Swingers Forum - New Yorker or Salr Lake LS Club

Given the issues with the New Yorker and possible future closure. We are looking to create/open a new LS venture/club. What are the activities and options that are the most important to couples?

1. BYOB versus Bar
2. Play area/nudity
3. Dancing
4. Variation of type/style or music or one type/style
5. Fridays
6. Saturdays
7. Both Fridays and Saturdays
8. Every week
9. Occasional weekdays?
10. Exclusivity?
11. Other options?

MountainFantasy wrote:

Consider using the Scarlet Ranch in Denver as a template. They have years of experience and seem to have things mostly working.

Second person to say this!

The Ranch is a ton of fun and unique. We have a great time there. We like the bring your own alcohol, and may make it easier if your not selling.
Dancing is great, but if there is a place to mingle where it's easy to talk is nice too.

MountainFantasy wrote:

Consider using the Scarlet Ranch in Denver as a template. They have years of experience and seem to have things mostly working.

We agree - the Ranch in CO. is a GREAT model. Great food, reasonably priced, great spaces to hang out in, classy play areas that are CLEAN!!!! Overall, its just a perfect model where people at all stages of the LS can be comfortable. FlirtsLV and PlayhouseLV are not bad either ... but neither comes close to the ranch (IOHO). Good luck!

HereAndThere4Fun wrote:

So the liquor laws are restrictive in Utah. If you get a liquor license, you come under VERY close scrutiny of the DABC in regards to sexually oriented conduct and activities. If you have a location in which people bring their own alcohol it is considered more of a private event and the laws about Nudity/sexual activities are far less restrictive. I would start by understanding which is better for your end goal business plan.

Know the laws quite well. Hence asking the question of what is more important to everyone. Is it better to have a bar and less nudity and more socializing or BYOB with more nudity. What I am hearing from everyone is BYOB is the preference and nudity.

We live a bit farther and aren’t too up to date with the news! We love LS clubs! Can someone help understand what is going on with the New Yorker? Why is it possibly closing in the future?

BYOB to keep the state out of it. The less state oversight the better.

Nudity and/or revealing clothing are a major part of the fun for many in the LS. Many are exhibitionists.

Dancing is always a great icebreaker.

As for variation of type/style or music or one type/style perhaps try theme nights to see how that goes as it seems to work well for many of the LS resorts

Fridays are not great energy nights as many are tired from a long work week, any comedian will tell you Friday nights are a tough crowd because of this, so perhaps every Saturday night to see how it flies.

As for exclusively we're big fans of the more the merrier so it has to be easily obtainable for couples. The obstacle that always seems to be the big hurtle is how to restrict single males to a reasonable number, and what exactly is that number.

Anyhoo... that's our two cents. Good luck with this as it sounds like you have some good ideas.

Exclusivity and ice breaker activities, we’re not very good at initiating conversation and there might be more couples like us that would benefit from ice breakers 🤷🏽‍♂️

Lacai wrote:

Lastly everyone should feel safe wether it’s inside or in the parking lot!

This is the most important to us! Safety and consent being enforced!

We want to also pipe on and thank you for your willingness to jump into an endeavor that will benefit the LS (both inside and outside of the state). I know we are always looking for a good club to attend, and would travel up from southern Utah to visit it frequently.

A friend of ours owns a bar back east and when we visited, I asked him how he kept the "riff raff" out. He informed us there were two main components. A basic dress code (no flip flops, holy jeans, torn shirts, etc..) and he priced the drinks at a mark that someone with just $10 can't buy more than one beer.

I think the club should be similar. A basic dress code and a member fee that allows great people in, yet doesn't price the out either, but prices out those that will typically become a problem.

We once attended a club in Vegas that is now closed, but on the night we wanted to attend the first time, we had to meet at a bar for a basic interview and go over the rules of the club. Once we were vetted we signed an agreement for behavior, acknowledgement of the rules, paid our yearly due, and we're then given the location of the club and could attend from that point on. An interesting note of this interview was to view our social media postings. When I asked them why, they stated that those who post drama on social Media are also the ones who cause drama at the club and they've found that by keeping them out the have kept the environment low key.


There were about 10 couples at this meeting. 4 of those couples showed up tanked, in ratty clothing and were subsequently not allowed to attend. I believe something like this would help the club. And those of us who don't know anyone at the club, wouldn't have to get someone to "vouch" for us just to get in.

BYOB with a "bartender"is definitely the way to go.

The most important to us would be the "super secret private club" bs. We get it. Fully. You can't just let anyone in. But hell. We typically dont play with other couples. but have wanted to on occasion, specifically at the NY a few times. Suprise! We can't lol. We aren't part of the super secret club to get in. We aren't in the FB group. We don't know anyone that goes there to get us in etc.

I totally agree with Jay, hell we used to get in until it was shut down then when it reopened we where not going to travel to utah only to be turned away because we are not going to join a super duper secrete facebook group.

Our vote would be as follows:

BYOB

Play area for couples & invited guests only and a separate area for group play.

We are not the dancing type, but understand that many enjoy it and it's an easy way to get more comfortable and flirt a bit. So a smaller not club loud dance area would be nice but also not interfere with the ability to mingle and communicate in other areas.

Friday nights perhaps include SM and Saturdays are for couples and SF. That way couples can choose if and when they want to be around single males.

As for exclusivity, we are not on FB so we aren't part of the secretive groups, but perhaps a SpeakEasy-type password that revolves every week or month and a nominal membership fee or entrance fee and/or vetting would be nice.

We have only been to a club once in Vegas but that was a decade ago when we were first entering the lifestyle and while it was an eye-opening experience we didn't stay very long and felt like fish in a fishbowl. So limiting the creepiness and club feel would be a nice change. Not too bougie, but sophisticated. Think lifestyle resort in Ibiza.

We would consider a LS club/venue if there was zero chance of vanillas being let in. No walk ins off the street, with some sort of LS vetting process. Privacy is our main concern, and if we saw someone we knew in our private or professional lives there it would be totally fine if they were ALSO in the LS… if they were vanillas and recognized us they would have no incentive to keep our secrets.

This was the primary reason we did not go to the NYer or Unspoken. Other reasons kept piling up. I have had two coworkers in my office talking about “swinger nights” at both venues in Ogden and SLC, with the correct days of the week for both. They are NOT in the LS, but sure as fuck got front row seats at the swinger clubs. Both people had been there more than once and had first hand knowledge.

Naked twister and strip poker

We love the idea of an actual LS club in Utah!
Preferences: BYOB, Dancing, play areas, at least open Saturday, membership fee and membership vetting.
Other states have successful LS clubs.
We have attended Club Sapphire in Seattle and Club Privata in Portland. YouTube has some great video walkthroughs of those clubs.
We think an LS club would be very successful here! 😃

I agree with your statement regarding SM. Since my fantasy includes more men, and clubs typically don't allow many single men in (or limited), the men that are at the clubs are with their ladies and although may be interested in a MFM, don't do it because of their personal rules. (Which we totally respect!) We have not been to many clubs so perhaps this is just with our limited experience.

Also, the vetting process, in my opinion, has to be fair. Just because we are on the more mature end of life, doesn't mean we don't still like to have fun! Trying and failing to get into some groups or clubs has been discouraging due to preconceived ideas of who we are. Some clubs even make it difficult to follow their own directions; for instance, we were told to send a FULL PG picture so we sent a FULL PG picture. But they didn't mean a FULL PG picture, they meant a FULL BODY PG picture, but the word "BODY" was not included in the directions, so we were denied with no chance to change the picture. At least to us, FULL PG picture and a FULL BODY PG picture are two different things. If they had wanted a FULL BODY PG picture, they should have asked for that and we would have sent it!

Other groups have to have someone from within the group vouch for you. Since we don't know anyone in the group (or anyone who would admit it), this is impossible. Even when we had a listing asking for someone from within the group who would be willing to meet us and if they felt like we would be a good match, vouch for us. No one offered except a friendly couple who had not been to a party yet and therefore was ineligible to vouch for us. The second choice was to ask the host of the party, which we did. After about 5 emails to them regarding meeting with them, the meeting never occurred, so we stopped asking. To be fair they did ask--very short notice-- once for an appointment --the message came in after 7pm for that night, and we had already looked at the site earlier in the evening, so we didn't see the request until the next day. At that point, we were ghosted.

What's truly important is a sustainable business model for this in Utah.

Plenty here are right about a liquor license. The DABC requires a presentation that proves you have capital, profitability, and adherence to appropriate conduct. BYOB solves that, but is not a revenue producer. Most folks, like us, prefer to bring what they want to drink.

As for #2, you could probably permit limited nudity, but on site play in Utah? Word will get out and the vanilla peepers and single males will be banging down the door again. That word will also invite state and local law enforcement scrutiny. The morality police are coming one way or the other and they'll use any excuse to cloak what they deem inappropriate. We believe any space in Utah should never be billed as LS. Providing a space to meet and greet before taking the real fun elsewhere is more realistic. Wordsmith it as a positive inclusive space for all genders, orientations, and preferences or something like that even if it's aimed at the LS. Put authorities in a position to appear that they're discriminating.

Be prepared to manage incidents of sexual assault/harassment, open drug use, and dealing. Those problems invite scrutiny too and make any proprietor a target.

This just isn't CO or NV, so a realistic business model includes vetting and enforcement. The rules and consequences should be clear to all. #3 through #10 are just preferences that can fluctuate based on a theme or what generates attendance. We encourage any and all LS venues in UT, but navigating carefully and sustaining it is tricky.

Just got back from our first visit to Scarlet Ranch and it was amazing. If Utah had someplace like this, we’d be first in line to join!

Hrm1999 wrote:

Just got back from our first visit to Scarlet Ranch and it was amazing. If Utah had someplace like this, we’d be first in line to join!

We checked it out as well. There are some things we liked and somethings we didn't. Don't think this is reproduceable here. But like the venue and set up.

Utahldscouple message sent