D.C.'s Bt Gay Bars and Hangouts - Eater DC

Contents:

• TOWN, DC’S LARGT GAY BAR, IS CLOSG. WHAT DO  MEAN?
• WHAT DO TOWN’S CLOSG MEAN FOR THE FUTURE OF GAY NIGHTLIFE D.C.?
• D.C.'S BT GAY BARS AND HANGOUTS
• D.C.’S BIGGT GAY NIGHTCLUB IS SET TO CLOSE, BUT A NEW ITERATN MAY REPLACE IT
• ‘TOWN 2.0’: BELOVED D.C. GAY NIGHTCLUB AIMS TO RE-OPEN — A FORMER BAPTIST CHURCH
• THE BEST WASHGTON DC GAY CLUBS & BARSSEE ALL THGS TO DOGAY CLUBS & BARS WASHGTON DC
• THE BT GAY BARS WASHGTON, D.C.

TOWN, DC’S LARGT GAY BAR, IS CLOSG. WHAT DO  MEAN?

The natn's pal is home to a lively LGBTQ+ nightlife scene wh plenty of gay and lbian bars jt wag for you to jo on the fun. Larry’s Lounge is a gay neighborhood pub, wh always-affordable drks, solid happy hour specials, mouth-waterg pub fare (see: sweet potato tots) and one of the cy’s iendlit pats (you n brg your dog, too!). Number Ne to the btlg Logan Circle urty of -founr Ed Bailey, who helped DC’s gay nightlife scene to grow durg his days as a DJ.

Suated right the heart of Adams Man’s btlg 18th Street is Pchers, a gay sports bar, and A League of Her Own, the adjacent bar for lbian and queer women. Town, the massive gay dance club Shaw, announced last week that will close next summer after mors to the ntrary. I me out twelve years ago, and like many queer kids DC, I sought out gay bars as a refuge.

Yet many of the plac I equented are gone: Phase 1 Barracks Row, Apex Dupont Circle, Ins Fairfax (which wasn’t a gay bar, but hosted a lot of drag shows), not to mentn all of the LGBT clubs Navy Yard that closed to make way for Natnals Park over a ago. When Town opened 2007, the sleek, warehoe-style club seemed out of place at 8th and Florida, far om DC’s tradnal “gayborhood” on 17th Street. But did lead the gay muny’s shift further east towards Shaw, herg a new generatn of bars, like Dirty Goose, Takoda, and Uproar.

WHAT DO TOWN’S CLOSG MEAN FOR THE FUTURE OF GAY NIGHTLIFE D.C.?

What do Town closg mean for the cy’s gay muny? Contributors agree that the “gayborhood” isn’t gog anywhere, but won’t look the same the future.

Town was the first gay bar I ever vised, but I met my boyiend of the last three years at a (straight) bar. All that said, I hope that the owners of Town follow the lead of DC Eagle and Secrets, which found new hom so they uld ntue to wele both people at a gay bar for their first time and people who experience every week. Canaan Merchant noticed a siary between gay venu and DIY mic venu:.

Obvly sucks to lose a well-loved place but at the same time…I don't thk the actual activy (whether s gay bar or DIY mic shows) is disappearg necsarily though the landspe is certaly changg. Tracy Loh says ’s no surprise that Town led to other velopment, cg the example of other “gayborhoods. A lot has been wrten before about the role of gay “pneers” jumpstartg growth property valu by crementally vtg real tate and muni.

D.C.'S BT GAY BARS AND HANGOUTS

A muny wh a lot of disvtment but historil charm, gay people are the only on not racist or otherwise prejudiced enough/sperate enough for a place to stake a claim to see the value opportuny and have the risk-tolerance to act on , and so a gayborhood is born. Matt Friedman says DC has lost a lot of gay venu, but new on are always takg their place. At the news of the closg of Town, I joked to some iends that “the gayborhood is everywhere now.

D.C.’S BIGGT GAY NIGHTCLUB IS SET TO CLOSE, BUT A NEW ITERATN MAY REPLACE IT

Durg my first n DC, most of the gay bars were loted around Dupont Circle.

Gay bars provid a safe space at a time when was a lot harr to meet other LGBT people. Buckg the trend, new gay bars have opened, like Tra and Uproar.

‘TOWN 2.0’: BELOVED D.C. GAY NIGHTCLUB AIMS TO RE-OPEN — A FORMER BAPTIST CHURCH

Gay bars aren't ad. Payton Chung poted out that bs n’t survive on nostalgia alone, quotg Marty Chernoff, then-owner of Tracks, a popular DC gay club the 1980s and 90s. Natn was my first gay club and I have fond memori of gog there when I was llege.

That said, I hope a new, large gay club space emerg DC. Maybe isn't a dited gay club as much as a uple nights a week at a club but I thk there is still a need of such a space where gays n be gays and there is no judgment (except maybe about someone's outf).

Where is the “gayborhood” DC gog? “For the first time 27, 28 years, there won’t be a big dance venue for the gay muny, ” says John Guggenmos. The gay muny is mourng s closure.

THE BEST WASHGTON DC GAY CLUBS & BARSSEE ALL THGS TO DOGAY CLUBS & BARS WASHGTON DC

Even gay guys who don’t enjoy the unce-unce club scene say that havg a 22, 000-square-foot venue provid a place for other social gathergs. Groups like Team DC, a nonprof gay sports associatn, took advantage of Town for fundraisers.

THE BT GAY BARS WASHGTON, D.C.

“I don’t even like gog to big clubs and I thk [Town closg] is vastatg, ” says David Perzza, the owner of recently opened gay bar Pchers Adams Man. Whout Town, only one mega gay statn remas when to square footage. Co-owner Steve Dellerba cled to ment about his nightclub’s future, but talked about the loss of large gay nightclubs broadly.

” Dellerba adds that Echostage has acquired a strong followg the gay muny.