Wes@Play - Gay Bars - Denver Gay Bars

I visited Denver in November, 2007 mostly to see my boyfriend's dad and partly to celebrate my boyfriend's birthday. At night, however, we roamed freely.

NOTE: If you're hitting the Denver gay bars, be sure to take your ID with you. All bars card, and they won't let you in without one. I think we'll see more of this now that mountain of pimply flesh called Generation Y is hitting drinking age.

Here are my picks in order of preference, although to be fair we didn't hit all of the bars in town.

Denver Eagle - TOP PICK
3600 Blake Street
Denver, CO 80205
303/291-0250
www.denvereagle.com
Easily the best club in Denver is the new Denver Eagle, a huge, two-story converted warehouse cum leather bar in Denver's equivalent of South of Market (industrial, artsy, loft-filled).

The outside of the building is non-descript, but inside they've built a nightclub that manages to be slick without being sissy: it's minimal, clean, and dark in a good way. The pickup truck parked at the entrance makes a perfect spot to peel off chaps, pants, and shirts, which is what we did on their regular Tuesday Underwear Night. There's also a tiny shop up front for toys, rings, lube, and other playthings that doubles as the coatcheck. There's a St. Andrew's cross and a few other "SM-y" objets, but this is not your daddy's dungeon.

The crowd on Tuesday had men for all occasions: muscle bunnies, muscle bears, regular bears, daddies, pretty boys, clingy boys, and those in between. Bartenders are fast, accommodating (translation: they didn't wince when I asked for a dozen cocktail straws to liven up the strands of LEDs jammed down my briefs), and pretty. The last part isn't important to me, but if you can have looks and a matching attitude it's a bonus.

There's a smoking area to the far right past the pool table with space heaters (very good on a 20 degree night in your undies), which was a perfect spot to chat with the locals. We also went on a slow night and spoke to one of the owners——who was there in his underwear along with everyone else on Tuesday—-who says they're planning on expanding the second floor.

We really had a nice time here, and will definitely return on the next trip.

The Wrangler
1700 Logan St.
Denver, CO
303/837-1075
www.denverwrangler.com
The bear bar of Denver's gay scene. Two pool tables, fancy back bar, large front bar, and decent drinks. Packed on the weekends, and among the busiest bars we visited during the week. Tiny outdoor smoking patio out front, which gets strangely crowded. Friendly customers of all shapes, ages, sizes...especially if you're from out of town and dressed in full leather, as we usually are.

We once again forgot where this place was, although it's actually easy to find if you remember that it doesn't front on 17th St. Parking is super easy since there's a big lot next door, although I think it's shared with a hospital. If you like this place, you'll like the Denver Eagle and vice versa. Decent pool players.

Charlie's
900 E. Colfax Ave.
Denver, CO
303/839-8890
We hit country western night by chance, but as we discovered we've pretty much lost all of our two-stepping skills. We actually learned how to two-step here about three years ago, although as with this night there was only one other couple dancing. They have a tented smoking patio now, although it captures and holds the smoke as well as the heat in. The crowd is always a little odd here; some disco bunnies left over from the 80s, blue collar types (including actual cowboys), some twinks, some geeks, some real women. Very friendly bartenders and door guy. No cover, although drinks are pricey.

Denver Detour
551 E. Colfax Ave
Denver, CO
303/861-1497
We didn't realize this was a women's bar. It's a dive and not ashamed of it. The bright spot here is that there are two decent pool tables and they serve food (although we missed it). There's a parking lot in the back and a back entrance, although why you would care if you were spotted here is beyond me since there are huge glass windows looking onto the main street.

Compound is a danceclub and looks a little cleaner, but again we couldn't really go in and look around. Maybe on the next trip.