“If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere,” shouts the iconic anthem for a city that never sleeps. It’s a place where people come to make their dreams come true, or have them crushed at any moment.…
I’ve had a lot of wild and crazy nights in this city. My fond memories are buried within the walls of the clubs that danced their last dance. Though I’m only 28, when I talk about all the clubs and parties that have come and gone, I feel like a 60-year-old retired drag queen regaling tales of my drunken, drugged up, sexy-filled sleepless nights to the twinks of the new Grindr generation.
The New York gay scene has changed dramatically over the years. Since moving to New York in 2001, I’ve seen so many great nightspots come and go. These days, all you have to do is pick up a copy of the current week’s Next Magazine [the New York equivalent of QX] and there is literally a map with every gay bar in Manhattan. You can plan your entire evening before you’ve even left the apartment.
The New York gay scene is divided by neighborhoods: West Village leather daddies, Chelsea gym bunnies, Upper East Side ‘cougays’. Midtown Hell’s Kitchen theater queens and East Village party monsters. There was a time when gay men and women never left their respected neighborhood. Yes, it is possible for a Midtown theatre queen to stand out like a sore thumb in a West Village leather bar.
Nowadays mixtures of all different types of gays are mingling amongst each other. Which I absolutely love! I mean, isn’t that what being gay is all about? It was my understanding that we all came to this island to be with people who are just like us!
One party that started this trend was Mr. Blacks, a place where a Wall Street Banker can lock lips with a gogo boy in a dark corner. That party was later replaced by the F-Word at SPLASH, which is the only remaining full time gay club in New York.
F-Word and Musical Mondays are its most popular parties. The club is two floors, a dance floor upstairs and lounge downstairs. Both floors have gorgeous bartenders in nothing but underwear serving drinks all night. One of the more scandalous features are the showers in the lounge, which are usually occupied by the club employees to provide entertainment for the bar patrons. I was fortunate enough to experience the showers first hand with my boyfriend at the time. A dear friend of mine was bartending and said he wanted to see my boyfriend and I strip to our underwear and put on a show for the folks in the lounge. It’s a moment my friends will never let me live down.
It’s always good to be friendly with the host or bartender. Skipping the cover charge and a free drink here and there is helpful in today’s economy. However, some queens get a little greedy. Word to the wise, don’t bite the hand that feeds you, or gets you drunk. A party host or bartender can also get you banned from anywhere.
Where I choose to spend my Friday and Saturday nights usually depends on my mood. Sometimes I feel like keeping it low-key, bar hopping through Chelsea or Hells Kitchen. Every now and then, I get in the mood for some East Village nastiness, but it’s all just cheeky fun.
Depending on what your work schedule is like, and the size of your liver, there’s always a party going on every night of the week. With my 9 to 5 schedule, it’s not easy for me to go out on a Tuesday night and get tanked. But it’s always nice to get a surprised, warm welcome from friends when you’re out and about on a school night.
There are certain bars I just tend to stay away from. Not because they’re bad places, I just don’t have anything in common with the other bar patrons. So don’t look for me amongst a crowd of cougays, leather daddies or gym bunnies with a vodka tonic in one hand a protein shake in the other.
