I did not want to eat at the Market Street Buffet for a third straight meal, so I got washed up and headed across the Mississippi River to Soulard for dinner. I went to The Biergarten at the Budweiser brewery. I enjoyed some fresh Budweiser from the tap and ate a smoked pork sandwich. I went over to the gift shop to buy more Budweiser pilsner glasses for my bar set-up back home, but they had stopped manufacturing the particular style I was looking for, which included red tinted glass at the base and red writing on the side, in just the past two months. I walked around Soulard for awhile and then went back to my hotel.
In the evening, I decided to go to Centreville to see how the strip club scene had changed. I had not clubbed in Centreville in five years. I first went to the newly opened Club Onyx. It occupied a building that housed a series of strip clubs: Centerfolds Cabaret, Pyramid of Pleasure, and most recently the short-lived Hollywood Hunt Club. I went in at 10:30pm, walking through a metal detector. The cover charge was $10 and a Budweiser was only $3, cheap for a strip club. The club was not yet busy. All of the dancers and staff were African-American, and 96% of the clientele was as well. The waitresses were very accomodating. A slim black dancer from Chicago, Amillion, came to my table. I bought her a shot from the shot girl for $6 and we talked a little. She started twerking on my crotch for about two minutes at my table fully clothed. I gave her $15 as a tip, but she started berating me and said I needed to tip her more. I didn't even ask her to dance for me in the first place. She was just too full of herself. When I tipped other dancers at the stage, they seemed to be genuinely grateful. The club finally started to get a crowd around midnight. I do not think I would return to Club Onyx as it was not my cup of tea, but it was still interesting to check out.
I went across the street to PT’s about 12:30am. The club was packed and looked just as I remembered it. The cover charge was $10 and a Budweiser was $6.25. I was out $16.25 before I even threw a dollar on the stage. The private dance prices are outrageous here, so most guys just watched the stage show. What make the PT’s in Centreville unique is that it caters to swingers. There is an elevated, curtained off area of the club that only couples are allowed in. About a third of the club’s square footage is dedicated to the swingers. From the shadows cast behind the curtains, I could make out women giving men blowjobs in plain sight of all of the other swingers.
After an hour and a half, I decided I was going to get a late night snack and then go to bed. I drove to the Jack In The Box in Collinsville, which I knew was open twenty-four hours. As I drove into the drive through, the voice on the other end said they were closed. In reality, I saw two employees sitting in a booth talking in a dark restaurant. They were being lazy, and I made a note to call the franchise owner and report they were turning away customers. I did not know of any other late night places to eat other than Waffle House, so I drove back to Casino Queen and went to Deli & Chips, the snack bar inside the Casino that stays open all night. I got a corned beef sandwich and a Dr. Pepper, then retired to my room for the night.
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| The Gateway Arch and downtown St. Louis behind Casino Queen. |
