Between our trips to Las Vegas, The Gal and I like to check out some local talent here in Phoenix – but we have to be careful as we are both professionals and we need to keep our anonymity. About 20 minutes from us at Indian School and 7th Street is the Cheetahs Gentlemen’s Club. Google Maps reviews for this newly renovated club were off the charts – could any club in Phoenix be this good?

Since the Palomino is the standard by which we judge all the clubs we visit, it is only natural that we will compare and contrast based on what we consider the “couples gold standard” of strip clubs.

I called ahead; asking about any sort of packages available and the hours the club tended to get busy. The owner himself, goes by “Cowboy”, answered the phone and spent a good 20 minutes discussing the club, the dancers and the packages available.

Like the Palomino (and oddly unlike so many others here in Phoenix), Cheetahs offers packages complete with table reservations, cover charge and booze included. We took the “Date Night” package, which covered house champagne, entrance fee and a reserved table (and boy, are we glad we did).

Location and Parking

Nestled between the I-17 and the 51, there really isn’t a “straight shot” to get to Cheetahs. Google Maps gave us no issues getting there – other than the fact we spent a lot of time on surface streets travelling.

There is one way traffic going into the club parking lot, and one way traffic going out. It wasn’t super convenient – be sure you get a lay of the parking lot on the way into the club so later in the evening (or in our case; early morning) you know how to get out when you’re a little buzzed with either booze or beauty.

The area is far less seedy than almost any other club we’ve been to. There was enough parking when we got there at about 8pm, but the lot was pretty full at 1am when we left – and more people were coming in. There is no charge for parking.

Oddly, the club faces away from the main road and into the rear parking lot. Interesting configuration – and while there was no excessive theming going on the exteriors were pleasant and the parking area looked to be surveilled by club security (and the owner too) which we really appreciated.

We felt safe and comfortable both coming and going – but the one way exit got us. If you have the munchies on the way out, there is a Jack in the Box right there at the exit.

You might get lucky and have a “street preacher” on the sidewalk at the club entrance. You know you’re doing something right with a strip club if the local ministry feels the urge to put a rep outside. The owner, Cowboy, seemed a bit embarrassed about it – but honestly? It was kind of charming in a way.

Going Inside

This is a small, intimate club. You can tell when you pull up, it is small on the outside and looks even smaller on the inside. But as The Gal will tell you, size doesn’t matter (thank God).

Unlike a lot of clubs, Cheetahs isn’t about being a jack of all trades; there are no TVs, no pool tables or anything to distract you from the reason you should be there; watching beautiful, sexy women dancing on the stage.

What exactly does “small” mean? There are about 12-14 tables (seating 2 to 3) and bar probably seats about 12. There is a large two-pole stage (featuring a full mirror backdrop making it seem a lot bigger) in a “half circle” configuration – featuring a good number of seats ringside. The stage seating is nice; armless, smaller chairs – so there are plenty of them and they are easy to get in and out of. Cowboy said they have some more custom seating coming to help out. There is a nice L-shaped seat at the left side of the stage where couples, small groups (and many dancers) sit. Flanking along the back wall is the main VIP area behind glass, with a VIP “cage” next to it. DJ is visible stage right and between the DJ and lapdance area are a couple of smaller, more private VIP curtained areas.

Aside from the large stage, there is a second “stage” that was really more like a table with a pole on it. I’d call it more like a “performance table” – which is really cool; the dancers don’t have a ton of room, but you can be up close and personal in a way you cannot at the main stage. Before 11pm or so, dancers would randomly hit this table pole to dance, but when things got busy and a lot of dancers were there? It became the “second stage” proper and the dancers would leave the main stage to do a second dance on there.

Something most reviews do not discuss are things like the bathrooms. There are no attendants here (for better or worse) and the women’s bathroom is thankfully not the dancers’ dressing room here. Both bathrooms were clean and well maintained; men’s room has two urinals and sinks with something I’d never seen before – a black toilet. Ladies room had three stalls with doors.

We enjoyed the music selection. According to the dancers, the DJ is really good – he knows how to change the music up to get better tips coming and we were told by the staff we could request music changes if there was a genre we wanted to hear. This means, of course, that the dancers don’t get to choose their own songs to dance to – but it didn’t seem to matter too much. The DJ seemed to be having a good time and had a good sense of humor; although like many other clubs it can be hard to hear the name of the dancers.

By midnight, the place was absolutely packed – with large parties as standing room only. The place got a bit rowdy, but everyone was remarkably well-behaved even at 1am.

The Staff and Drinks

We really enjoy meeting and getting to know the staff at the clubs we go to. Pretty simple math (and this doesn’t just apply to strip clubs); be nice and friendly and typically customer service staff will give you better service.

We arrived about 8pm (early for a strip club) as we usually do when we’re looking over a new-to-us club. Our package took care of our cover charge; and we were checked in by Eric who had actually contacted us earlier in the evening to confirm our arrival and package.

Similar to the Palomino, we were greeted by security and they took us to our table (we got the one closest to the bathrooms, on stage left). We love it when security dresses nice, looks and acts professional and are almost transparently present throughout the night. This makes the club look a bit more classy and gives the patrons a sense of security; that people are on hand to handle any situation that gets out of control (which didn’t happen at all during the night).

One of our servers for the night, Kate, showed up right away. We were also pinch-hit by Nikki as the night got busier. Both ladies were extremely personable, friendly and my wife pointed out how cute she thought Kate was as we chatted her up about her fresh tattoo.

Cheetahs could probably use a third server on staff after 11pm. The bar had two very lovely and friendly staffers working it all night and even when things got chaotic later, they were cheerful and helpful. For what it is worth? I saw senior staff carrying drinks around too!

The drinks were well mixed and very tasty. We like to stay hydrated and water was provided in Cheetahs labeled bottles.

The entire staff from security to servers to dancers to management were all incredible.

Both the owner (Cowboy) and his manager, the lovely and amazingly resourceful Kinsey seemed to be everywhere all the time; handling any and every situation. Kinsey also ran the VIP “cage”; setting up experiences for the patrons (more on VIP in a minute).

There was no food available (eating at a strip club? You would be surprised …) although one of the dancers said that sometimes there is someone manning the kitchen – so I suppose food is available during the day or every now and then at night.

The Talent and Couple Friendliness

We like a real diversity in club talent. We love variations of styles, body shapes and sizes — we really enjoy getting to talk to them and get a sense of their personalities, too.

The Gal likes girls. 🙂

At 8pm there were maybe 8-10 dancers on hand; by 11pm there were probably 25+ as we rarely got to see the same dancer more than once. Of course we might have missed them as we were in VIP several times.

The dancers at Cheetahs range from 6s to 9s and I’m very happy to say that the diversity was fantastic. Tiny girls, big girls, bubble-booty, blondes (not as many as most clubs), brunettes, African-Americans, plenty of mixes … and amazingly enough, a lot of real breasts too. I know, some guys like the grotesque fake ones, but there was a lot of range here. Plus, as you know if you’ve read our other reviews, The Gal loves the tatted up, pierced naughty-looking girls and there were many of those as well. If the girl-next-door look is for you? Yep, Cheetahs has them, too.

We loved the line up.

Unlike the rather poor experience we had with so many dancers at Bourbon Street, we had no problem attracting dancers to come sit with us (no lap sitting here – which we found odd; we’ve never been to a club where the dancers don’t sit on your lap). They all made good eye contact, smiled and accepted the vibes The Gal was putting out.

We probably had 5 dancers sit with us through the night and each of them were incredibly friendly, personable and were absolutely zero pressure. There was no pressure at all through the night – which is a huge testament to Cowboy and his management staff. My wife was immediately at home at Cheetahs and never once was uncomfortable.

We certify Cheetahs as “couple friendly”. There were 5 or 6 other couples that came throughout the night. We didn’t feel like we were shut out because we were a couple – or because we weren’t regulars (although I have a feeling we will be).

We love great pole work and not every club has it. Sometimes the pole work is replaced with “sensual, sexy dance” and that can be fun too; but insane pole dancing gets the tips flowing from us. Sure, there are always a few “lazy dancers” at every club we’ve been to, but Cheetahs was great. Most dancers looked like they actually wanted to be there and what’s more? They have some serious pole talent there that is full of energy and obviously loves their work (we’re talking about you, Cherry!)

During our chats with the dancers, they were all amazingly positive about the club and its management (and no, that isn’t the case everywhere). They said great things about the owner and the other staff – including each other; and if you frequent clubs and get to know the dancers? You know about “girl drama”. Cowboy told me he is a stickler about drugs and drama – and he has an amazing club as a result of his methodology.

Some of the dancers we interacted with included Faye, Hazel, Lillith and Cherry (my wife’s new crush) – and we would have chatted up others had we not been occupied all evening long.

You are also able to purchase the dancers drinks while they sit with you. Oddly, at Bourbon Street you weren’t allowed to – so now we make sure we ask.

If you want a great couple’s experience? Cheetahs needs to be on your shortlist.

All About The VIP

After the curious lack-of-information about VIP at Bourbon Street? We were very pleased at the knowledge and implementation of private dances at Cheetahs.

Kinsey, the manager, ran the VIP cage most of the night and she has it all together.

The cheapest private experience you can get at Cheetah’s is a 3 songs set for $75. This is handled in a small “semi-public” area separated from the main room by big glass windows. We didn’t get to go in (we did the next step up) but The Gal and I estimate there is room for probably 5 or 6 private dances; each patron separated by a divider. The Gal and I like to get dances together and that configuration is a bit cramped for us.

Next up is the “semi-private” curtained area to the right of the DJ booth which is 15 minutes for $150. There are two L-shaped sofas separated by a privacy full-height half wall. This area gives the dancer more room and for couples, it was great. We had one session without other patrons in there and two where there was another dancer and her customer on the other side. While not quite the quality of the “horseshoe rooms” at Palomino, they are definitely for us.

Upscale from there are rooms upstairs which we didn’t get to see (we were hoping for a tour early in the evening) but supposedly the rooms are nice; with some nice features (this came from the dancers) and no forced bottle service. Pricing is in blocks of 30 minutes and depending on what venue you choose to spend it in goes up from $300.

VIP is handled a bit differently here at Cheetahs and has both positives and negatives. All dancers and customers check in at the VIP “cage” where you pay up front (which is good). The dancer immediately is handed 2/3 of the fee (so in our case, our dancers each got $100 up front) – and is done overtly; there is nothing shady feeling about what’s going on. Feels very transactional and everyone gets paid up front – so that’s a great thing. If there are no areas available, you are waitlisted – like a sexy Olive Garden, only instead of a beeper, the lovely Kinsey herself comes and gets you when the room is available.

We saw both dancer and staff tracking the time you’re in the venue.

It is certainly worth knowing that while the house-take up front is clearly visible to the customer, what you may not see is the 10% or so tip-out at the end of the night. We always ask the dancers about the “expense” to the house (they didn’t offer this info to us – we asked), as we want to make sure we are taking care of them … especially if we loved their performance. We therefore tipped each of our private dancers additionally after the dance.

Mileage

Another big consideration from clubs is “mileage”, right? How much you’re allowed to touch and interact during dances.

As a woman, my wife is often given far more latitude in touching than men ever are. The Gal also doesn’t abuse this and sometimes even touches less based on the dancer’s body language. We try to be polite customers and in our experience, this politeness leads to more allowances with repeat dances.

In Vegas, there was a lot more touching going on. A LOT MORE.

Mileage has a lot of factors. The state/city may have rules, the club itself may have rules — and of course, in the end — the dancers have theirs too and that is the final say.

Mileage can be tricky waters to navigate.

We want the dancers to be comfortable with us — so we always discuss boundaries. This is good advice to stag men attending clubs too.

Since I personally didn’t get dances alone (to get a baseline as to what men are allowed to do), it is hard to discuss mileage at Cheetahs. My wife was overall happy with what she had, but wished there had been a bit more allowed.

We got private dances from Hazel, Lillith and Cherry. We enjoyed them all very much!

Any Concerns?

Sounds like the perfect club, right?

Our only real complaint is that we lost our table twice throughout the night. The first time, it was retrieved for us by security; but the second time (at about 1am) it was not. It was incredibly busy and the staff may not have been ready to start a ruckus about booting the other patrons that took it. Hard to say the particulars. When you have a “reserved table”, it really should stay that way or there needs to be open communication about the time frame of the reservation … at least what it takes to keep that table reserved. They staff was incredibly good to us all night long – so it is really hard to complain here (especially as we were getting ready to leave any way), but if we did something wrong or broke protocol here, we would have liked to know how to avoid it in the future.

New Home Away From Vegas?

This is a couple’s club and checks every box we, as a couple, wanted to see. The staff and talent is fantastic; the owner (Cowboy) and management (Kinsey) are incredibly competent and run a great club.

Cheetahs is easily our favorite club in Phoenix area (so far, anyway) and we highly recommend a visit. Do yourself a favor and get a package so your table doesn’t disappear when things get busy. Communicate with your server to ensure they know you’re not leaving when you get a dance – protect your spot.