So you say you know of some real cool spots in Manhattan…or have heard tell of a few you’re going to get your ass over to this summer. In my travels for ShortandSweetNYC and specifically THE SEX FILES column, I have found myself in a few cool places (in this city and abroad), whether I catch a salacious off-Broadway play, check-out a kink convention, interview an up-and-coming porn star in the lobby of a cool hotel (yes, the job of bringing you consistent updates is so very taxing…wink!) so you can trust I have seen a few things. So when I tell you that the rooftop at Vivid Cabaret NYC is a spot not to be beat, take it on good authority you need to see this one-of-a-kind-location.

You know I have gotten out and about to other gentleman’s clubs around the country. What I usually come across is a sameness in style and offering (offering beautiful scantily-clad ladies is not a bad thing of course) but as I have said before and will be making clear across the summer here in my “Up On The Rooftop” series, what Vivid offers its patrons is something quite unique. I thought that about the club previously, but having just seen the outdoor upper area, I now think this even more.

A man or lady can buy a cigar, grab a cigarette, take a drink and enjoy the open patio deck of Vivid’s exclusive V.I.P. level (in fact, the grandest of rooms on the V.I.P. floor has access to its own-secluded part-of the outdoor deck area…super cool indeed). As far as the whole of the rooftop, patrons can relax under umbrellas, aided by heaters during the colder nights, across plush couches and chairs, no matter the size of the party. Secluded outdoor areas pepper the upper floors of hotels and nightspots in the city, but what I found so alluring about Vivid’s rooftop is that it is quiet and secluded. Where many clubs are damn well built in and of a rooftop location, Vivid is a fully realized entertainment facility in the floors below; the rooftop is a respite.

I was given an exclusive tour by the club’s regional manager, a man I had met previously, Shaun Kevlin, one of the most refined gentleman you are likely to meet in any club anywhere, not just a strip club. Shaun, like all of the Vivid staff working under him (the staff at Rick’s Cabaret NYC…Vivid’s sister club…as well) simply presents the rooftop as he does the entire club as a spot to be enjoyed fully by whomever enters the club. I have gone on about this before, but Vivid treats their patrons in a way I have never seen people treated, really. From the girl who takes your hat and coat, to the gentlemen seeing you in to security, to Shaun, this is a top notch operation run perfectly. It is no wonder that the rooftop area is as elegantly designed and kept as everything else in the club.

There are lots happening this summer at Vivid and my goal is to check-in across the next few months here expounding on special events (slipping-in some tidbits about Rick’s Cabaret NYC and other locations across the country as well) have you get to know some of the sweet ladies of the club and generally give you an insider’s peak in on what really is happening On The Rooftop (and beyond) at Vivid Cabaret NYC at 61 W 37th.