Awash with a light that cinematographers sometimes call "bastard amber," Nicolai Street Clubhouse is a glowing cube of weathered beer advertisements anchoring an abandoned corner in the Northwest Industrial District. If you're in the neighborhood (perhaps walking off an existential crisis), look for a dancer hunched over a curbside table, smoking feverishly before she has to get back on the small corner stage in front of a crowd of rowdy longshoremen. Score some free popcorn, set up in front of one of the many video poker machines, and chug a few light beers. It is the only strip club we know that's casual and anarchic enough a dancer might answer a text on her phone from the stage. There are burgers if you need to stabilize your blood sugar, but that's all that should be expected of them. Imagine a non-art-directed version of the Sons of Anarchy clubhouse: No patch required.

ENTERTAINMENT: Pool, video poker, nude dancing, occasional nude conversation.

2460 NW 24th Ave., 503-227-5384, nicolaistreet.com. 10 am-2:30 am Monday-Friday, 1 pm-2:30 am Saturday, 1 pm-1 am Sunday.

Willamette Week