Dig in at the gay bar, lounge and karaoke spot by heading over to 4129 N. Over in Melrose, check out The Rock, which has earned four stars out of 59 reviews on Yelp.
Try the Bellini Plus (a peachy frozen drink with black raspberry) or the Havana (a dark spiced rum with Coca Cola) off the cocktail menu. to see for yourself.īar 1 serves specialty cocktails and welcomes four-legged friends on its California-style patio. Bar 1 photo: stephanie m./ yelpīar 1, a gay bar in Encanto, is another affordable go-to, with four stars out of 61 Yelp reviews. Grab the mic or take a seat for a karaoke night - offered four days a week - or stop in on Friday for the "Best Drag Show." The bar offers locally produced draft beer and craft cocktails.
Central Ave., Suite 175, is another top choice, with Yelpers giving the inexpensive gay bar, lounge and karaoke spot four stars out of 102 reviews. Kobalt Photo: Marc K./ YelpĮncanto's Kobalt, located at 3110 N. Located inside an old-world cathedral, Stacy's Melrose offers a menu that features domestic, imported and craft beer, as well as signature cocktails. With four stars out of 134 reviews on Yelp, the gay bar has proven to be a local favorite for those looking for an inexpensive option. Next up is Stacy's Melrose, situated at 4343 N. There is also live entertainment on select nights.
in Camelback East, the gay bar is the highest-rated cheap gay bar in Phoenix, boasting 4.5 stars out of 27 reviews on Yelp.ĭecorated with a nostalgic touch, Nu Towne Saloon offers a full range of drinks, including beer and signature cocktails. Hoodline crunched the numbers to find the best affordable gay bars in Phoenix, using both Yelp data and our own secret sauce to produce a ranked list of where to fill the bill. If you want to help that effort, donate to the GoFundMe.Wondering where to find the best gay bars near you? The worker-owned cooperative nightclub is still hosting events, and the owners promise The Stud is not dead and will come back eventually.
It’s a topic that is complicated and nuanced and deserves thought and discourse, and that also leaves us grateful that SF still does have two neighborhoods where gay bars reign supreme (the Castro and SoMa), and you can find a watering hole with whatever you fancy: fabulous drag queens, all-night dance parties, hirsute hotties, latex, leather, karaoke, kink, bondage, live music, TV watch parties, and even sports.īefore we leave you to pick out your next drinking destination, a love-filled shout out to The Stud, SF’s oldest and most diverse queer bar/institution, which lost its SoMa home in 2020. On Polk Street, a strip where the first San Francisco Gay Pride Parade took place in 1972, and was once home to 65 gay bars, peep shows, bathhouses, and hotels, only one gay bar, The Cinch, remains. This is especially true in San Francisco where there is only one gay bar left in the Tenderloin ( Aunt Charlie’s Lounge), the neighborhood where the 1966 Compton’s Cafeteria Riot, the first recorded transgender riot in U.S. The reasons behind this mass exodus are complex-with more mainstream acceptance of LGBTQ+ lifestyles and cultures, such spaces are deemed less “necessary,” and yet they are still necessary for so many reasons, including the fact that these spaces represent a vital piece of our collective history and because progress doesn’t erase the need for safe havens of belonging. Over the past few years, gay bars and queer spaces have been disappearing in San Francisco and across the country at a depressing rate.