Bar Time
Whether it’s heading into downtown Minneapolis or venturing out into St. Paul for the night, a bar is out there for you. The bar scene in Minneapolis is diverse enough to give you a night you want, no matter what kind of night you want.
While most bars and clubs in the area don’t care whether you’re gay or straight, sometimes you just want to go where nobody gives you a strange look when you tell them your favorite drink is an electric color, where you can hit on people and not wonder whether there’s even a possibility of anything happening.
But the Twin Cities gay and lesbian bars are more than just a place to get great drinks and meet new people there’s always something to see. Bars in the Cities go out of their way to provide theme nights, special events, and shows for everyone to enjoy.
For the holidays, there’s no place like the gay bars, and you don’t even have to click your heels together three times to get there, but you can if you want to. Pride can be one big party if you follow the events schedules laid out by the bars. Each GLBT bar goes out of its way to create a fun, welcoming environment for Pride-goers.
Although it doesn’t rank up there with Christmas, Halloween is an unofficial gay holiday that’s celebrated in spades. Whether you’re a participant in the costume frivolity, or a plain-dressed voyeur, there is always something to see at the end of October, and you can bet it will have some element of glamour to it.
Don’t feel like waiting for special occasions to leave the house and head to the GLBT watering holes? How about happy hour? Every day is a holiday celebrated with inexpensive drinks and gaggles of people lining up at the bars. Coming from all walks of life, you’re just as likely to find the stock boy from Macy’s as you are to find some board member from Target. Nothing brings the masses together quite like a stiff drink at the end of a long day.
These bars know how to have a good time. Most of them have been around for a while and have seen their fair share of history. That’s not to say they necessarily aim for older crowds, but that these bars have become institutions in the GLBT community. Though the names of the bars may stay the same, as well as the locations, these purveyors of party favors are constantly improving, and getting face-lifts to keep things modern and fun.
Special events help draw different kinds of crowds. 18-plus nights let younger members of the community come in and dance to their hearts’ content, while beer busts let you remember why you love drinking so much in the first place. GLBT entertainment acts such as shows, comedy acts, and concerts frequently make their way across the bar scene and are widely loved by bar-goers.
Theme nights such as show tunes nights and ’80s music nights provide a great reasons to get to the bars and veg out in front of their TVs.
Gay bars are mainly about two things: drinking and entertaining. While the gay bars in town definitely offer a lot of bang for your buck in the drink department, they’re also providing some of the most fun entertainment any night of the week.
The drag show is a gay institution. Twin City gay bars know this, and are happy to provide a venue for everyone from the experienced drag queens to the drag duchesses just making their debuts. Even straight people will take a walk on the wild side to come in and see the kings and queens strut their stuff, and sync their lips to the greatest divas and crooners.
The plain fact is that if you’re looking to have a good time, you head to the gay bars. The bars themselves only shine in comparison to the people who visit them. In the end, a bar may be able to provide the atmosphere, but it’s the people who go there who give the bar its soul.
Don’t believe me? Head out any night of the week, and make a loop around the different rooms of the closest gay bar. Give it a good run-around, and make sure you see everyone. Note they’re all having a great time, that dancing to the music, striking up conversations with other bar patrons, or finding something to be happy about. This is what being in a GLBT bar is all about.
