New gay bar g to downtown Denver: Sir opens October

Contents:

• THE 5 BEST DENVER GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS DENVER

THE 5 BEST DENVER GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS DENVER

The R & R Lounge is one of Denver's olst gay bars, datg back to a time when they had to keep a secret. The R & R Lounge has been welg one and all as an East Colfax neighborhood gay bar sce before most Denver knew that there were gay bars their midst.

Then we snagged some cktails and Esteban showed the many aclas that the R & R has earned over the years, cludg the pag Denver's Bt Dive Bars: Drkg and Divg the Mile-High Cy (penned by former Wtword bar wrer Drew Bixby), a Wtword award for Bt Gay Bar 2016, and an OutFront award for "Bt Place to S Part of Denver's Queer History" 2017. But there's much more history to the bar that rightfully claims to be "Denver's olst gay bar. " The lotn has been a bar sce the 1950s, when was known as the Coral Lounge and was nsired a "mixed" bar, which is basilly what people lled an gno gay bar back then.

Also the ’70s, the bar beme an "out and proud, rabow-on-the-door gay bar, " acrdg to owner Rich Illgen. Illgen was also an owner at another historic gay bar Denver, the origal Triangle Bar, a legendary leather bar that shook up the scene om the ’70s until closg the early 2000s.

Sarah McGill Acrdg to Illgen and his team, their clientele is eclectic and the bar don't have a reputatn for terg to any particular subset of the gay muny; olr and younger men and women, drag queens, members of the trans muny, bears and cisgenr folks are wele and make themselv at home — as long as "your money is green and you n get along wh everyone, " Illgen adds.

It's not a gay neighborhood or strip of gay hot spots, which is part of the appeal of the R & R.

It's jt a chill neighborhood bar that's also a gay bar. Recently, the R & R Lounge was chosen as the settg for an pennt film lled Gay Bashed om director Jc Stt Gray; was filmed last November, wh some of the staff and ctomers st as extras, and is schled to e out this month.

Wh s mythil two-step lsons early the eveng, go-go boys, cheap sloshy beer, and an entire room for s equent drag shows, this staple of the Denver gay scene has somethg for everyone. Frequent Charlie’s-goer Sean Doyle ced the “be-yourself vibe” as one of the thgs that keeps him g back and ghed that, as Denver don’t have a ncentrated gayborhood the way, say, Chigo or San Fran do, Charlie’s is one of the “few plac that the gay muny n own as one of theirs.

Denver’s olst gay bar, R&R Bar is a Denver staple. If you’re lookg to see some queer entertament outsi of the regular gay bar circu, you n ually fd somethg out-of-the-ordary gog on at the Clocktower Cabaret.

It don’t intify self as an explicly gay bar, but ’s a popular hangout for olr gay men occupyg the former Barker Lounge space. Its owners have claimed ’s the cy’s olst gay bar, havg opened the 1950s and gone openly gay the 1970s, acrdg to Wtword, wh s stantly regnizable, rabow-pated door. Although ’s not an overtly bear bar — owners scribe as Denver’s queer, unrground fetish bar — ’s a favore of the beard, equently mcle-bound class of gay men who scrib themselv as such (particularly the absence of the late Denver Wrangler).

Tra also helps fill a blank spot that particular area’s Denver’s gay scene, wh a perch along Santa Fe Drive and diverse programmg that rang om drag shows and DJ nights to leather nights and beer bts.

The name stretch back to the 1970s when the slim brick buildg hosted a gay club lled Triangle, and was a tryout spot for var, unsuccsful bars and craft rtrants after the origal Triangle closed the early 2000s.

Like Lucid, #Vybe featur a b more diversy than many gay bars, wh drag queens of lor and top tourg queens like Adore Delano swgg through regularly, addn to stand-up edy, game nights, Denver Brons parti (the cheerlears even stopped for a show recently) and lots more.

An early gay rights prott Denver on the Capol lawn.