My modus operandi for my night at Latitude 84 is simple: don't get stabbed. 

The bar's patrons are notoriously ill-mannered. Google Latitude 84 and find security footage of the club's outdoor patio, where a heavyset man cold-clocks a woman, shatters a glass in her face, and consequently sends her to the hospital. Gentleman indeed. 

The Friday night crowd is especially intimidating. The bar feels more like a prison yard than a hotspot nightclub.  A group of ponytailed Polynesians occupy the pool tables, moving silently around in their flip-flops, hardly missing a shot. Cranky characters hunch over wooden tables, each looking like they've been in an array of bar fights. One even has the swollen, bandaged nose to prove it. A roaming security guard with a holstered gun walks around the club, looking to quell any upstart trouble.

Drink in hand, I take a seat in a back corner and count the minutes before I can leave. A small table of birthday-partyers clap and cheer after finishing a round of shots. But the lights are up abnormally high for dancing, and no matter how hard DJ Drunk-A-Lot (actual moniker) tries, no one steps foot on the dance floor. That's OK though. Somehow I think that most of the patrons are more likely to know how to locate black market weapons than know all the steps to the Cupid Shuffle.

Two normal looking ladies in their mid-20s take a seat next to me. We spark up a conversation and I come to find out that the younger woman, Jessica, is a flesh-and-blood escort. A working girl. A prostitute. 

For the next hour, Jessica candidly describes her profession. She tells me tales of married men, army virgins and the occasional defecation fetish. I sit dumbfounded, quickly forgetting my fear of a shiv to the thigh. The two stand up to leave when I realize I haven't asked them any questions about the bar.

"Wait," I say. "Would you come to this bar to meet guys?"

Jessica finishes off her third vodka cranberry before glancing around the room.

"Never a boyfriend," she says. "But definitely some customers."

Latitude 84 Sports Bar & Grill

8401 S. Hosmer St., Tacoma
253.531.5154