I have never considered myself much of a conformist and have always tended to gravitate toward similarly off-beat people, people who are not afraid of the unknown and of not fitting in. That said, the path I’ve followed seems pretty damn tame compared to the women of Lucky Cheng’s!
My husband just got back from a four-month stint in Japan, and to celebrate, we spent the weekend in Manhattan hitting some of our favorite places. Lucky Cheng’s, rightly known as the drag queen capital of the world, is one of them. We actually hadn’t been in almost ten years, so it’s not like we regularly visit. We just had a really good time the on the last occassion we did. This time was just as much, if not more, fun. The food was delicious, the drinks strong and the lap dances outrageous!
Staffed by talented drag and transgendered performers and waitresses, Lucky Cheng’s is a fabulously fun place to spend an evening. Be prepared for wild costumes, loud music, decor that puts the most outlandish love hotel to shame… The camp factor is off the scale.
The one concession that the waitresses and performers made to this being more than an act, a way of life and not simply a persona to put away at the end of the work day, was a plain white envelope handed out to each table at the end of the evening’s show. This envelope, when filled with money the patrons were to hopefully contribute, represented a step closer to the sex reassignment surgery many of the staff were saving for. In a time and place where homophobia and bias crimes are still a problem, I have to applaud a person who can stand at the front of a crowded room and ask for money for a sex change. It takes a lot of guts.
Of course, so does this:
antigenre.wordpress.com 
