(And it felt good to send a little love their way, too. We are resuming the monthly take overs of a straight bar somewhere in Chicago. The love they put into operating during a pandemic just to help their employees get by. Guerrilla Gay Bar South Loop is now called Chicago Take Over. Even though these establishments weren’t open in the traditional, save-me-a-stool sense, I still had to experience them. And I can’t come close to making the bacon-y Benton’s Old Fashioned that was handed to me in a paper bag outside of PDT ( Best Bars, 2008). Disco Chicago hustles its way to be a chic, late. Do I like martinis at home? Yes, but not as much as I like martinis at home delivered by Mister Paradise ( Best Bars, 2019). Derived from gay underground New York clubs, Disco was a white-hot trend fueled by amyl nitrate, flickering strobe lights and unrelenting rhythm. Could I make a semi-decent daiquiri at home? Yes, but it wouldn’t be as transcendent as the one I picked up from the window at Brooklyn’s Leyenda ( Best Bars, 2016). Many transitioned into makeshift to-go operations, and that’s where my saccharine “What makes a bar a Best Bar?” reasoning became honest fact. Many of the gay bars in Los Angeles were located near Pershing Square, which was a cruising ground in its own right.
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Our hotel is steps from the Magnificent Mile and Streeterville and moments from the Navy Pier and Millennium Park. Some of the well-known gay bars of this time were the House of Ivy and the Windup in Hollywood, and the Crown Jewel, Harolds, the Waldorf, and Maxwells in downtown Los Angeles. When I returned home to New York, my favorite watering holes had started to close, with messages like “Stay Safe, See You Soon!” hastily taped to their doors. Bringing European sophistication and boutique style to Chicago Illinoiss River North neighborhood, AC Hotel Chicago Downtown has everything you need - and nothing you dont. Best Bars are places you need your best pals to know about. It was at the Prince in L.A.’s Koreatown, a place that made this year’s list not only because of its horseshoe bar, red banquettes, and cocktails and Korean fried chicken-what a killer combo!-but also because I just had to share this old-school, slightly weird, still sort of under-the-radar experience with my friend Amanda. This list details Chicago’s top venues, crews, and parties aimed at connecting with queer community, crushing a cocktail (or five), and twisting the night away.A trade secret: While we spend most of the year going to bars to compile this list, a flurry of reporting happens in the spring, right before our deadline, because (a) it’s a great time to travel and drink and (b) writers never turn in stories early.īut this March, as the trees began to bloom and the country started to hibernate, I squeezed in one last reporting trip to Los Angeles and had one final drink at a bar before the Great Quarantine.
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#GAY BAR CHICAGO DOWNTOWN FREE#
These organizations are going beyond designing safe spaces for queer Black folks to dance, make out, and meet-they’re creating moments that decenter the white gaze (not to mention white gays), showcasing the artistic talents and sweet joy of Chicago’s Black queer, trans, and gender non-conforming residents and curating welcoming opportunites for folks to get down free from inhibition and fear. Several of Chicago’s queer event collectives are set on partying with a purpose, especially those with Black queers at the helm. Much of that is thanks to the hard work of folks like the Chicago Black Drag Council and countless other queer Black nightlife prose, all backed up by those of us happily partaking in the scene. While Boystown and Andersonville continue to flourish with queer and queer-friendly businesses on every corner, since last year’s uprisings and calls for accountability in Chicago’s gay nightlife scene, things have started to (slowly) change.
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We have some of the most renowned drag performers, incredible queer nightlife artists of all kinds, and queer neighborhoods teeming with bars and clubs. Chicago has transformed into a true queer destination in recent years, no longer looked at as some podunk midwestern city cast in the shadow of coastal meccas like New York and Los Angeles.