gaypartyblog.com gay nightlife scene

I am loosing my mind (just like that Leona Lewis song) because I could have sworn I made a post about Chicago a few years back when I visited the great city back when Madonna had her Confessions tour. I looked and searched all over my site to try to remember what clubs to goto again and realized that this blog has only been around since October 2006 and that there was no way I had made a post about June 2006. So as you can imagine I had to do lots of searching online and asking around the best places to go in Chicago.

Not much has changed dramatically since we first went in 2006 to see Madonna . The neighborhood of Boystown located in the Lakeview area is still kept well and full of gay or gay friendly life. There was a community center built that houses the Whole Foods market which is highly convenient.

The largest and most well known gay area in Chicago is located in what some call Boystown. Some know it from the Boystownlive.com radio station which plays some of the best music you can find with these online stations (and it’s free). The real address is the Lakeview area located just a minute from Wrigley Field home to the Cubs. This makes it harder to book hotels in the gay district since there is always some type of sporting event close by.

One of my favorite things to do in Chicago is rent bikes down Lincoln Park with the view of Lake Michigan and the many hotties roaming the beaches. If you ride down to the Bryn Mar exit off Lake Shore Drive just before the Hollywood area you will find the Gay Beach also called Hollywood Beach or Kathy Osterman Beach
(5800 S Lake Shore Dr). There are so many things to do on a beautiful day along the beach including tennis, bike riding, rollerblading, sunbathing, swimming, volleyball, well ok just about everything.

There are so many great places to eat in Boystown. If you like good home cookin’, homestyle spaghetti, and Mexican food then Chicago has it all including some of the worlds best pizza.

The hotels near Boystown are City Suites Hotel over on Belmont and Halsted, Best Western off Broadway, Majestic, Abbott, and a Days Inn not too far off. The Best Western Hawthorne Terrace seemed like the best hotel for the area if you do not mind it being sold out most of the time or paying a little more for a room than your average hotel. This hotel is located in a perfect area off of 3434 Broadway Avenue and is a few blocks from Charlie’s and a walkable distance from Roscoe’s and anything you can imagine to eat or do. You get free Wifi (very slow connection) and no room service but you can go down the street to the Melrose 24 hour diner and order those drunken munchies.

Nightlife

If you need to know what to do every night while you are in Chicago the best guide I found was at chicagopride.com/calendar which breaks it down every night and seemed updated frequently. I actually had a link before that was a great source located at boystownchicago.com but the link I had was broken to the 21 under page. If you are under 21 and are looking for an 18 to enter club then you are mostly out of luck in Chicago. I could not find anything for 18 year olds in the Boystown area and did not even see any information on the Fag Frat website that used to have a updated calendar for that. It seems the Fratboy Fridays and the Wild Thursdays parties must not be going on anymore because I could get no good information on them.

It was hard to find a drag show in this town. Not that I am a drag queen groupie haha… It would be nice to see some drama queen performances . We did stop into Amigo night at a club called Circuit where we saw a few queens performing but it wasn’t dance music I was desiring. I did enjoy the Selena song though. We never did track down Miss Foozie this trip but sure saw her a few years ago and loved taking fun pics with her.

Here is my breakdown for the Chicago Club Scene:

THURS / FRI / SAT - Berlin had a great crowd located over on Belmont it was several blocks walk from Roscoe’s but on the same street as Spin. This was a cool atmosphere with club kids and some boys that looked like Boy George. An alternative setting that played some kick ass music. The site is berlinchicago.com/berlin.htm.

FRI / SAT / SUN - Roscoe’s - If I were to call this a bar I would make it my favorite bar in the US just under the Abbey in Los Angeles. Although I am not sure some would call it a bar because it has a reasonable dance floor so does it fall in that category? I would not make it my favorite club because it is way smaller than what im used to and I feel kind of claustrophobic inside there walking around and bumping into everyone. The music was great in the dance room and in the video bar room. The outdoor patio is a nice place to relax. Sunday nights are packed early in the night from 5pm to 10pm for Male Call with Miss Foozie.

Sidetracks is a multi-level bar that features show tunes nights and good drinks. You will find Sidetracks next door to the MiniBar which really is a micro-sized bar with a long narrow path but with a bumpin’ dj whom is even friendly. The drinks seemed small and pricey but hey they gotta pay that high Chicago lease. If you walk down the street you will find Hydrate which is more exciting on the outside than the inside with the water show they have outdoors. Hydrate is a small sized club that I thought was even smaller until I realized that part of it was not a mirror. I think with the large gay population in Chicago that a much bigger club is needed…

Crowbar hosts a Sunday night party weekly that I heard were only good on holiday weekends. Crobar is located at 1543 N. Kingsbury and more info is at crowbar.com.

Afterhours in Chicago was my favorite thing to do because it was the only place I felt I could dance (since I could not maneuver to the Roscoe’s dance floor). Charlie’s (3726 N Broadway St / CharliesChicago.com) which is where the afterhours begins has the best lighting, sound, and nitrogen pumping down from the ceiling. This is by far the best club in Chicago open all weekend long and even masks itself as a Country bar during the early hours of the night. The only annoying thing was the text message screens and the long lines for the bathroom. You could drink and that was delightful to keep going after Vodka Redbulls after 2am! Groovin’ music and boxes to dance on until the wee hours of the 5am morning.

The best times of the year to check out Boystown Chicago are during some of the big events such as Halsted Market Days, Halloween street party, and Gay Pride. Market Days is held the second week in August on Halsted from Belmont to Addison streets.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 27th, 2008 at 11:17 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.