coming to new york? here are the 48 gay bars to know

New York has more gay bars than anywhere else in America, and the genuinely good news is that the map is far bigger than the six blocks of the West Village that most visitors never leave. Half of this list is in Brooklyn and Queens, which is where the scene actually lives now: the drag brunch beating Manhattan is on 30th Avenue in Astoria, and the oldest gay bar in Queens has been open since 1989. Chelsea got its first proper new gay club in years this June. Forty-eight of them, by neighborhood, with a map at the top, and the new arrivals marked.

Last updated: September 18, 2026

the west village

The Stonewall Inn

53 Christopher StreetWest Village

Open seven days, 2pm to 4am on weekdays and 1pm on weekends. Yes, it is the one. Saturday is mostly people who flew in to stand in it, so come on a weeknight for the bingo and the piano instead. They brew their own IPA with Brooklyn Brewery, which is a very 2026 thing for a riot to end up doing.

Julius'

159 West 10th StreetWest Village

There has been a bar on this corner since the mid-19th century, it took the name Julius' around 1930, and by the 1960s it had a gay crowd. Their own site tells that story without once using the word "oldest," which is more restraint than anybody writing about it has ever managed. Cheeseburger. Dark wood. No thesis.

Marie's Crisis

59 Grove StreetWest Village

A basement piano bar where strangers stand shoulder to shoulder and sing show tunes at each other until closing. Cash only, so bring singles for the tip jar unless you want the pianist to remember your face. There is no version of this that is cool and that is exactly the point.

Cubbyhole

281 West 12th StreetWest Village

"The friendly neighborhood bar since 1994," per its own sign, with a ceiling so densely hung with paper lanterns, fish and tat that it functions as insulation. Tiny, so go early. Opens at 4pm most days, 2pm on weekends.

Henrietta Hudson

438 Hudson StreetWest Village

Describes itself as "a queer human bar, built by dykes," which is the most useful door policy ever written. Open Wednesday through Sunday from 6pm. One of a genuinely small number of lesbian bars left in the country, and it did not survive by being precious about who walks in.

Pieces

8 Christopher StreetWest Village

Bills itself as "America's favorite gay dive bar" and opens at 2pm daily, which tells you what kind of afternoon is available to you. Karaoke, drag, a crowd that skews young and loud, and a floor you should not examine closely.

Ty's

114 Christopher StreetWest Village

Opened in 1972, three years after Stonewall, and gay-owned ever since. Small, wood-paneled, no music policy to speak of, and a crowd that skews older and knows each other. Open from 2pm daily, to 4am on weekends. The opposite of a scene, on purpose.

Rockbar

185 Christopher StreetWest Village

Queer rock and roll, all the way west on Christopher. Rock and roll karaoke, drag, and theme nights for bears, leather, fetish and several constituencies you did not know were organized. Two-for-one happy hour daily.

The Duplex

61 Christopher StreetWest Village

A piano bar downstairs, a cabaret theater upstairs and a patio in between, running since 1951 and on Christopher Street since 1989. Open seven days, 4pm to 4am. If Marie's Crisis is the sing-along, this is the one with a stage.

hell's kitchen

Industry

355 West 52nd StreetHell's Kitchen

Open daily 5pm to 4am. A former garage, big enough to lose someone in, with shows starting around 11pm nightly and a different host most evenings. The default answer when a group cannot agree, which is both a compliment and not.

Rise

859 Ninth AvenueHell's Kitchen

Drag brunch on Sundays from 12:15pm, which is aggressive scheduling and they mean it, plus weekly themed nights and concert-style performances through the week. Open until 4am Fridays and Saturdays.

Hardware

697 Tenth AvenueHell's Kitchen

Literally a former hardware store, and they kept enough of the bones for the joke to work. Drag nightly on the stage at the back, a dance room behind that, and a fog machine operated by someone with no regard for your contact lenses.

Flaming Saddles

793 Ninth AvenueHell's Kitchen

Country western saloon near 53rd, bartenders dancing on the bar, line dancing, the whole conceit committed to without irony. Open from 3pm on weekdays and 2pm on weekends. Not everyone's night. Absolutely somebody's.

VERS

714 Ninth AvenueHell's Kitchen

Queer-owned and open since July 2022, between 48th and 49th, and the one on this stretch that is actually about the drink. Proper cocktails, real bar food until 10, happy hour daily until 8. Where you go before the rest of Hell's Kitchen, or instead of it.

Atlas Social Club

753 Ninth AvenueHell's Kitchen

Low-key by Hell's Kitchen standards, which is the appeal. Exposed brick, vintage sporting-club clutter on the walls, good music, two-for-one specials and a lounge at the back where you can actually hear each other.

The Ritz

369 West 46th StreetHell's Kitchen

Where everyone ends up. Two floors, go-go dancers, a dance floor that fills after midnight, and a line out front at 2am often enough that it counts as a landmark.

Posh

405 West 51st StreetHell's Kitchen

An intimate dive open until 4am every night, with a mixed, unbothered crowd and occasional dancing in a space that was not really designed for it. The neighborhood's late option when the bigger rooms get exhausting.

Hush

348 West 52nd StreetHell's Kitchen

A two-story dance space with live drag every night and a different themed party most evenings. Worth knowing which room you are standing in: this is Therapy's old address, taken over in 2021, and it is run by the people behind Boxers and the new Club Rawhide.

9th Avenue Saloon

656 Ninth AvenueHell's Kitchen

The deepest roots of any gay bar on the strip, having been Town & Country and then Cleo's before this. The pandemic shut it and it came back for Pride 2022, popcorn machine intact. Open 3pm to 4am daily, and full of people who just came offstage.

chelsea

Eagle NYC

554 West 28th StreetChelsea

Three floors of leather bar between Tenth and Eleventh, with a roofdeck on the top one, open until 4am, coat check four dollars. Doors at 10pm most nights, 5pm Sundays. If your entire sense of what happens in a place like this comes from watching Miley take a camera crew into one, the actual room is calmer and better dressed than you think.

Boxers

37 West 20th StreetChelsea

"America's gay sports bar," which for years was a punchline and is now just a Sunday. Pool tables, every screen on the game, pizza. The WNBA playoffs in here are a religious observance.

Club Rawhide

250 West 26th StreetChelseanew

The newest room in the city, open since June 12, 2026, and the first proper gay club Chelsea has been given in years: 160 capacity, a no-phones dance floor, a serious sound system and an installation on Chelsea nightlife history by Michael Musto. The name is borrowed from the Rawhide that stood on Eighth Avenue from 1979 to 2012, and it is a tribute rather than a reopening. Run by the Boxers team, who also run Hush, which is the club that took Therapy's old room.

Gym Sportsbar

167 Eighth AvenueChelsea

The city's original gay sports bar, and still the one that feels most like a bar rather than a concept. Every screen on the game, from 4pm on weekdays and 1pm on weekends.

Rebar

225 West 19th StreetChelsea

Open since 2017 and taken over by new owners in 2024, industrial and sleek, with themed nights and drag through the week. The Chelsea room people actually go to now that Barracuda is gone.

g Lounge

225 West 19th StreetChelseaback

Open from 1996, closed, and back since May 2025 under Michael McGrail, the man who opened it the first time. The room now runs a DJ booth and a dance floor at the front, and the calendar is the surprising part: alongside the drag competitions and the international theme nights there are daytime workshops, activism and wellness panels, sober-friendly events, and nights built specifically for trans and non-binary people and for people of color. A Chelsea lounge that reopened as something closer to a community center with a liquor license.

the east village

Nowhere

322 East 14th StreetEast Village

A basement dive that has been there for decades, cheap, dim, and famously without attitude or ageism, which are the two things hardest to find in New York nightlife and cost nothing to provide. Open from 3pm, until 4am most nights.

Club Cumming

505 East 6th StreetEast Village

Opened in 2017 by Alan Cumming and promoter Daniel Nardicio, and it runs like a cabaret that forgot to stop: jazz, burlesque, drag, comedy, the occasional life drawing class. Check the calendar before you go, because the room changes character completely depending on who has it.

Phoenix

447 East 13th StreetEast Village

Calls itself a queer neighborhood bar and means the neighborhood part: a pool table, a jukebox, cheap drinks and no interest in being anybody's destination. Open daily 3pm to 4am, under new ownership since 2024.

Boiler Room

45 Second AvenueEast Village

Note the address. After more than thirty years at 86 East 4th Street the Boiler Room moved in 2024, so half the internet will still send you to an empty storefront. Same bar: a cash-friendly dive with a jukebox, no cover and no dress code.

midtown east

Townhouse

236 East 58th StreetMidtown East

Open since 1989, and the one genuinely grown-up gay bar in the city: a piano bar in the East 50s where the crowd skews well over forty and the martinis arrive cold and stiff. Open from 4pm, to 4am on weekends. Nothing else in New York is trying to be this.

williamsburg

Metropolitan

559 Lorimer StreetWilliamsburg

Open 3pm to 4am, 365 days a year, and has been since 2002, which in Brooklyn years is antiquity. A fireplace in winter, a backyard in summer, and no particular interest in being discovered.

Macri Park

462 Union AvenueWilliamsburg

Metropolitan's sister bar, with a bigger backyard, a patio and drag nights that punch well above the square footage. Open 3pm to 4am every day, and a five minute walk from its sibling if you want to do both.

3 Dollar Bill

260 Meserole StreetEast Williamsburg

Less a bar than a queer nightclub and performance venue with a proper stage, proper sound and a warehouse's worth of room. This is where the party is when the party is too big for a bar.

bushwick and ridgewood

Mood Ring

1260 Myrtle AvenueBushwick

Astrology-themed, founded in 2017, and just marked nine years, which for a Bushwick bar is a geological age. Open from 6pm daily, to 4am Fridays and Saturdays. Dance floor, photo booth, and a crowd that dresses for it.

Happyfun Hideaway

1211 Myrtle AvenueBushwick

The neighborhood bar in its purest form: cheap, no frills, a backyard, reggae on Saturdays and Double Feature Sundays where you get two movies, pizza and a beer. Nobody is performing at anybody here.

Purgatory

675 Central AvenueBushwick

Woman and queer-owned, two floors on the Bushwick side of the Ridgewood border, open from 6pm nightly with happy hour until 8. Programming swings from indie pop to noise rock to drag to stand-up, sometimes in one week.

Nowadays

56-06 Cooper AvenueRidgewood

Not a gay bar, and worth the walk anyway. A 5,000 square foot indoor-outdoor dance club just over the Queens line with a serious safer-space policy, and where a large share of the queer party scene actually spends its weekends. Check who is on before you go.

The Bush

333 Troutman StreetBushwick

A Black lesbian-owned bar that opened in April 2023, from two longtime friends, serving a neighborhood that had nothing like it. Open Wednesday to Saturday from 6pm to 4am and Sunday afternoons, with a proper non-alcoholic list rather than a token one.

Boyfriend Co-op

1157 Myrtle AvenueBushwicknew

The city's first cooperatively owned lesbian bar, open since April 2025. Coffee and co-working by day, cocktails by night, and the workers own the place and vote on how it runs. Accessible pricing is a stated policy, not a Tuesday special.

park slope and clinton hill

Ginger's

363 Fifth AvenuePark Slope

Sheila Frayne opened it on Saint Patrick's Day in 2000, the pandemic shut it for nineteen months, and it came back on October 28, 2021, which is a sentence a lot of lesbian bars did not get to have. An Irish dive with a pool table and a dog on the average evening.

Good Judy

563 Fifth AvenuePark Slope

A queer bar four blocks down Fifth from Ginger's, so the two of them make an evening. Drag, karaoke, and a back room called the Blue Room. Open from 5pm on weekdays and 3pm on weekends, to 4am Fridays and Saturdays.

C'mon Everybody

325 Franklin AvenueClinton Hill

Queer-owned, open seven nights, and as much a venue as a bar: DJs, live sets, and house cocktails named Lavender Menace and Pink Pony, which tells you the reading level of the room.

Sandy Jack's

683 Fifth AvenueSouth Slope

Keep walking. Ginger's is at 363, Good Judy at 563, and this is at 683, which makes twenty blocks of Fifth Avenue a queer bar crawl you can do without ever getting on a train. Gay-owned, drag and karaoke and trivia and watch parties, almost all of it with no cover, two-for-one from 3 to 7pm every single day, and a backyard that takes dogs. It also works as a mutual aid and organizing room, which is a lot of jobs for one bar on Fifth.

astoria

Albatross

36-19 24th AvenueAstoria

On the corner of 37th Street, a few blocks from the N or W. Karaoke, drag, two-for-one happy hour, and a neighborhood crowd that will absolutely let you sing badly. Open from 5pm weekdays and 3pm weekends, until 4am.

Kween

34-10 30th AvenueAstoria

Opened in 2022 and took the 2026 GLAM Award for best drag brunch in the city, which is a real thing to beat Manhattan at from 30th Avenue. Latin fusion kitchen, bingo, karaoke, go-go boys. Bar from 4pm weekdays and noon on weekends.

Icon

31-84 33rd StreetAstoria

Up the street from the Broadway N and W, which is the entire pitch: a proper club with proper DJs and a weekly drag lineup, for everyone in Queens who would rather not do the hour into Manhattan and the hour back. 5pm to 4am, 3pm on Sundays.

jackson heights

Friend's Tavern

78-11 Roosevelt AvenueJackson Heights

Open since 1989 and the oldest operating gay bar in Queens, built by and for the borough's Latino LGBTQ community, run by Eddie Valentin and Casimiro Villa. In 2021 they bought the building, which is the only way a bar like this gets to keep existing. Go on a night with music.

Hombres Lounge

85-28 37th AvenueJackson Heights

On the 37th Avenue strip since 2010, open 4pm to 4am every day of the week, with a kitchen doing tacos and quesadillas until late. Karaoke, themed dance nights, and a Friday and Saturday that go properly off.

gone too soon

Three rooms in eighteen months. They are here because a guide that only tells you where to go is half a guide, and because people still look for these by name.

The Rosemont, 63 Montrose Avenue, East Williamsburg. Went dark in September 2026 after nearly a decade of drag shows and sweaty late nights, and told Time Out it would likely not reopen in a permanent space. A closing party was being planned at the time of writing.

Barracuda, 275 West 22nd Street, Chelsea. Closed in March 2025 after twenty-nine years and roughly ten thousand drag shows. If you ever did a Tuesday there you know exactly what the room smelled like.

Therapy, 348 West 52nd Street, Hell's Kitchen. Closed in 2020. The owner said operating at half capacity would not cover costs and a club called Hush took the space. It is still on most of the guides, which is its own small tragedy: a bar can close and keep getting recommended for six years and nobody notices.

The bars are not a backdrop. They are the last physical infrastructure a lot of people have, and the ones still standing are standing because somebody bought the building, or begged the landlord, or reopened after nineteen months dark with no guarantee anyone would come back. Go to one on a Tuesday, when they need you, and buy the second round. If you are drinking at home instead, we keep a list of queer-owned brands worth pouring. If Chicago is the next trip, we did that city too, all 34 of them.

Hours and addresses change, and New York bars close faster than anybody can publish. Call ahead if you are traveling for it, and if we have something wrong or a bar we missed, tell us and we will fix it with a date on it.