Swinging Richards - Atlanta

[Atlanta_Guy]

I've been visiting Swinging Richards in Atlanta Georgia since 1997. It was my first gay strip club experience. I have fond memories there. But I want to warn those who might be thinking of coming to atlanta it's really not worth the trip and will probably be closed by the end of the year.

 

It's been on a downward spiral for a few years but it has still had bright moments and some hot guys. Gay pride in October was outstanding! But that has been the exception. I can remember when you would have a new guy or two almost every month and they have had some notables from porn stars to southern boys from just outside the Atlanta metro area. I don't think they've had any notable guys join in the last year or more. The last real hot guy, JB (also known as Iceman on thunders arena) commutes on the weekends from Orlando. Almost all of the guys there now have been there for 4 years or more. Most of them are well north of 30 years old. There are still some hot bodies but mostly it is VERY average. I've been embarrassed the last few years when friends visit from out of town.

 

Rumors of closures have existed for over a decade. But this time is different and I want to explain why. First, they lost a labor lawsuit last year. I don't know the amount but I believe it was in the 7 figures. This was the second time they were hit for not paying minimum wage. The entire premise of these lawsuits is stupid. You have guys that are making more money than they will ever make in any future job. Most of theses dancers in the lawsuit were straight guys who saw one more opportunity to make a buck off the gay community. Many of them were no longer at the club. Some of these same guys send me messages asking for help with bills. They are leaches. Karma is a bitch.

 

Changes since then...have just about ruined the club.

1. Mixed drinks went from $8.25 to $12.25. I don't know what this has done to the bar business but the crowds have remained good on the weekends. Most of the time you can't find a parking place from 11pm til after 12 midnight. Parking is still $5.
   
2. The bar doesn't even open until 9pm
   
3. Cover charge is $10 before 10pm. $20 afterwards.
   
4. Women are allowed to dress in basically any way they want. Short shorts, short skirts, tits hanging out. Mid section uncovered
   
5. Dancers can come and go as they please. Some not showing up until 11pm and others leaving before 1am.
   
6. VIP prices doubled (i.e. 15 minute room went from (e.g. $40 to $85 dollars - that does not include the dancer fee. So the impact here is more noticeable. It wasn't uncommon on a weekend to do 20 to 40 VIP rooms. Now, you may not see 5. There are still some wealthy visitors from out of town that drop cash. But that is usually during the week. One such visitor spent over $16,000 on dancers and VIP rooms....before drinks just a few weeks ago and no, I'm not exaggerating. He did that with a credit card. Which brings me to item #7.
   
7. If all of this wasn't enough. For at least the last two weeks, the club has stopped taking credit cards. There are two different rumors going around on this one. The first is that the club is having an issue with it's credit card company. Since I believe they are paid a Percentage on each transaction I can't imagine the POS provider would turn them off. I've also heard the owner needs cash to make payments on the lawsuit judgment which is due this month. Either way, the customers aren't happy and many who use their credit card spent less on drinks than they usually would have. Both on drinks and VIP rooms. Most of the people who do VIP rooms do it with credit cards. I wish I knew how badly that impacted sales the last two weeks.
   

Bottom line is it can't survive much longer. It will be an end an era. I'm sure we will see another club with "gogo" dancers but fulton county is no longer giving out adult club licenses. The number of adult clubs in Atlanta, Fulton County and the surrounding areas has been dwindling for the last decade. In another 10 years there may not be any left. Gay or Straight.

Edited April 29, 2019 by Atlanta_Guy

[Atlanta_Guy]

one other add. This weekend was absolutely gorgeous in Atlanta. There were significantly fewer people through the door the last two weekends.....and few dancers working at the club.

[+ tassojunior]

so your title is wrong. it's not closed.

i'm surprised they remain open at all after the multi-million dollar taxes and fines against them. surely it means bankruptcy.

it's not just that dancers were not being paid minimum wage. it's also that they were not covered by social security and unemployment insurance. they are now retroactively and the club was assessed those back taxes and fines.

they could have arranged legitimate independent contractor status for dancers as other clubs do.

[Atlanta_Guy]

The title is not wrong. If the club was closed I would have said "Swinging Richards is CLOSED". The post is about the impending closure of the club.

 

I agree with you they should have arranged independent contractor status. Or had better lawyers. The dancers were all independent contractors. Unlike employees, they can choose not to come to work. The only thing they couldn't do is work the weekend when they didn't work a week day.

[+ azdr0710]

unnecessary, deceptive, and melodramatic title.....

[alageorge]

Swinging Richards could not have chosen to treat their dancers as independent contractors. The federal courts in Atlanta have ruled in several lawsuits that dancers at strip clubs have to be treated as employees, rejecting the clubs' claim that they are independent contractors. This holding is unlikely to be overturned in the foreseeable future.

[Guest InthePines]

unnecessary, deceptive, and melodramatic title.....

 

Intentional or not, and as with a number of posts on Atlanta lately, it's reads as if someone has a stake in the worst case scenario.

[lerbut23]

So you post about the closure of a bar that is based on nothing more than your opinion that the end is near. #fakenews

[Chidude]

I was at Swinging Richards 2 weeks ago and the place was packed and a lot of fun. And the line for VIP rooms was robust,especially between 10:30-12:30 when they have discounted rooms.

 

Posting a Misleading and False title masking your opinion as fact is just not cool.

[geoffk]

i was at Richards last night (Tuesday 4/30) I wouldn't say it was busy but there were numerous customers and probably a dozen dancers.

 

I always enjoy myself there. I found at least 3 guys that were worth the time i spent with them. As far as i'm concerned I can't imagine any other place in the US being better than there. (Well Johnson's in FLL is awesome too).

 

It appears they spruced up the place some since i was last there in February. And the drink prices are on par with what you would pay in NY and FL.

 

I was somewhat annoyed that they didnt take cr cards because i like saving my cash for the dancers but i had enough anyway to drink and tip.

 

I hope it doesn't close. Atlanta is very convenient to take a quick flight in and out from other southeast locations.

On this note, I stayed downtown at the Ellis (Marriott) hotel . It was very nice and right by a jazz club Sweet Georgia's Juke Joint. It had great music at 7pm and southern cooking.

[Chidude]

i was at Richards last night (Tuesday 4/30) I wouldn't say it was busy but there were numerous customers and probably a dozen dancers.

 

I always enjoy myself there. I found at least 3 guys that were worth the time i spent with them. As far as i'm concerned I can't imagine any other place in the US being better than there. (Well Johnson's in FLL is awesome too).

 

It appears they spruced up the place some since i was last there in February. And the drink prices are on par with what you would pay in NY and FL.

 

I was somewhat annoyed that they didnt take cr cards because i like saving my cash for the dancers but i had enough anyway to drink and tip.

 

I hope it doesn't close. Atlanta is very convenient to take a quick flight in and out from other southeast locations.

On this note, I stayed downtown at the Ellis (Marriott) hotel . It was very nice and right by a jazz club Sweet Georgia's Juke Joint. It had great music at 7pm and southern cooking.

I also stayed at the Ellis during my April stay. Great minds think alike

[Tweetybird]

Maybe the OP was not posting false or misleading info. They are clearly asking for help to keep them open.

SR has a gofundme trying to raise $1 Million

 

https://www.gofundme.com/swinging-richards-legal-defense?fbclid=IwAR2YSMBmgHCyGXpgn_i6Z89VcxRqZh15evARYt6rTEtXstGjPlD8iof0Bhk

 

>>>>>Help us keep Swinging Richards swinging proudly. A recent court decision and overly aggressive lawyers looking for profit, have caused us to reach out to the community for help. Don't let them shut us down!!

 

The recent case involved minimum wage payments to our entertainers. Lawyers were able to convince a judge that SR entertainers were making less than $7/hr; and thus, this judgement affects the way in which we may need to interact with the dancers in the future.

 

As you know battling the court system can be expensive, and we have spent almost $1M to keep Swinging Richards - All Male | All Nude | All Night. We are asking the community to assist with legal expenses only in our ongoing battle.

 

Thanks so much for helping keep Swinging Richards the #1 gay destination in US with the best entertainment, dancers, and environment.

 

P.S. Please check back here often as we will update you on the status of this ongoing fight. Thanks for being a part of our SR family all the years!

[BSR]

Swinging Richards could not have chosen to treat their dancers as independent contractors. The federal courts in Atlanta have ruled in several lawsuits that dancers at strip clubs have to be treated as employees, rejecting the clubs' claim that they are independent contractors. This holding is unlikely to be overturned in the foreseeable future.

I don't see how dancers are employees since they can work six nights a week or zero, stay from open to close or just an hour. Is there a single employee in America who can just tell his boss, "Nah, I don't feel like working this week"? Only independent contractors have that kind of flexibility. Then again, my opinion doesn't count for sh*t, and the courts have made their ruling.

 

It sounds like some ex-dancers, perhaps with an ax to grind, saw a chance to make some easy money. Crapfest! Ah well, hopefully SR survives the setback & forges on.

[Atlanta_Guy]

I wasn’t posting false or misleading info. My original title... which the moderator chose to edit was a very pointed prediction based on what I know. You don’t have to be clairvoyant to see what is about to happen. I am not happy about the situation with Richards. I have been a supporter for over 20 years.

 

The gofundme campaign is an indicator of how dire the situation is for the business.

Edited July 7, 2019 by Atlanta_Guy

[Tweetybird]

So far they have raised $80.00 of there $1.0 Million dollar goal.

I hope they have plan B.

[Atlanta_Guy]

I was at Swinging Richards 2 weeks ago and the place was packed and a lot of fun. And the line for VIP rooms was robust,especially between 10:30-12:30 when they have discounted rooms.

 

Posting a Misleading and False title masking your opinion as fact is just not cool.

 

 

https://www.projectq.us/atlanta/swinging_richards_files_for_bankruptcy_with_1.6_million_in_debts?gid=19822

 

Swinging Richards has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection

[Boy4]

So far they have raised $80.00 of there $1.0 Million dollar goal.

I hope they have plan B.

?.... I call shade!

[instudiocity]

So far they have raised $80.00 of there $1.0 Million dollar goal.

I hope they have plan B.

Plan B = Bankruptcy, however I don't believe they can get out of the employer payroll tax portion of the amount owed to the Fed and probably not the wages owed the dancers, but I'm not a bankruptcy attorney.

[Atlanta_Guy]

Stopped in recently on a weekend. One word. Tragic.

 

I lasted less than 30 minutes. So sad ?

[+ purplekow]

I had difficulty with status of people working for me. They were not stripper, but as is the case with the strippers, I did not determine their hours, I did not set a schedule for them, they worked the same type of job at other places and even owned their own businesses doing the same work. Still the state came in and said they were employees not independent contractors, The state law was much more restrictive than the federal law but there was a bounce back effect so even though the employees met federal standards for independent contractor, since they were considered employees by the stat, they had to have the same status federally, It all comes down to who pays the taxes and the SS payments. Just another government money grab.

[alageorge]

The State of Georgia had nothing to do with the characterization of the dancers at strip clubs in Atlanta. The determination that they were employees, not independent contractors, was made by the federal courts in the Northern District of Georgia, which includes Atlanta. Those decisions were based on the judges' interpretation of federal labor law, not state law.

[fresh]

What was tragic?

[Atlanta_Guy]

No hot guys. Not one

[fresh]

My recent experience had the potential of approaching tragic status but in the end I was not totally disappointed. I agree the quality of guys has declined and the crowd appears thinner, but I always seem to find an attraction. It appears the changes regarding pay etc has resulted in the hot guys showing up later in the night therefore be prepared for a late night. I tried not to compare my previous experiences with the current scene hoping that the situation improves. There are a number of dancers from Cuba, Columbia that are attractive and willing to share a good time. After my initial dissatisfaction, the night improved and I will consider future visits. I would hate to see SR go down in flames.

[rickx]

Bump. Going to Atlanta this weekend. Any more recent experiences?