Gay Bar, Meet Cocktail Bar | VePair

Contents:

• GAY BAR, MEET COCKTAIL BAR
• INDIANAPOLIS GAY BARS: 7 SPAC MA FOR THE LGBTQ+ MUNY
• I WANT TO BE A BARTENR AT A GAY BAR.
• GOLD COAST, THE QUTSENTIAL QUEER DIVE BAR, WAS THE “GAY CHEERS” OF WT HOLLYWOOD
• GAY BARS REMA CLOSED BALTIMORE JT AS LGBTQ MUNY NEEDS THEM MOST
• GAY BAR SU COMEDIENNE WHO SAID BARTENR DGGED HER
• HOW TO BEE POPULAR AT A GAY BAR
• GAY MOSW MOSW CY GUI

GAY BAR, MEET COCKTAIL BAR

In a 2009 article for queer publitn Between the L, wrer Camper English laments the lack of “uture cktails” at gay tablishments, potg to the stereotype that “we’re supposed to be trendy people.

” Havg vered cktail culture sce 2006, English believ drks programs at gay bars have remaed remarkably static as the bar and rtrant dtry have drastilly evolved.

INDIANAPOLIS GAY BARS: 7 SPAC MA FOR THE LGBTQ+ MUNY

“It dawned on me that none of the gay bars were movg the same directn as other bars — they were jt dog the same old flavored vodka drks, most whout h juic or even drk men, ” English tells VePair. “The days, there are some gay bars g h juic their cktails, at least, and more of the rtrants gayborhoods are gettg right. But seems generally that gay bar cktails are about where nightclub cktails are terms of average qualy.

I WANT TO BE A BARTENR AT A GAY BAR.

Of urse, the high-volume drks programs at some gay venu functn primarily as social lubrints. While the mixology movement has brought well-ma Manhattans and Mojos to hotel bars, cise ship bars, piano bars, mic ftival bars, and, hell, even airplane bars, 20 years after the cktail revolutn lnched NYC, gay bars are one of the last plac Ameri you n’t always fd a good drk.

Wh so many prri to juggle, om shiftg socenomics to vanishg venu, gay bars and cktail culture are now at a historic crossroads. “We thk of cktail bars as a place to go and have a curated experience, ” says Alex Negranza, a gay bartenr and director of operatns at Tongue-Cut Sparrow and The Pastry War Hoton.

“Historilly, we don’t have that associatn the gay bar scene bee, for so long, gays were never afford the luxury of a place to dulge. Much has changed, and ntu to change, sce bars like San Francis’s Black Cat and New York’s Stonewall opened unrserved neighborhoods to provi refuge to gay muni the 1950s.

GOLD COAST, THE QUTSENTIAL QUEER DIVE BAR, WAS THE “GAY CHEERS” OF WT HOLLYWOOD

” Acrdg to the latt studi om Pntial and the Harvard Bs Review, the average queer Amerin — albe mostly cis whe gay mal — now earns as much if not more than their straight unterparts. Then there’s the fact that today’s “gayborhoods, ” like Chelsea New York, Boystown Chigo, or Montrose Hoton, are among their ci’ wht and most affluent.

Morn gay bars, likewise, no longer hab the same cultural and physil spac as their precsors.

Some queer bartenrs are hant to brg the craft cktail movement, wh s hand-cut ice and elevated price tags, to gay and lbian bars bee there are so few of them left.

GAY BARS REMA CLOSED BALTIMORE JT AS LGBTQ MUNY NEEDS THEM MOST

“The gay bar isn’t nearly as ubiquo as we’d all like to be, so swchg the beverage program at even a uple of gay bars the cy mak accs to queer spac even more limed, ” says Yi Chen, bartenr at The Aviary NYC.

“If gay bars are tly to rema about muny, the msage sent by cktail-specific gay bars is one of alienatn to those who n’t afford , which impli a culture that I personally fd problematic. Others believe queer tablishments wh qualy cktails would provi a wele alternative to hard-partyg gay nightlife. In 2016, Garrett McKechnie opened Mattache Society, a gay cktail bar Los Angel, but sadly closed shortly thereafter.

GAY BAR SU COMEDIENNE WHO SAID BARTENR DGGED HER

Fortunately, early 2019, chef Angela Dimayuga, formerly of Missn Che Food, opened No Bar, a “new-wave gay bar” New York Cy’s Standard East Village Hotel. When Shawn Vergara and his sister Tiffny Vergara Chung revamped their Brew bar San Francis’s historic gay neighborhood, The Castro, earlier this year, they wanted to reprent s lotn.

HOW TO BEE POPULAR AT A GAY BAR

Now lled Detour, after a historic gay club, serv elevated cktails an tergeneratnally clive space. There was fely somethg missg, and I wanted to show that gays n participate cktail culture, too. Cal Laman, founr of the cktail nference Chigo Style, believ we uld soon see many more gay-iendly or -foced cktail bars like those McKechnie, Dimayuga, and Vergara have opened, but says those terted urtg the muny need to do so thoughtfully.

The succs of tablishments like No Bar and Detour shows that a lite middle ground for gay cktail bars n and should exist — as long as queer people are empowered to open them. Hontly, I feel so out of place here and I'm fed up wh the sports bar scene general and even though I'm (somehow) well-liked by the regulars and I make cent sh, I want to get the hell out and maybe try a gay bar. In the history of Ameri’s gay nightlife, Seattle holds an important rerd.

GAY MOSW MOSW CY GUI

The cy was home to the untry’s first known gay bar: The Double Hear, which operated om the 1930s to 2015. The panmic is only another chapter the leage of Seattle’s queer nightlife—one that proved that, spe some chang, Seattle’s gay bars aren’t gog anywhere. Sger, artist, performer and, acrdg to Seattle’s alternative news weekly The Stranger, “a staple of jt about every gay Seattle thg worth dog, ” Cônnére has brought theater, fashn and activism to the cy’s most notable gay bars.

She’s one half of dis-pop duo Bijoux, and has bartend for years at queer hot spots like the late Re-Bar—a 30-year-old stutn that shuttered durg the panmic—over-the-top nightclub Supernova and Pony, a divey gay bar where she currently works slgg whiskey-ggers and tequila shots to crowds of queer punks, artsy queens and those who like their gay culture wh a ltle (or a lot) ls polish. The block clud the first eratn of Bimbos and the Cha Cha Lounge—a Mexin food jot started the 1990s that has sce reloted to East Pike, a few blocks away—gay bar Manray, Irish punk bar Kra Pub and The B Stop, where Cônnére got her first bartendg gig. Now, the dark terr clus a pastiche of Wilson’s origal artwork, addn to even more vtage gay smut, all amed by large papier-mâché dicks that hang om the ceilg.