Of note, LGBT-owned Mexican restaurant Mingo Kitchen & Lounge from Mingo Collaso closed last week in the Arts District.
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Johns, who reopened Atomic Liquors six years ago in Downtown Las Vegas, says one of the new outlets is a personal project, and none of the new locations plan to be exclusively LGBT. One space is rumored to become an Atomic Liquors brewery. He tells the paper he plans to open four new food-and-beverage businesses in the spaces with the first opening by the end of the year. The Arts District bar, which went through a renovation in 2015 and converted to Bastille on 3rd from Snick’s Place, originally opened in 1976.įour months ago, Lance Johns of Atomic Liquors fame purchased the Bastille along with three other businesses on Third Street for $1.35 million, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The notion of being in exile perfectly embodies the queer experience with its transgression and embrace of otherness.LGBT-friendly dive bar Bastille on 3rd, one of the oldest gay bars in Las Vegas, closed on Sunday. Lafitte, as a pirate too, was frequently in exile. Guests dressed up as famous figures in exile such as Napoleon and Oscar Wilde to commemorate its reopening. Later, I learnt that this was the original location of the bar, before 1953, when conflict with the landlord, ironically, exiled the bar down the block to where it is now. The building was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1970. He soon opened a second cafe at the other end of the same block named Café Lafitte in Exile, which maintains that it is the oldest gay bar in the U.S. As I walked to Cafe Lafitte in Exile, an archaic bar called Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop caught my eye. However, Caplinger never held clear title to the property and the building was sold in 1953. Established in 1933, the bar is one of the oldest gay bars to be operating continuously in US history. That said, the bar cannot simply be reduced to the licentiousness of Bourbon. Lestat forms an intimate relationship with a musician boy who ‘allowed’ Lestat to feed on him while he slept. She describes Lestat sucking Louis’ blood in rich erotic detail, as they hear the throbbing of each other’s hearts. Anne Rice’s novel draws from this licentiousness. Still, the licentiousness and unruly decadence of Bourbon is a significant aspect of the city. Although it was the early afternoon, the street was grimy and brimming with partying tourists. To approach the bar, I walked down the infamous Bourbon street.
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The first of these bars was called “Cafe Lafitte in Exile,” named after the notorious French pirate Jean Lafitte. Instead, I was particularly interested in two gay bars – sites of queer socializing and organizing. Hotel Monteleone, where Truman Capote lived, whose large sign towers over the French Quarter, and the house of Tennesse Williams were literary landmarks that we will probably visit as a group later in the trip. To better understand the queer history of New Orleans, I looked into important landmarks in the city, and marked them virtually on my map. Walking through the city, I have even been greeted by strangers with the ‘limp-wrist,’ signal for queerness. The flags are peppered throughout the city in balconies, bars, and storefronts they are anticipating pride month (June). There is no shortage of queer visibility in New Orleans, especially in this time of the year. If you are looking for some of the top gay bars in New Orleans, Cafe Lafitte in Exile is a good place to start.
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Anne Streets, affectionately known as the ‘pink strip’. So, over the past few days, in my exploration of the city, I have tried to unravel the city’s unique queerness particularly, in the French Quarter.Īs I gaze out of the window of my room on the fifth floor of Hotel Lafayette, the first thing that grabs my attention is a pride flag hanging from the window of a building, a block away from where we’re staying. Most gay life is centered around New Orleans’ ber-charming French Quarter, with the main activity happening at the crossroads of Bourbon and St. While I do not know Rice’s exact intentions with this queer-coding, the quote suggests that the queerness of her vampires moves past just individuals such as Lestat it is “something beyond,” that seems to be submerged in the culture of New Orleans.
#Oldest gay bar new orleans movie#
My first thought, as I reached the last page was: “Wow, this book is so queer!” As someone who identifies as queer, I was vaguely aware of the cult following that the movie adaptation of this book had gathered within gay communities, but I had not anticipated queerness being so explicit in the book. On the third day of my stay at New Orleans, I finished reading Anne Rice’s “Interview with a Vampire” at 2 am, in bed.