Worst Fears Confirmed: BeBar is GAY!

We stopped by BeBar on its opening night (our invitation to the VIP pre-opening on Thursday night must have gotten lost in the e-mail). I can report that the fear-mongers were right about one thing: It is indeed a gay bar.

The clientele: A very high twink quotient—kinda JR’s East. Probably 90% of the crowd were in their twenties or early thirties; we probably raised the median age by at least five years when we walked in the door. Almost totally male—a few women were interspersed about, looking a little nervous. Overwhelmingly white—I’d say 95%.

Bartending: The bartenders were young, handsome, and pretty frazzled. I elbowed my way up to the bar and after five or ten minutes managed to make eye contact with one of them and ordered a classic martini for me and a beer for my partner. The bartender said that the olives “hadn’t been delivered.” I said, okay, how about a twist or an onion. No dice for that either. [Comment: There’s a 24-hour Giant across the street, for cryin’ out loud. They sell olives.] The beer choice was pretty minimal—had to settle for a Bud; which seems pretty lame. The tariff was $13, which, amazingly, is fairly standard these days. From what I could see, BeBar seems to specialize in sweet drinks the color of kiddie watertoys that are served in martini glasses.

Décor: Eclectic self-conscious hip. The place is a long, fairly narrow space with a bar that extends along most of one side. There’s a long banquette with lots of cushions along the opposite wall, with small tables (in ironic styles) in front and a few chairs and stools that probably came from Design Within Reach—you know, the Phillippe Starke “Ghost” Louis XVI armchair, acrylic stools, etc. On the tables, there were large flower bouquets in big vases with doomed live goldfish swimming around in them. There’s a set of some kind of antlers on one wall and enigmatic, ironic cartoons are projected on the wall above the banquette. On the ceiling, there are translucent acrylic panels covering colored lights that run the length of the space. A raised section at the rear is for a dance floor, but no one was dancing while we here there. Pulsating techno music makes conversation difficult, but most of the guys just seemed to be checking out each other rather than talking anyway.

Overall: We’re certainly not the target demographic, but BeBar is a pretty classy addition to the neighborhood, and it will bring some life to an area that has been mostly deserted after dark. So wilkommen, bienvenu, welcome!

Well, the dogs needed walking, so we finished our drinks and left about 11:30. No protesters had gathered (of course, it was pouring rain), and the sky had not fallen.