Gold Club (Hartford, CT)

Note: This is the topless side of the Gold Club in Hartford. For the nude side, see the Gold Club Connection review.

Quality of Dances (7/20) – As with most clubs in Connecticut, only one-way contact is allowed. There’s no bouncer closely watching the action, but the rules still seem to be enforced for the most part. Also, the girls are required to keep one foot on a small pedestal during the dances, so they can't get too comfortable with the customers. The girls are about as aggressive as they can be given the constraints, but the results are still mediocre. One dancer did offer takeout, but she was really struggling to make any money because she was not the least bit attractive. I don't get the feeling that many, if any, of the attractive dancers offer their services outside the club.

Quality of Dancers (4.5/10) – Most of the girls were in the 6-7.5 range, but a few dancers who have no business being in this line of work bring the score down. One of the dancers looked suspiciously like a tranny, but I had no interest in confirming her status.

Number of Dancers (4.5/10) – There were about a half dozen girls working in the mid-afternoon, but there was only one on stage at a time and a few didn’t come out of the dressing room when they weren't on stage. It wasn’t crowded though, so it was relatively easy to get a girl for a dance. They have many more dancers working the night shift, but the number of customers obviously is higher then as well.

Variety/Diversity of Dancers (3.5/5) – I've seen plenty of black, Latina, and white girls here, including at least one very friendly eastern European.

Attitude of Dancers (2/10) – The day shift girls are friendly, but they're often a little too interested in telling their life stories. Hearing about your alcoholic ex and your 2 kids doesn’t really get me in the mood for a dance. The night shift girls seem to be clingy and pushy, which is a terrible combination. It's bad enough when a girl tries to talk you into a dance when you clearly aren't interested, but being called cheap because you don't want to spend $300 for a half hour in the VIP room with a dancer that you wouldn't even bother to tip at the stage is ridiculous.

Value (1.5/10) – The cover and drinks aren’t too bad, but $25 is too much for any dance, let alone for limited contact dances. Also, the bouncers expect tips but don't actually provide any service. The cover from the nude club is supposed to be good here, but the woman at the register questioned whether the smiley face stamp on my hand was really from that night until I gave her a tip.

Dance Setup (3.5/10) – The dances are given in a small section of the club along the one wall. There aren’t booths, but the chairs have large sides on them kind of like sleighs, so there’s still some privacy as long as people aren’t walking by.

Club Setup (5.5/10) – The club is fairly nice inside, but there needs to be more seats for people who don’t want to sit at the stage. Most of the people seem to just stay at the bar, where there's a decent view of the stage from the one side.

Club Atmosphere (5.5/10) – I wouldn’t hang out here for too long, but the atmosphere was reasonably relaxed and people seemed to be enjoying the food. The club next door is fully nude, but thankfully this place is just topless, so they’re still allowed to serve alcohol.

Club Accessibility (3.5/5) – The club is in an industrial area in northern Hartford, but it isn’t too far from downtown and is right off of I-91.

Overall - The Gold Club has potential if the ownership ever changes, but having shake down artists for bouncers and seriously overpriced dances is not a recipe for securing repeat visitors. With Electric Blue only 20 minutes away, I have no idea why anyone would come here.

RAW SCORE = 41