Meat Market correspondent sounded like such a sweet gig: sipping whiskey, watching dance floors filled with sweaty 20-somethings and, just maybe, finding some filly to nibble at my ear - a writer's dream job.

But here, sitting in my beat-up station wagon in the parking lot outside of Lady Luck's Cowgirl Up Steakhouse and Saloon on a Saturday night, all those dreams are replaced by worries. What do I know about clubbing? About fancy mixed drinks and the latest club jam? Hell, I don't even own a collar to pop.

Inside Lady Luck's though, my fears are soothed. The club, decorated in a style somewhere between Vegas strip joint and Old West Style Saloon, is packed with people. A table full of middle-aged women celebrating a bachelorette party orders another round. Army men in baseball hats eye the scantily clad waitresses. Televisions running a live feed of Lady Luck's dance floor dot the walls. I watch as DJ Destiny (Lady Luck's DJ seven nights a week) honors someone's birthday by announcing $5 Sex On The Beach as this hour's drink special. Bar-goers in T-shirts and ripped jeans cheer as the birthday girl downs a Jell-O shot.

I order a whiskey ginger. The drink arrives in a plastic cup and is more ginger than whiskey, but I walk to the dance floor in high spirits. There a local nicknamed the Asian Cowboy clears a dance circle. Everyone on the floor stops to watch the dapper Cowboy bust out his routine to "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It".

Two older patrons, both nicely sauced, use the break in dancing as an opportunity to grope.

The dancing continues. 

As the clock nears midnight, a more typical club crowd filters in. Sequin dresses and pressed slacks take the place of the smiling birthday girl. The music ramps back into Top 40's. Even the Asian Cowboy retreats outside, promptly passing out in a chair.

It's OK, though. I've had my fill. I leave with two honks to the stumbling bachelorette and think: If that soon-to-be-married girl can handle all those shots of tequila, then dammit, I can handle the club scene.

Lady Luck's Cowgirl Up

daily 6 a.m. to 2 a.m.
14114 Pacific Ave. S., Tacoma
253.538.4996