The former home of Posh — the first-ever neighborhood gay bar back the '90s — has been transformed to a new LGBTQ+ hotspot, FLEX,
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THE BT GAY BARS HELL'S KCHEN
Wele to the Gay Kchen! Wele to the Gay Kchen. This is a kchen full of love, acceptance, and lic food. I hope you will jo me for a culary journey wh a few queer twists and turns. This is a safe space where I will share the recip that I love and some helpful… * gay kitchen *
Wrer John Birdsall (om left), photographer Nik Sharma, rtratr and chef Preeti Mistry talk about the ncept of the "queer kchen" wh Las Volger, the edor of Jarry, a gay men's food magaze. The gatherg was anized by the New York-based gay men's food magaze, Jarry, a twice-yearly prt publitn lnched last fall.
THE GAY KCHEN
Several of the untry's leadg queer hospaly pros—Tiffanie Barriere, Tiffany Faison, John-Carter Ayanna, and Preeti Mistry—met wh Food & We's Senr Food Edor Mary-Franc Heck to discs genr the kchen, why gay bars aren't for everyone, and how to be more clive on both sis of the hoe." emprop="scriptn * gay kitchen *
The sensibili of this trifecta of closeted gay men had far-reachg fluence, changg the way Amerins oked and ate.
As Birdsall has wrten, "It's food that tak pleasure serly, as an end self, an assertn of polics or a human birthright, the product of culture — this is the legacy of gay food wrers who shaped morn Amerin food.
" It was this narrowly macho foc that led Birdsall to set the rerd not-so-straight wh Ameri, Your Food Is So Gay, his Lucky Peach say that won a Jam Beard Journalism Award 2014. Birdsall, now 56, remembers he and a boyiend readg aloud om Olney's wrgs, feelg like they were gettg a glimpse of a secret gay world — one that was, by necsy, elive.
Drk the cy's gayt neighborhood wh our picks of the bt gay bars Hell's Kchen, om gngy neighborhood div to swank loung * gay kitchen *
Mistry, who origally wanted to be a filmmaker, was spired by the chefs' creativy and fearlsns, so much so that she left a job the "gay bubble" of Framele to start trag fe dg at Claridge's London. It wasn't jt that the women were out, at a time when rtrant kchens uld still be tough plac for women, gay or straight. A py of Jarry, a gay men's food magaze, next to tote bags that read "Cheers Queers.
' " It was a clash of sensibili, his gay, hers queer. The youngt of the group, he says g out wasn't an issue, but fdg a gay social circle when he first started medil school wasn't easy. A chat wh a gay profsor led to an vatn to the med school's "secret gay potluck" — secret not out of fear, but simply bee "they didn't want any straights to e, " said Sharma.
Birdsall, who won a send Jam Beard Award for Straight Up Passg — an article about gay chefs Jarry's first issue — se queer okg as an act of anti-normative transgrsn and ristance. In fact, several high-profile, out chefs bristled at beg tegorized as "gay chefs, " much the way that many artists rist beg fed as "women wrers" or "female micians. Or was jt that the chefs — whe and cisgenr, as Mistry pots out — still feared the repercsns of embracg a higher-profile gay inty, even the more equal tim?