If you’ve had a Purple already, try their version of a Hurricane. Be careful: just one can knock you on your ass. Have: A VooDoo Daiquiri, aka a “ Purple.” It’s a local favorite. The building, constructed in the French/Spanish colony during the 18th century, is one of the older surviving structures in New Orleans and has been called the oldest structure in the U.S. Stop 1: Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop (941 Bourbon Street)
Backrooms at new orleans gay bars plus#
So let’s start with a bar crawl theme everyone knows and loves, Sunday Funday. Print out this handy map, and come on, y’all! 9pm - midnight Every weekend, join us for a beer bust social on the patio hosted by one of our affiliated clubs - The Lords of Leather, NOLA Pups and Handlers, Renegade Bears, Knights d’Orleans, Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, or Crescent City Leathermen 5 buy-in for all you can drink draft beer plus 1 per refill. Some might call this a more “expected” or stereotypical list of bars in the LGBT community, but don’t fret: we’ll take you down the lesser-known gems of New Orleans gay nightlife throughout the series. For the first crawl, we’re hitting up a few of the most frequently visited and well-known establishments by both locals and tourists alike. We use the term lightly as there are several places we frequent that are not specifically “gay”… and that’s what we love about this city.
Backrooms at new orleans gay bars series#
“It’s like an obscure TV show that just won’t go off.This is part one in our series of “gay” bar crawls through NOLA. When the lease came up, “my landlord wasn’t having it anymore.” So he’s combining operations with another bar he owns, the Hole, on Second Avenue, though he will be renaming it. In the end, though, they were done in by real estate. Giuliani “made us bigger than what we were,” says the owner. Under Bloomberg, enforcement priorities changed.
The backroom got tamed a bit, though smoking did not (still, its only summons was dismissed).
The Cock could afford to fight on because, as one habitué puts it, “the place is like an ATM, it’s busy every night.” The club cozied up with the ninth precinct, and helped rid the corner of drug dealers. “I got in front of the judge,” recalls Sharma, “and basically pointed out that every single citation had been dismissed-so how could they be shut down for nothing?” The court agreed. Then the owner hired a crafty local liquor-law attorney named Ravi Ivan Sharma. By 2000, when the bar was closed for being a public nuisance, it looked like the city had won. Before long, cops and inspectors were swarming the Cock as often as twice a week, ticketing for anything they could find. After all, this was the anti-nightlife Giuliani era. The sordid acts and general carefree air were soon attracting not only horny young men but also plenty of spectacle-seeking celebrities, like Christina Aguilera (brought in by photographer David LaChapelle), not to mention those whom the owner deems the “super gays” (Boy George, George Michael, etc.).īut its popularity also attracted the authorities. It opened in 1998 and quickly became known as the venue for promoter Mario Diaz’s popular Foxy party/ talent show, where “amateur exhibitionism,” as Diaz says, was the only talent. “We’re kind of perceived as a place for misfits more than anything else,” says the Cock’s owner, who asked that his name not be used. But even after being caught up in the late-nineties quality-of-life dragnet, it managed to survive. The grimy, black-walled, low-ceilinged, graffiti’d dive on Avenue A, identified from the street only by a red neon rooster, was almost always packed with sweaty men smoking (long after the ban), dancing, ogling the go-go boys, and, until not too long ago, partaking in a rollicking backroom sex scene. Even-maybe especially-its most loyal patrons have been wondering how it lasted quite that long. Not that this should be much of a surprise. After seven notorious years, the East Village gay bar the Cock crows its last on July 10.