me. “But I still enjoyed it — thoroughly,” he says.
And only dance for guys they like and would have sex with even if there were no money involved.
“It’s definitely not as black-and-white as it is at a strip club…girls won’t dance with guys that they’re not attracted to, which is kind of cool. You can kind of feel it out and find a guy that you’re interested in, and then approach them or wait for them to talk to you,” she adds.
And just can’t keep their hands off of you. That’s right, YOU!
Even Saint Venus’ main rule — no below-the-belt touching — is flouted. “I’ve gotten yelled at before for guys putting my hand on their crotch and me not moving it right away,” says Lisa, a stunning blonde with cascading locks who lives in Brooklyn and has worked regularly at Saint Venus since September. She says she pockets $1,000 dancing two nights weekly.
Also, it’s just a really good deal.
“Basically at a regular strip club, you would have to spend probably a minimum of $300 to go upstairs to the Champagne room to do the same sort of thing you can just do whenever you’re at Saint Venus for $20 a song,” says Josh.
Career Girl By Day, Stripper By Night [NYP]
1. “The art gallery doesn’t pay my bills,” Christine told the Post. “I just want to have more money,” said Lisa. “I want to go shopping.”
"dozens of guys are seated thigh-to-thigh on three long rows of red banquettes"
Only NY finance guys could give such a homoerotic energy to the quintessential hetero activity.
I had Erin Callan there last night. She told me she really enjoys the work-life balance, feeling desired by so many men and the spending cash.
Frank went on to say how Christine was good at chest [sic]
"Lax Policy!?"
-not laxbro but a fan of his…general outlook on life
That ziti looks so delicious right now.
This sounds curiously like a Nouriel Roubini party, minus the $20/dance but with extra credit given in Econ 102.
They done feminized the "man" outta' y'all up there.
- Texas
Chaz?
I'm pretty sure that a 24 y/old who takes 15mins to ask a girl for a dance *IN A STRIP CLUB* would probably be having issues in Houston, too.
- non-feminized Manhattanite
I can see Matt going here after a few margs and irately lecturing the girls on logic, economics, and who knows what else when they say they aren't doing it for the money but expect him to pay them.
You say no to ratchet. Juicy J can't.
Rob S.
Because nothing says exclusive and mysterious like a ponytail and a top hat
"you're a good egg and I like touching your penis"
i love how Bess takes a mediocre NYP article and adds her personal touch to it.
"Most of the girls at last Thursday’s event — all between the ages of 18 and 26 — have “normal” jobs. Among the dozens who work at Saint Venus, *one is a baby sitter*, another is an intern at a fashion start-up and a third is an assistant at a Chelsea gallery."
So porn is real after all.
Friend of mine spent his wallet in some Houston trip club about a month ago. Blew up my phone a few times. I finally called him back, "Bro this is vault. Got fucked up with clients at a strip club last night. What can you catch from receiving a blow job? I'm trying to have a kid with my wife, I'm freaking out."
"Not sure. Was she hot?"
"For sure."
Anyways, apparently getting dome from strippers (w/o a condom) isn't as dangerous as I thought, because his doc told him he was all clear a couple days later.
True enough, but in Houston, 15 minutes snuggled up "thigh to thigh" with a bunch of guys on a banquette. Wouldn't happen.
“Basically at a regular strip club, you would have to spend probably a minimum of $300 to go upstairs to the Champagne room to do the same sort of thing you can just do whenever you’re at Saint Venus for $20 a song,” says Josh.
Don't forget the $50 cover.
Will stick with the Penn Station Taco Bell scoop and score routine for now.
Who wears a condom for a blow job?
Yeah, anything is better than the typical strip club Russian girls.
- Guy who finally understood the impact of Stalin's population relocation program after visiting a Long Island City strip club
In Houston, you probably also have things like restaurants with tables >8" apart and bars where you can get a drink without having to elbow four people out of the way.
Besides, it's not gay as long as you're all getting blown– by girls, of course.
And what the fuck does "this is vault" mean?
It's a best practice in Brazil.
Over / under that SVT gets shut down as the world now knows about it?
Or at least inundated with John Thomas Financial employees.
– White-Shoe quant
That's why i read DB and not NYP.
Do they take Discover card?
- John Thomas Financial CIO
I dunno, doing anything sexual while in contact with or in unobstructed view of another dude strikes me as a little gay.
Only if the baby sitter is 18. Or, even better, '18.'
"….the Midwest, where she grew up"
Stripper from the midwest, that's a shocker
<img src="http://4.cdn.tapcdn.com/images/thumbs/taps/2013/03/default-131398-bcb63c5c-sz282x1910.jpg">
sounds like a factory to me
The guys in Houston?
This is a secret, you dumb motherfucker.
Sounds like *The Factory* to me.
There you go.
Well?
- J. Mack
Of course it's real..!
DSK
thumbs up
There is a new name on the door now. Thanks NYPost. For nothing.
Love the irony of banksters exploiting well educated girls who's parents defaulted on their mortgages and can no longer afford the college program in which they initially matriculated. It's exploiting a family twice.
A man who is mindful of his health wears a condom for a BJ and other sexual acts when he's with a woman not his wife. I wouldn't feel comfortable giving a BJ without a condom to someone I don't know well.
He was lucky…I've heard of others who weren't. Use those condoms for EVERYTHING, guys!!
This "article" sounds like an advertisement. I worked there and Rob is a creep who has mood swings, yells and demeans the girls and he does drugs. Rob if you are reading this please cut off that ponytail you are embarrassing yourself and treat the girls with respect.