Its him gay bar
Beginning with the opening of places like the G Lounge in 1996, the late ‘90s in Modern York City saw a rise in what felt like a new type of gay bar—”the lounge” as it was called—a place where the interior decor blended a matchless hybrid of upscale and garish, where sitting down replaced standing around and dancing, and where a menu of elegant, crafty cocktails boasting Cosmos and Manhattans reigned supreme. This exact time period also saw the beginning of the gay migration northwards—when primarily queer men began moving on up, so to speak, from the West Village and Chelsea, forging the newest gay-borhood that became Hells Kitchen. It’s hard to accept now, but Hell’s Kitchen was once rough-and-tumble, with hardly a homosexual in sight. In a NYTimes article from as belated as 2007 on the gentrification of gay HK, queer pioneer Addison Smith proclaims: “When I first moved here [in 2001], I felt specifically that it wasn’t a queer neighborhood. Hell’s Kitchen didn’t really have an self other than its persona being danger.”
Such was the breeding ground for the birth of Barrage Block, located at 401 West 47th Street between 9th and 10th Avenues in Manhattan. Barrage Bar, or s
Gay Bars
are u coming?
What Is Stonewall in 2024?A touristy dive bar, an unfinished liberation movement, and now a visitor center within the National Park Service.
preservation
Julius’, the Gay-Elder Dive Bar of the Village, Gets LandmarkedJust as the TikTok twinks have discovered its charms.
are u coming?
A Tea-Spilling Lawsuit Upends a Hell’s Kitchen Gay ClubJust how woke can a megaclub hosting underwear parties really ever be?
last late hours on late night
Harvey Fierstein Took Matthew Broderick to his First Gay BarPlus what made Fierstein quit the casual sex scene.
are u coming?
In Just My Underwear in MidtownI finally made it to that new gay megaclub, the Q.
nightlife
How Will We Think of Gay Bars?Jeremy Atherton Lin’s new book maps the loss of queer nightlife.
Best of New York
The Absolute Best Queer Night in New YorkFrom roving performances to drag shows, these are fun, frisky nights that embrace the packed gender spectrum and beyond.
first person
Gay Bars Are More Than an Escape — They’re HomeThe Orlando shooter threatened the place where many of us sense powerful, joyful, free, and safe.
After 29 years, Chelsea’s celebrated gay bar Barracuda is closing
Barracuda Bar, the longtime lounge, drag show stage and celebrity hot identify, will close permanently on Sunday after nearly 30 years in Chelsea.
A luxury condo construction project at the site of the massive Cinépolis Chelsea production theater, which closed in 2023 and shares a wall with the exclude, has significantly damaged Barracuda’s interior and made it “impossible to conduct business as usual,” according to a statement from Barracuda owner Bob Pontarelli.
“It breaks my heart,” Pontarelli said by phone. “There’s very little left in Chelsea now that was there when we opened.”
When it opened in 1995, Barracuda was immediately different from the city’s typical “stand-and-meet” gay bars, Pontarelli said in his statement. Instead, it was a living room-like lounge environment pieced together from furniture he and his business loved one picked off the street.
Barracuda soon became a regular hangout for the Broadway community, with show promoters hosting parties and cast member performances as a way of building buzz for their new musicals, according to a 2001 article in the Recent York Times.
A stage in the bar featured sponta
Bar-Hopping In Hell’s Kitchen
The Queer Capital of the Planet has a way of re-energizing the soul fancy nowhere else on ground – and I had clearly forgotten what I [heart] about New York…
By Doug Wallace
What do you call a pub crawl of just one person? I recognize what some might notify it: sad. Me, I’m calling my bar-hopping memory of Hell’s Kitchen alive by labelling it “research.”
Honestly, my first evening in New York does commence off with a ally, for a tête-à-tête in the rarified, quiet confines of the Baccarat Hotel across from the MoMA. The Champagne-hued Grand Salon is an ocean of glass and red roses, waiters hoisting trays of cut-crystal cocktails to the beautiful people. I reflect on it a sign – a gift from the gay gods – that my first celebrity sighting of the trip is Wanda Sykes. Turns out she’s doing a week-long stint as guest host of the nearby Daily Show. My friend and I just smile at how cool-by-association we are, and do the Toronto thing and ignore her completely.
The night is still adv when I escort my friend into an Uber, so I carry on with my plan to wander the Ninth Road gay bars – they are too numerous to do all in one night
.