Gay bars st paul mn
The 8 Best Lgbtq+ Bars in Minneapolis St. Paul (Local Picks)
It’s Pride Month! And what improved way to observe than highlighting some of our favorite gay bays around the Twin Cities?
Whether it’s a particular occasion (like this month’s festivities) or just a Tuesday night, here’s my honest local mentor to all the best gay bars around Minneapolis and St. Paul.
Contents
Map of the Best Same-sex attracted Bars in Minneapolis
Gay 90’s
A Minneapolis representative and the epicenter of LGBTQ+ nightlife in Minneapolis, the tagline here has always been “Gay. Straight. Beautiful People. Everyone is welcome to join.” Trial nearly an entire city block of the high-energy sway party vibe (7 different bars spread across 2 floors), the best kingly shows in town, and a party atmosphere you won’t soon forget.
A limited tips from the locals: Drinks are on the spendy side. Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday nights are $5 cover and 18+ so you’ll find a younger crowd and busier bartenders. Verify the calendar for the entertainment and events that rotate through here – some of the best in the Midwest.
The Saloon
One of the oldest queer bars in the city, The Saloo
The Pride Behind Pride
It’s the year 2020. Pride is cancelled. This is very hard to tell out loud. It feels like saying we’re cancelling happiness and progress. Of course, the cancelling of Pride—the festival, the parade, the week when tens of thousands of far-flung LGBTQ peeps come streaming home—represents an act of love to hold people healthy.
But its absence presents us with an opportunity to consider all the profound and crucial local LGBTQ landmarks that built Pride—and often disappeared. Living in a town is complicated. Each of us lives in a unlike Twin Cities: We share the Foshay Tower and the Mississippi, but we go home to different bars and bedrooms.
LGBTQ cultures have, historically, needed to obscure their bars and bedrooms for worry of eviction, firing, imprisonment, or worse. As Ricardo J. Brown put it in his St. Paul memoir, The Evening Crowd at Kirmser’s—one of the best mid-20th century looks at American gay experience—the LGBTQ life was “a ruse that kept all of us safe,” conducted in “a fort in the midst of a savage and hostile population.”
Hiding in forts was useful, essential, necessary. But what was long secret is easy to
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Founded in the 1960s, it was once the oldest same-sex attracted bar in St. Paul, and under new ownership, The Black Hart became a designated soccer exclude for fans of all backgrounds.
This Labor Day weekend, the bar celebrated six years.
Wes Burdine, the owner, celebrated with the bar's weekly Bocce Ball Club.
"In many ways, it's a way of marking how far the bar has come," said Burdine.
Part of their growth is an outdoor patio built last year, allowing even more soccer fans to arrive and cheer on their favorite teams.
"I support Minnesota United, Liverpool FC, St. Pauli, a German Bundesliga team, so we view all of our games here," said David Zeller, who considers himself a Black Hart regular.
He came to The Black Hart for soccer but stuck around for something much more than that.
"I've met a lot of friends. People that I probably never would have interacted with," said Zeller.
In the last six years, the Black Hart has grow home for a lot of sports fans in the Queer community, especially those who want to support women's sports.
Aurora soccer fans gravitate to The Black Hart for away games, and the block shuttles fans to Eagan for home games
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Bar Guides & Maps (Various Locations & Publications)
Specific Nightspots:
236 Club Harrisburg PA
Boom, Minneapolis MN
The Cartwheel, New Hope PA
Casa Lido, Trenton NJ
Checkers, St Paul MN
Club Metro, St Paul MN
The Copa, Ft. Lauderdale FL
CR Bar, Upper Darby PA
Down The Street, Asbury Park NJ
Entertainers Club, Atlantic Capital NJ
Gatsby's, Cherry Hill NJ
I-Beam, Fargo ND
Innuendo, St Paul MN
Key West, Philadelphia PA
Kurt's, Philadelphia PA
Lucy's St Paul MN
The Neptune, Harrisburg PA
New Bar / Rod / Hotel Washington, Madison WI
Over The Rainbow (Jr. & Sr.), St Paul MN
Prelude, New Hope PA
Renaissance, Wilmington DE
Renegade (Club & Resort), Rehoboth Beach DE
Rumors, Dover DE
Rumours, St Paul MN (Later Named Trikkx)
Saratoga, Atlantic City NJ
Studio Six, Atlantic City NJ
Trikkx, St Paul MN (1997 to 2007)
Vermont Gay Bars
More History at drakkar91
This one is near and dear to my heart, since I worked at the venue from 1995 to 2000 and again from 2004 until closing in 2007. I could (