I’m looking for someplace to spend an evening with my tomboy friend. Have a few drinks, listen to the juke box, talk, laugh, etc. I hear Clark St. north of Foster is the place where the gay women congregate. Where are some good places we can hang out that aren’t too butch or too straight but kinda leaning toward the soft butch/tomboy crowd?
Never mind, my mistake.
Well Peanuthead, there really aren’t a whole lot of choices if you’re looking for places that are mostly for lesbians. The only places that come to mind are T’s Bar and Restaurant and Joie de Vine, which is actually a nice neighborhood wine bar.
T’s is relatively mixed but Sunday afternoon and into the evening in particular can get very heavily populated with the “girls” if you know what I mean. There are also gay men and some neighborhood straight folks as well. It has pretty good bar food and a great outdoor patio so it is popular with everyone in the summer.
Joie de Vine has a more regular female contingent I guess. The thing about it is over the last 20 years the Chicago gay bars have stopped being segregated like they were back in the good (or bad) ol’ days.
Back in the late 80’s/early 90’s, Andersonville started seeing an influx of lesbian couples moving in and renting and then buying homes. By the mid to late 90’s a bunch of the gay boys who lived in Boystown started moving in and buying homes and condos as well. I’ve lived in the area for 20 years and today it is really a mix of gay, lesbian and straight in a way I haven’t really seen in other neighborhoods in the city.
I know almost any night of the week I can walk into any number of ostensibly “straight” bars in the neighborhood and see gay couples, straight couples or lesbian couples hanging out and enjoying each others company. Not something you are all that likely to see in Boystown frankly.
And don’t be fooled by the name - Big Chicks is a boy bar.
Carol’s on N. Clark is a mostly lesbian country bar that’s in Uptown and not quite in Andersonville.
I know Carol’s from way back when it was just a good ol’ boys place. Haven’t been there in years. Didn’t know it changed. Thanks.
Well that shows how much I get out these days. The last i knew it was overrun with hipster kids who used to hangout at Lakeview Lounge before it closed.
It could be. I haven’t been by there myself in a long while.