That Place

I used to preform there back in my days

I read the other reviews from Unilocal!and other Internet spots. So, I went there with much trepidation. But it’s the only gay bar within an hour from where I was staying. So I went with my fiancé and my sister.
I live in New York City and know dive bars. We walked in and were pleasantly surprised. It was clean, pretty decently decorated, and crowded. The crowd may have been due to a drag show that was going on. I was getting the impression this is not a usual event there.
So here’s my pros and cons:
Pros:
1) Nice place, comfortable, lots of room even with it being crowded due to the drag show.
2) cheap drinks. My sister, my fiancé and I ordered a total of 9 drinks (2 non-​alcoholic as I was the designated driver) and paid less than $ 35 including tips (mind you that 6 of the 7 alcoholic drinks were beer), but for this New Yorker, that’s still a damn good bargain.
Cons:
1) My one drink was a rum and coke. It was somewhat watered down. But the two sodas I got were basically ice with a splash of ginger ale. Really? C’mon, I know that you need to make a lot of profit off the drinks, but soft drinks are almost pure profit. beef them up a bit.
2) One of the guys who worked there was just downright rude. (He was topless and selling raffle tickets.) When he approached me to sell me tickets, I had my arm around my fiancé. I asked what they were for… all of them were for local Utica services. Because I couldn’t use them, I was hesitant, but realized that my sister could use them if I won. I told him I’ll get a dollar’s worth. He told me that if I spent more, I could feel him up. Really? REALLY? My fiancé is right there and you’re not all that. Come to think of it, I’m not all that, so I have no idea where this came from. I thought it was tacky, rude, and downright inconsiderate. And the look he shot my man… again, REALLY?
I refused to make that ruin my night so we moved on and had a good time watching the drag show.
(Highlight of the drag show… it was apparent that one of the queens (who came in second) really disliked the winner. So much so that she walked off the stage. I had a great laugh at that. Utica’s version of RuPaul’s Drag Race. Too funny.)
Oh, a stickler that I won’t call a con… the show was on a stage which was nowhere near where the speakers were. These poor queens were lip-​synching to music that was coming from all the way across the dance floor. Invest in some sort of a portable speaker system or something like that… and you may want to get a better DJ. During the queen’s «evening gown» competition, the bar was devoid of music. How silly.
But really at the end, the amount of negative comments I saw online surprised me. Is it the greatest gay bar in the world? Oh dear God no! Is it a great bar considering it’s the only game in town? You bet!

You know… nearly every bar gay or str8 in the world is really only there for one reason… to buy beer and booze. If you want to buy beer and booze here… its fine. If you are looking for a fantasy, meet the man of your dreams, dance til the sun comes up, dream a little dream, re-​live another time, find solace in the company of like-​minded people, visit Oz, get laid, find romance, discover Paris… forget it. This is just another ratty little gay bar in a kind of sad litle city. It is a bar with no real pretensions.
The garden out back is a bit ratty. The inside is a bit ratty. The music is tired as most gay bars go. But that’s what it is. That place. That place where homos and lesbos and their friends and all those in between go so they don’t have to be abused in some local hangout in Otsego County… where they can see another fag and imagine for an evening.
I don’t MIND the place… its a bar. I don’t go there very often… I would rather save my money. I am glad it is there though. It may be important to someone. I’m not knocking it entirely. That wouldn’t go over well anyway.
The bar isn’t their website. Go and see for yourself. It is what is is… and I might add… on a very scary block late at night.
I wish that we didn’t have to be relegated to bars like this and could just BE anywhere we want and with whomever we want. It is generally sad that the religious right and the so called conservative side of this country see more importance and urgency in whether I suck a dick than in poverty, injustice, crime, social inequality, education, the environment, rising costs, inflation, lack of health care, teen suicide, hydro-​fracking, the gulf, and any of thousands of other greater and more important issues.
Oops I was preaching.
Enjoy this bar. Have a beer. Dance. Laugh with friends. Remember it is the straight people who start ALL the wars.