New York City Gay Bars & Clubs

Bowery Bar (or B Bar as it is oft-referred), with its attractive, media-savvy clientele isn't particularly straight any night of the week, bringing in everyone from standard-issue Sex in the City wannabes to outright celebs like Gwyneth Paltrow, Matt Damon, Rupert Everett and Sir Ian McKellen. On Tuesday nights, however, the bar and its outdoor patio are filled to the gills with preppy boys climbing up from the depths of the East Village, and Chelsea muscle boys slumming it in a club without a cover. Not much dancing, and despite the square yardage, not much standing room either. There is, however, lots of eye candy, lots of posing and lots of stolen glances. Drag yourself there, wonder why you did the next day, and repeat until you are a true New Yorker.

If you're looking for hi-NRG dance mixes, club queens and all-night raves, look elsewhere. The Boiler Room, which for years has been a fixture on the East Village bar crawl, is all about rock. When the Breeders-meets-Missy Elliot jukebox isn't throwing out alterna-hits to pool playing alterna-boys, a DJ is remixing Led Zeppelin with David Bowie. No dancing, plenty of glancing.

In the ever-gentrifying East Village, the Cock remains one of the lone enclaves of those down-and-dirty days when fashion didn't matter nearly as much as passion. Cruisy, dirty and often raided by police, the Cock features live nude dancers, a seedy back room and lots of sweaty hunks looking for a little action. Despite the nominal cover charge, the Cock manages to pack the house nearly every night and has become ground zero for those wishing to escape the attitude of the increasingly upscale neighborhood bars.

Ladies often bemoan the limited number of bars dedicated to the woman-loving woman and with the disproportionate number of boy bars, they have every right to complain. Nevertheless, Meow Mix with its never-got-over-riot-grrrl-grunge is hot nearly every night of the week. Lipstick lesbians and butch drag queens swarm the dance floor or rock on as live acts perform.

The Pyramid Club may not have rioted, but it was the first gay bar in the East Village - now neighborhood - dedicated to queer revelry. The Pyramid also hosts one of the East Village's most popular and long-running parties, 1984, and has no less than two generations dancing to the Pixies, Madonna and Bananarama.

The historic site of the June 1969 riots that marked the beginning of the gay and lesbian liberation movement is still pouring nightly. While the West Village bar is a must-see for any LGBT visitor to the city, the clientele tends to be as, ahem, historic as the bar. A dance floor keeps the younger crowd bumping on the weekends, but Monday night bingo is the bar's most celebrated event.