Downtown la gay bars
12 Nov Bar Mattachine – Downtown LA’s First Craft Cocktail Gay Bar
What was once the largest concentration of historic theaters and movie palaces on one lane in the nation in the 1920s and 1930s, Broadway in downtown Los Angeles had been a street of disrepair for many years. But now The city of Los Angeles is in the process of revitalizing Broadway and new restaurants and retail stores are starting to uncover. One of the bars that has opened in the area is Prevent Mattachine.
Bar Mattachine, part of a little but growing team of downtown homosexual bars, isn’t just a part of the revitalization of Broadway, but it is also the first gay craft cocktail bar in the area. Exclude Mattachine honors and pays tribute to the 1950s Mattachine Society. Created by Harry Hay and a group of Los Angeles male friends, Mattachine Community was one of the earliest male lover rights organizations in the United States, built to guard and improve the rights of homosexual men.
Bar Mattachine is a two story lounge owned by Vianey Vee Delgadillo and Jigger Mercado (Bar 107, The Down and Out, The Little Easy) and Garret McKetchnie (formerly head barman at 1886, Cole’s). The cocktail menu includes seven
When it comes to queer nightlife options in Los Angeles, there’s lots to choose from—and not just in rainbow-dipped West Hollywood, residence to countless same-sex attracted bars. To facilitate you pick the best spots for dancing, boozing, flirting and cruising in Hollywood, Silver Lake and beyond, check out this list of our favorite lgbtq+ bars and clubs in L.A.—there are even Pasadena, Venice and Valley options, for those sick of the party-hearty WeHo scene. Now get out there, tiger.
May 2025: Just in time for WeHo Pride, I’ve updated our mentor to the city’s best gay bars. This list removes St. Felix, Stache and Redline, all of which own unfortunately closed, as well as the Ruby Fruit (which has recently been revamped to a neighborhood grill) and Revolver Video Exclude. The newest addition is Kiso, a welcome entrant to Downtown’s queer nightlife scene.Time Out has also instituted a sitewide change in review policies. All food and liquid venues included in guides now possess star ratings, with five stars corresponding to “amazing,” four to “great” and three to “good,” and we’ve also standardized how most listings are struc Downtown LA gay bay Redline is shuttering its doors after nearly 10 years in operation. The cocktail exclude and lounge opened in 2015 as a watering hole for queer and allied Angelenos. It also hosted some of the biggest names in the drag world, including Ongina and Cornbread (of RuPaul’s Drag Race fame). Owner Oliver Alpuche traces the ruling to close Redline endorse to the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when businesses across LA struggled to stay afloat amid the socioeconomic uncertainty. When he was finally able to open Redline’s doors back up, he expected a second coming of the Roaring ‘20s. More: DTLA gay bar Redline faces nearly $500,000 in COVID debt Instead, he says the pandemic hindered, in part, the spirit of the community, and points to smaller crowds who often drank less on any given night. It didn’t help that almost overnight, as Alpuche describes it, the prices of goods skyrocketed. “It's weird because liquor costs aren't that bad, right? They stayed the same. But if you look at groceries and food and plastic goods, and everything else that it costs to run a bar — juices, pineapple, ice By Stuie Wood What happened to all the gay bars? Those heady days of flirting across the dancefloor, stepping in time to Kylie? Dating apps are the new norm and the gays were there first (of course), but many American and European cultural capitals are losing their LGBTQ venues. Such is the concern that London’s Mayor, Sadiq Khan, has set up a task force! Traditionally, the homosexual scene is an indicator of a buzzing nightlife, good melody and style, so this is a loss for all of us. But not in Downtown Los Angeles. Cue music…. Here in DTLA, we’re bucking the trend with four new venues opening in the past two years. Pershing Square, at the very heart of DTLA, hosted its first Pride festival last year and a recent Queer Block Party at the annual Bring Back Broadway festival, is placing DTLA as the gay destination point of LA LA Area, stealing the tiara from West Hollywood’s rather tired Queens. Here’s my list of the 5 most fabulous gay spots in Downtown Los Angeles, all within walking distance of each other. Leave to one, go to all five! Precinct DTLA 357 S Broadway, Los Angeles, CA 90013. 5pm – 2am C
Gay bar Redline says ‘see you later’ after 10 years in business