Montreal over Labor Day weekend

[LurkerSpeaks]

I started the thread over at MER while Daddy's was down for repair.. and am too lazy to repost it all here. So, here is a link to go read about MY findings for the weekend, and a firsthand tale of the curtain/no curtain saga..

 

I hope you enjoy

 

http://www.maleescortreview.com/forum/index.php?/topic/11534-labor-day-2012-in-montreal/

[Cooper]

Hey Lurker, Thanks for your Labor Day Weekend review and updates on the Montreal strip clubs. Sounds like you had a great time. Seems the later you go, the better turn out you'll find...So, any new favorites to mention/recommend?

 

Btw, is it possible for you to cut/paste your review here?

 

Coop

[LurkerSpeaks]

I wish it was that easy to just cut and paste. The thread over there is now at 33 replies. There have been many questions asked which I have responded to, as well as my reports..It wouldnt make a whole lot of sense to just cut and paste the parts I wrote, without reading the comments and questions from others.. I dont like to mention specific names in public, as we all know that dancers and dances can vary greatly from person to person. But if anyone has any questions, feel free to post them here or message me in pvt.

[Cooper]

Lurker, No Problem, I think you misunderstood what I was asking.

[Samai139]

Lurker---Thanks for the detailed descriptions of Montreal over Labour Day weekend. Great to hear that the city, and especially The Village is alive and well and still supplying a unique experience to visitors. I haven't been to Montreal in three years, but like to keep up on what's happening and so I won't feel like a stranger when I get there again. Reports like yours satisfy those needs and I am very grateful )

[LurkerSpeaks]

My biggest concern for the Village after this weekend is the possible gentrification. Several of the old buildings along Ste Catherines are being completely gutted and turned into condos. I sincerely hope that "we" are able to keep the Village as our own and not have it become like most of the gay ghettos of North America. As we become more "main stream", we lose our own spaces.

[+ Lucky]

Perhaps this is what Cooper meant when he asked Lurkerspeaks to cut and paste his review. Apologies to lurker if this was not okay:

 

Arrived on Friday, late morning, will depart on Monday morning.

 

This is my first visit to Montreal during the summer. All of my 10-or-so prior visits have been in either spring or fall. This is also my first visit since May of 2010.

 

As mentioned by other posters, Ste Catherine's is converted into a pedestrian walkway during the summer months. The street is closed off to traffic from around the Gouvernor hotel, all the way to the Papaneau metro station. Traffic of the intersecting streets is allowed to cross Ste Catherines, but Ste Catherine's itself is closed to motorized traffic.

 

Pink balls of various sizes have been strung up and hung across the street, creating a pseudo-canopy, which helps create a party atmosphere. The Village definitely seems alive and energetic, with people of all sizes, shapes, colors and sexual persuasions walking along, people watching, and enjoying the weather. The Village itself is full of new shops, and many renovations of existing buildings going on. Most of the restaurants and bars have extended patios over the old sidewalks with tables set up for enjoying the weather and the views. At several blocks, various street musicians have set up shop, playing tips from the passerbys.

 

Now for the part that everyone wants to hear--the strip clubs..

 

Started the first afternoon off at the old standard, Campus...As reported over at Daddy's, the curtains have been removed. There is discussion over the true reasons behind this, and the stories are many and varied. The "official" pricing now is $10 per song with a "no touch of the goodies" rule. MOST of the dancers however, are creative and smart enough to quote the old price of $20 WITH touch, but will warn you that caution is advised and at least one set of eyes must be kept open and alert.

 

As far as the dancer is concerned, it appears not much has changed. For the customer, without the curtain, it is more difficult to remove some "constrictions" to having a good time.

 

We arrived at Campus around 4:30pm. A decent sized crowd was already in place. There appeared to be 15 or so boys. My first impression was that the boys seemed a little more "straight boy from the streets" instead of the gay boys I remembered from a couple of years ago. Not meaning this in a bad way, just that there were more thin, tatted boys and less of the more obviously gay boys from my last visit. Several knock outs.

 

We stayed there until about 6:45, when we headed out to find a place for dinner. We decided upon a new place called Piri Piri Rotisserie Portugaise. It reminded me and my travel buddy of our "Baby Chicken" place in Brazil. The food was good, reasonably priced and similar to what we would get at Galettos in Rio de Janeiro..

 

And speaking of Brazil and Rio, there is now a Churrasceria in the Village, in the old Bourbon Complex.

 

We sat outside to enjoy our food as we people watched. The sounds of a violin player from a block away could be heard in the background.

 

After dinner, we took a walk down to see what Taboo and JP's had going on. We got to Taboo right at 8pm. The place was empty as expected. We went on down to JP's. It had just opened, and it too was empty, but we decided to wait it out for a few minutes to see what, if anything materialized. We did see a couple of cute dancers, but there was no crowd yet and little reason to hang out for long.

 

So back out to Ste Catherines we went, and on down the street to Stock. We got to Stock around 8:45 or so.. The place didn't have a lot of customers yet, but there was a non-stop lineup of dancers, unlike Taboo or JP's which was more empty stage time than dancer time. [h=3] #2 lurkerspeaks[/h]

 

 

Posted 01 September 2012 - 11:57 AM

ok.. back for more reporting. We just got back from Schwartz's smoked meats for lunch. A Montreal standard that is a "must see" for visitors. While walking back to our hotel, we noticed that Ste Catherine's is closed to traffic for a lot more than just in the Village. It is closed all the way to Place de Arts, at the very least..

 

So, back to Stock last night...The place had a decent sized crowd by 10pm. not packed, but getting there. Dancers were, for the most part, new to me (remembering my two year absence). The usual Stock types--Bigger, Buff, Basically straight-type guys.. But we did get to see the newest "up and cumming" star (think a possible new Eddy, Eddy,. Eddy) name Suntory. He is this beautiful Asian guy. About 22 years old.. and every Rice Queen's dream..

 

By about 10, I was ready to take the journey back down to the other end of the street to see how they were doing. So, back down to Taboo. Opening opening the door there, It was a nice surprise--the place was 3/4 full of customers, with 12-15 dancers.. We found a table and very soon, Jerry, the ex-waiter turned owner, came over to get our drink order..What other club in Montreal have you seen the owner acting as cocktail waiter??

 

We had our drinks delivered and sat back, observing the room. One table of 4 men had a monopoly on most of the boys.. It seemed like almost all of the boys were doing one of three things---smoking outside, playing pool with each other, or at the table of the before mentioned 4 men. The crowd was a decent size, the music was at an appropriate level, but there just was no energy in the room. It was almost as if the place was sucking the energy out of you, and not in a good way. I am not sure exactly why or what could be done to give the place a more happy feel, but one of the first things coming to mind was that the boys need to circulate more. We are there to see/meet/talk with the boys, and they do a major part in creating the atmosphere. We were there for 30 minutes or so, and were not approached once. Nor did I see a single person go in the back for a dance. (I did peek back there, and there are now individual booths with smaller curtains to provide some privacy for the lapdances.) AND songs are still just $10. I was all prepared to do some dances, but I don't like having to chase a boy down to give him money.

 

BTW, for those who have been to Taboo over the last few years, a boy from a couple of years ago, Skyler" is dancing there again.

 

After the 30 minutes of energy draining time at Taboo, we left and headed back down Ste Catherines. Next stop was JP's.. The place was pretty full, but the crowd was very mixed--about half women and half men (and no, I am not saying it was a room full of drag queens or trannies, LOL). There was definitely more energy there than Taboo, but it was an entirely different vibe with all the women there. We left without sitting down and rejoined the crowds on Ste Catherines.

 

We bypassed Stock for the time being and went to check out the PM shift at Campus. We climbed the stairs to Campus, to discover a completely packed club. The place was rocking.. you could not find a place to sit in the entire club... Criss was behind his usual shooterbar, with standing room only to wait to see him. It was a bit TOO crowded for our tastes, so we went back to Stock..

 

By this time (11pm-ish) Stock was full and rocking. Several more guys had joined the lineup by now..While most were the "standard issue" Stock dancers, a couple were a little less developed and more of the boy next door types. There were a couple of duo dances during our time there, including one Duo shower show. The shower show was hot, but they boys themselves just seemed to lack any type of chemistry.

 

Summation for day one--the Village itself is definitely not dead..Many new shops/restaurants and much on-going renovations...Strip clubs are not dead.. Campus was busy. The curtains (or lack there of) have not appeared to make much of a difference to many of the boys.. Taboo has the business (but unless they can figure out how to energize the place, they won't have it for long)..JP's has the business, but the women keep many of the gay men from staying long. Stock is Stock. They are the nicest, cleanest, most upscale of the strip clubs in Montreal. The boys are still, for the most part, the big, buff, mostly straight-type guys we have all come to expect at Stock.

 

First days report gives Montreal a passing grade--probably a "B+" overall.

[fedssocr1]

The luxury condo thing is definitely going on. But when that happens in other cities we just move and take over another downtrodden neighborhood to fix up.

 

One thing that I have always been a bit curious about when it comes to Montreal is the many "spas" sprinkled around the gayborhood and elsewhere. Anyone spend any time in those?

[+ newatthis]

My biggest concern for the Village after this weekend is the possible gentrification. Several of the old buildings along Ste Catherines are being completely gutted and turned into condos...

A local (Montreal) friend spoke about this last March. Apparently several hospitals have expanded into the general vicinity of the Village (I forget the details), making the Village a prime housing location for their staff...hence the new construction and gentrification. My friend was very pessimistic about the Village's surviving in its current form much longer.

[brettnyc]

I'm planning to head to Montreal next weekend and curious if the curtains are up or down at Campus...?

 

also, any sightings at Campus of David the bodybuilder, Ian, or Kevin who resembles Channing Tatum - ?

 

thanks for any feedback -

[LurkerSpeaks]

the curtains are supposed to be down for 90 days...but most of the smarter dancers dont let it deter much...

 

Curtains are still up at Stock, JP's and Taboo.

[geoffk]

So I got to Montreal last night. Well worth the trip. Started out at Campus since it was the first club i encountered. It was quite busy at 10PM. While checking out the place for the first time i ran into a dancer Antonio. Nicely tanned and beautiful white teeth and an ample package. Spent a bit of time with him and tried to check out the other dancers. When Antonio went on stage I decided to leave Campus and go check out Stock. Stock seems to be a bigger place and didn't appear to be as busy as Campus, but I think the customers were just spread out more. Here i spent some time with a young looking Argentenian, Leonardo, says he's a soccer player, he had a firm runners body. I finally broke down and had a private with Zack, he is tall, closely cut hair and a big cock which he displayed on stage during his slow dance. There are curtains at Stock and it is quite private. I later spent a couple of dances with Leonardo, and then found Marc. He did a really hot shower show showing off his big thick piece. Nicely built, blond hair and tatooed it was an enjoyable private. There seemed to be other dancers worth checking out here but "there are so many man and so little time".

 

After Marc I decided to head back to Campus, since Stock was clearing out by 1:30am. One thing about Campus the bar uses the alcohol measuring device and the drinks are quite weak but expensive. So when I returned back here I found a spot at the bar to watch the stage show. But i ended up eyeing Jace, who I noticed earlier but didn't get to meet. He finally finished his conversation with some other people and noticed I was interested. For me he is perfect. And outstanding jock body and happy to show it off. After my time with Jace I met up with Yonni, we talked earlier in the evening before i left for Stock and he remembered me. He is an island guy with a thug type look. This would be my last private for the night. Yonni is a really nice guy. Even though the curtains are down at Campus the dancers didn't seem overly shy but they were careful.

 

I would love to go back again.

[GBoi]

Long time lurker, decided to give my update on the clubs in Montreal. After a few days of meetings, I decided to spend this weekend up here. I was very interested in the new setup at Campus with the curtains removed. Net-net it's pretty much the same as before (my last trip was over the Jazz Festival week earlier in the summer) although the dancers are a bit more cautious as others have mentioned.

 

I spent Friday at Campus, starting around 7, with a break in the middle to have dinner at Au Pied Du Cochon (excellent excellent meal btw). Some dancers of note:

 

Calvin - 20 years old but looks about 4 years older, very muscl-ey for Campus (about average compared to the meatheads at Stock). Friendly, talkative and not very pushy. Gave me some pretty interesting insight into working as a dancer and comparing Stock to Campus; he's worked at both. Well worth a private.

 

Poulbi (sp?) - Not sure I got his name right. Spikey blond hair, super cut bod, large endowment. Spent a couple songs with him...more of a poser than truly interactive but still pretty fun

 

Lucas - my favorite of the night. Shorter blond, extremely cute/handsome, not a twink by any means but lean and defined. Early to mid-20s, has already had a really interesting life and very easy to talk to. He kind of looks like a younger brother version of Kent from Corbin Fisher if you know who that is. I remember seeing him in June and wanted a private with him but he was always taken by someone else. Glad I was able to get his attention this time.

 

I didn't see Kevin who someone mentioned earlier in the post although I was looking for him. He does look remarkably like Channing Tatum and gives a very good backroom dance.

 

A couple other guys I remember from my last trip weren't here either. Stevie, shorter brunette, built like a brickhouse, VERY friendly and interactive. Also Wilson who I think is the most handsome dancer I've seen at Campus. I remember him from my first trip to MTL 3 years ago and was glad to see him when I came back this past June.

 

I had too much fun at Campus so I didn't make it to Stock. Might try to take it in tonight or tomorrow, time permitting.

[TerryP]

One thing about Campus the bar uses the alcohol measuring device and the drinks are quite weak but expensive.

 

Just a quick comment that this is standard at pretty much every bar and club in Canada, sadly. The only benefit is that when I visit the US I find the drinks to be incredibly strong.

[Jake]

Best bet to avoid the annoying measuring devices... pregame at a non-strip club before you head in!!!