Perfect Name For a Gay Bar.

[Machine_Elf]

@don_t_ask

What’s wrong with Gay Bar. Or, if you want to go all ritzy, The Gay Bar.

Up north in Gay, Michigan, the town bar is called

(wait for it)

The Gay Bar.

Though AFAIK it doesn’t particularly cater to homosexual clientele; it takes all comers.

[Guy_Incognito]

@RivkahChaya

There was a gay bar in my college town called Bullwinkle’s. I have no idea why it was called that. It played loud music, and had a DJ on the weekends (a loop on weekdays), except Tuesdays. Tuesdays were “special” nights that rotated through the month. One night was amateur band night for a while, one night was drag night, one night was amateur DJ night.

Anyway, it had a really good dance floor that dated to the disco era, when it was a general disco bar, which is why it has a superior sound system. It also had pool tables an a pinball machine, and a few sit-down tables, but dancing was the “thing” there. It was so popular for dancing, and the DJ’s apparently so good (I’m not big on dancing), that on Friday and Saturday night a lot of straight couples would go there for the dance floor.

Bullwinkle’s had no food service. It had strong, expensive drinks, a huge variety of beers, and lots of events. EVERYONE in town knew where and what Bullwinkle’s was. Average age of someone in Bullwinkle’s was about 26.

So, about four blocks away, a sedate gay bar opened. No music, unless someone played the vintage jukebox filled with 45s. It served some food. Not meals, but a few appetizers, fries, popcorn, and had nuts on the bars. Served coffees too. Lots of tables and comfortable chairs, booths. No freaky lighting, like the disco ball at Bullwinkle’s. It also had a pool table and a pinball machine, and it also had a shelf with some classic board games (chess, backgammon, decks of cards, etc.) I don’t remember if there was a fee to play them, but the place stayed in business, so the people who hung out obviously didn’t nurse their drinks, or else, ordered lots of food. Average age on someone there was about 35, and the spread was wider.

Name of the second place? “The Other Bar.”

I thought that was the best name of a bar I knew of.

There was also a place in town that hadn’t been open very long when I left, which was aspiring to be a family place for breakfast and for lunch, family in front, bar in back, and after 4, grown-ups only, with alcohol served throughout, and meal service stopped at some point, going to a very limited list of appetizers an sides around 10pm, but serving that until close, which was like, 1am weekdays, 3am Friday & Saturday.

It was gay-owned, and meant to be a very gay-friendly place, but not a strictly gay place, per se. It was called Uncle Elizabeth’s. I heard that Elizabeth was the girlfriend of the owner, but I never confirmed this. Many people who worked there were gay, and it hosted some gay-community events, but it also hosted a lot of general leftist activism-type events. It had a couple of private rooms, and apparently during off-hours, let groups like AA have meetings. It was very determined to establish itself as indispensable to the community.

If I opened a gay bar, I’d be tempted to call it “Last Ten Dollars,” in reference to the song by the lesbian group The 2 Nice Girls, “I Spent My Last $10 on Birth Control and Beer.” I’m not sure if that’s a good name for a bar, though. I would probably suck at owning a bar or a restaurant.

No doubt you’re talking about Bloomington, Indiana!

A little trivia regarding “Bullwinkle’s”: The building that housed Bullwinkle’s used to be a Moose lodge and actually had a carved limestone plaque with a moose on it on the front of the building. The owners decided to call the bar “Bullwinkle’s”, naturally…

[Saintly_Loser]

@Paul_in_Qatar

Do I understand that gay bars are going away? I have not seen any numbers, but I have read people who were very upset that gay bars were less-needed in a new more welcoming epoch.

Here in New York, it’s not so much a more welcoming time that’s killing off gay bars, it’s Grindr.

Although it’s certainly true that a lot (most) of the hardcore backroom places, like the Mineshaft, were shut down by the city in the 80s, a few (the ones that either had actual liquor licenses and weren’t just paying off the authorities or didn’t serve alcohol) managed to hang on for a while.

There’s not much need for back-room bars when instant, anonymous, casual sex is just a swipe away.

Of course, this doesn’t apply to bars that aren’t, and never were, that kind of place. Still plenty of those around.

[bump]

@Machine_Elf

it takes all comers.

<rimshot>

[Master_Wang-Ka]

In the video game “Postal 2,” there is an establishment downtown called “Fire In The Hole.” If you walk in, you will find a number of people dancing, none of whom are female.

[Fiveroptic]

@Roderick_Femm

I’m just loving this thread. Gives lots of folks a chance to exercise their “funny” stereotypes and prejudices without any blowback (so to speak).

Right? Now let’s do bars where black people hang out.

No, it doesn’t really translate, does it? It would be racist as fuck.

So why is this okay? Why is it fine to stereotype people like me and my friends in a thread like this? Frankly, I’m hurt that so many people that I’ve come to truly like are posting away as though nobody they know is LGBT.

[cochrane]

@Fiveroptic

Right? Now let’s do bars where black people hang out.

No, it doesn’t really translate, does it? It would be racist as fuck.

So why is this okay? Why is it fine to stereotype people like me and my friends in a thread like this? Frankly, I’m hurt that so many people that I’ve come to truly like are posting away as though nobody they know is LGBT.

I’m not going to defend my participation in this thread, but if it truly offends you, have you reported it?

[cochrane]

@Machine_Elf

Though AFAIK it doesn’t particularly cater to homosexual clientele; it takes all comers.

ISWYDT x

[HMS_Irruncible]

The Head Office

[Machine_Elf]

Ann Arbor has a gay bar/restaurant called Aut.

[Ann_Hedonia]

It keep it simple and go with DICKS.

NO apostrophe.

[yanceylebeef]

There used to be a bar in Colorado Springs called The Adam’s Apple. They occasionally would have to post on their sign “NOT a gay bar”

[Ludovic]

Similarly there was a bar here called Over the Rainbow. I’m not sure what clientele they had and if it changed at some point and I’m not interested enough to find out, but they’ve changed their name to On the Rocks, which isn’t inconsistent with them being the same bar but tired of being confused with a gay bar.

[panache45]

@Fiveroptic

Right? Now let’s do bars where black people hang out.

No, it doesn’t really translate, does it? It would be racist as fuck.

So why is this okay? Why is it fine to stereotype people like me and my friends in a thread like this? Frankly, I’m hurt that so many people that I’ve come to truly like are posting away as though nobody they know is LGBT.

:rolleyes: I thought we were known for our sense of humor. Guess I was wrong.

[Fiveroptic]

Nah, I’ve got a great sense of humor. I don’t find humor, however, in being mocked by straight people. YMMV

[Saintly_Loser]

@Ann_Hedonia

It keep it simple and go with DICKS.

NO apostrophe.

Sorry, it’s been done.

That was the name of a bar in NYC’s East Village. It closed, as I remember, more than ten years ago. I think it was a casualty of gentrification and high rents.

[Roderick_Femm]

@Fiveroptic

Nah, I’ve got a great sense of humor. I don’t find humor, however, in being mocked by straight people. YMMV

Yeah, me neither.

The amount of cluelessness in this thread reminds me of so many threads (mostly from the past, I am glad to say) where men just didn’t understand what was wrong with (for example) a few tit jokes in a thread about women finding the right bra size.

I have a shocking announcement for anyone who has never been in a gay bar. Are you ready? Sure? OK, here it is:

Most of what goes on in gay bars is socializing, just like any other bar. There is also flirting and other activities that may lead to sex, elsewhere, at some point. Just like any straight bar.

[tripthicket]

@Monty

I’d go with Blue Oyster.

This was to be my intended entry, but being days too late, I can only add a +1.

[Spoons]

In Toronto, back in the 1970s, there was one gay bar that everybody knew about, and it went by the bland name of the “St. Charles Tavern.” It was a popular entry on city-wide scavenger hunts when I did my undergrad–you’d have to get a cocktail napkin bearing its name, to show you’d been there. But there was nothing further from “typical gay bar name” than “St. Charles Tavern.”

As an aside, another popular entry on our scavenger hunts was “what song is number B-5 on the jukebox at Peelers* Strip Club?” By the drawing of straws, I was elected by my team to go into Peelers, and find out. Yay me! But at the door, I was met by the hostess (fully clothed) who said, “Are you on that damn scavenger hunt? Number B-5 is ‘Disco Inferno,’ by the Trammps. Now get out!”

Well, I now had what we needed, so I left. Rather reluctantly, though.

• Fictional name.

[Jasmine]

@Jim_B

Actually, I was thinking and wondering. I think ‘Utopia Planitia’ would be a great name for a gay bar. Does anyone else agree with me?

Perhaps I should give a little background on the name. It is a plain on Mars where the starship Enterprise was constructed in ST:TNG, in the fictional Star Trek universe.

The ship is fictional of course. But the plain on Mars is real. It means ‘Utopia on earth’.

Well, no, I’m afraid I don’t. A person would have to google the term, make the connection between the plain on Mars and its fictional connection to Star Trek, and then somehow connect the term to being Gay. Even after your explanation, I still see nothing in the name that says “Gay” to me.

Perhaps you could argue your case further?

Here’s a thought: How about something concise and direct? ** “Men for Men”**