New York City / Lesbian bars
Lesbian Bars in NYC:
All Six, and the Nights That Fill the Gaps
Six dedicated bars. Four are in Brooklyn. Three did not exist four years ago.
Three of the six dedicated bars publish a happy hour — Cubbyhole daily 4–7pm, Henrietta Hudson 6–8pm, Ginger’s weekdays 5–8pm.
- 6 dedicated bars
- 5 recurring nights
- 3 publish a happy hour
- 3 opened since 2023
New York City has six dedicated lesbian bars with a permanent address you can walk into. Cubbyhole and Henrietta Hudson in the West Village, and Ginger’s, The Bush, BOYFRIEND co-op and Gladys Books & Wine in Brooklyn. That is the honest count, verified venue by venue. Four of the six are in Brooklyn, and three of them did not exist four years ago — The Bush opened in April 2023, the first new lesbian bar in the city in about thirty years, then BOYFRIEND in March 2025 and Gladys that August. When the Lesbian Bar Project launched in October 2020 it found fifteen in the entire United States and exactly three in New York. Below: all six, plus the recurring nights that carry the scene between them, and the rooms where the same crowd ends up.
The short version
- The countSix dedicated lesbian bars with a permanent address. Four of them are in Brooklyn.
- Best happy hourCubbyhole, daily 4–7pm, $5 Dyke Beer. Ginger’s is half off wells Mon–Fri — cash only.
- Only weekly partyMISSTER at The Woods, every Wednesday, 10pm–4am, no cover.
- Still no addressDave’s is Queens’ only lesbian bar and it is still a monthly pop-up, five years in.
- The arcNationally: ~200 in the 1980s → 15 in 2020 → 36 today. NYC bottomed out at three.
At a glance
Whether it is a permanent bar, a recurring night or a room that welcomes the same crowd — and the happy hour where there is one.
| Venue | What it is | Happy hour | Neighborhood | $ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cubbyhole | $5 Dyke Beer, cheap wells | Daily 4–7pm | West Village | $$$ |
| Henrietta Hudson | $7 drinks, $21 pitchers | Wed–Sun 6–8pm | West Village | $$$ |
| Ginger’s Bar | Half off wells and drafts | Mon–Fri 5–8pm | Park Slope | $$$ |
| The Bush | Specials daily (no window) | Wed–Sun 6pm–4am | Bushwick | $$$ |
| BOYFRIEND co-op | No happy hour published | Opens 8am weekdays | Bushwick | $$$ |
| Gladys Books & Wine | No happy hour; no tipping | Daily from 10am | Bed-Stuy | $$$ |
| MISSTER Wednesdays at The Woods | No cover | Wed 10pm–4am | Williamsburg | $$$ |
| Dave’s Lesbian Bar | Monthly pop-ups | Check the calendar | Astoria | $$$ |
| SCUFF Queer Country Dancing | $20 ticket | Wed 8pm | West Village | $$$ |
| Bachata Sáfica at The Bush | $8–$26 (2024 pricing) | Near-monthly | Bushwick | $$$ |
| PAT at Union Pool | Monthly | Thursday, monthly | Williamsburg | $$$ |
| Wilka’s Sports Bar | No happy hour published | Opened Sept 2025 | Lower East Side | $$$ |
| Blazers | No happy hour published | Weekends from noon | Williamsburg | $$$ |
| Athena Keke’s | No happy hour published | Weekdays from 9am | Clinton Hill | $$$ |
| Ligaw | No happy hour published | Tue–Sat from 5pm | Lower East Side | $$$ |
| Metropolitan | No happy hour published | Daily 3pm–4am | Williamsburg | $$$ |
Map: where these 16 spots are
Two in the West Village. Four in Brooklyn, two of them within blocks of each other in Bushwick.
Pins are numbered to match the table above – tap any pin for the detail and directions.
The six dedicated lesbian bars
Permanent addresses, verified one by one. More of the scene in best gay bars in NYC.
Cubbyhole On now
The longest continuously running lesbian bar in Manhattan, open as Cubbyhole since 1994 (and as DT’s Fat Cat from 1987), run by Lisa Menichino, who started there as a bartender. The ceiling is packed with paper lanterns, fish and Christmas lights, there is a jukebox, there is no kitchen, and there is a daily 4–7pm happy hour with $5 Dyke Beer and cheap wells. It opens at 4pm on weekdays and 2pm at weekends, one of very few dedicated rooms with a real afternoon. The honest caveat: the room is genuinely tiny. Before 6pm you can talk; after about 8pm on a Friday you are shoulder to shoulder and spilling onto the sidewalk. Bring cash.
Henrietta Hudson On now
Open since 1991 and the longest-operating venue of its kind in New York, founded by Lisa Cannistraci and Minnie Rivera — and the room where Stonewall-era figure Storme DeLarverie worked the door into her 80s. The happy hour is the only flat-rate one among the dedicated bars: $7 draft beer, house wine and mixed drinks, plus $21 beer pitchers, 6–8pm on every day it is open. Programming rotates nightly — queer jazz, screenings, women’s sports watch parties, karaoke, drag, dance parties. The venue describes itself in its own words as “a queer human bar, built by dykes.” The honest caveat: closed Monday and Tuesday, and nothing starts before 6pm any day. There is no afternoon here.
Ginger’s Bar On now
Brooklyn’s oldest lesbian bar, opened by Sheila Frayne on St Patrick’s Day 2000, with a pool table, a jukebox and a back patio. It closed for 19 months during the pandemic and reopened in October 2021 after a community fundraise; it marked 25 years with a three-day festival in February 2025. Happy hour is half off domestic bottles, drafts and well drinks, Monday to Friday 5–8pm. Monthly Dyke Drag, plus trivia, bingo, karaoke and watch parties. As recently as 2022 it was the only lesbian bar in Brooklyn; there are now three. Two honest caveats: it is cash only, and the happy hour covers bottles, drafts and wells — the cocktail list is not part of it. It is a dive, not a date-night room.
The Bush
The first new dedicated lesbian bar to open in New York City in roughly thirty years — April 2023, from owners Justine LaViolette and Nikke Alleyne, and reported as the only Black-owned lesbian bar in the city. They built it bright and open on purpose; their line was “we’re sick of being in the dark.” The cocktail menu was developed with artist Syan Rose — the Guest Star is mezcal, passion fruit, Aperol and a tajin rim. Recurring nights include T4T Tuesdays and the near-monthly Bachata Sáfica. Weeknights read community; weekends are a full dance room. The honest caveat: “drink specials daily” is advertised with no days and no window published anywhere — ask at the bar rather than planning around it.
bushbk.com · See our Bushwick happy hours
BOYFRIEND co-op
The only lesbian bar in New York you can walk into at eight in the morning, and the city’s first lesbian co-op: a worker-owned cooperative co-founded by Hena Mustafa, Mica Fisher, Nat Risk and Kacey Liebes, financed with support from the Seed Commons network. It ran as a pop-up from summer 2022 and opened its permanent Bushwick space in March 2025. Open 8am to midnight on weekdays and to 2am Friday and Saturday — the longest daily service window of any dedicated lesbian bar in the city. It also hosts Dave’s Lesbian Bar pop-ups and grotto’s Sapphic Sunday Tea Party. The honest caveat: it is a cafe first and a bar second — daytime is laptops and lattes. No happy hour is published.
boyfriend.coop · See our Bushwick happy hours
Gladys Books & Wine
New York’s first Black lesbian-owned bookstore and wine lounge, founded by Tiffany Dockery and opened in late summer 2025 — roughly eight months from idea to doors. Books, coffee, espresso and matcha with reading nooks upstairs; a wine lounge and event space downstairs, running poetry readings, live podcast recordings, author talks, screenings and mixers. Open from 10am seven days, to midnight Friday and Saturday. Dogs and children welcome, free WiFi. It operates a stated no-tipping policy, which the owner frames as community care — worth knowing before you reach for cash. The honest caveat: as of September 2025 reporting the liquor licence was still pending and the room was pouring non-alcoholic wines and teas. Check before you go if wine is the point.
gladysbooksandwine.com · See our Bed-Stuy happy hours
The recurring nights that fill the gaps
Where much of the scene actually lives — weekly, monthly and roving. See best drag shows in NYC.
MISSTER Wednesdays at The Woods
The only genuinely weekly lesbian dance party in New York City — every Wednesday, 10pm to 4am, at The Woods in Williamsburg, no cover. In a scene that runs largely on monthlies, a night you can count on every single week is the single most useful thing on this page. Resident DJ Amber Valentine plus rotating guests across dance, house and hip-hop. The honest caveat: it is a Wednesday and it does not fill until after 11pm, so this is a dance floor rather than a place to hold a conversation — and it is a party at a queer bar, not a lesbian bar. If you want a room you can talk in, start at Cubbyhole or Ginger’s and come here after.
instagram.com · See our Williamsburg happy hours
Dave’s Lesbian Bar
Queens’ only lesbian bar is still a monthly pop-up, five years in. Kristin “Dave” Dausch started running pop-ups in Astoria in 2021, and the project describes itself as a community space, live music venue and mutual aid fund rather than just a bar night — with an annual Battle of the Bands and a Queer Holiday Makers’ Market now in its third year. The primary warm-weather host is Bohemian Hall & Beer Garden; winter dates have run at BOYFRIEND co-op, Bareburger and Xanadu Roller Arts. As of its own 2026 copy, pop-up proceeds and a GoFundMe are still funding a permanent Astoria space. The honest caveat: there is no Dave’s to walk into. Check the calendar before you get on the N.
daveslesbianbar.com · See our Astoria happy hours
SCUFF Queer Country Dancing
Queer line dancing and two-step in the West Village every Wednesday from 8pm, at Playhouse — and the reason it belongs high on this list is that it alternates full parties with dedicated “Beginner Nite” editions for people who have never line danced. Very few recurring nights in this city build in a way for a newcomer to arrive not knowing how to do the thing. Tickets are $20 single, with discounted multi-event Party Passes, and SCUFF also runs a Fall 2026 beginner class series on Tuesdays. Two honest caveats: it is ticketed and it sells out — recent dates have had no door sales — so buy in advance, and it is queer line dancing rather than a lesbian-only party.
scuff.us · See our best drag shows in NYC
Bachata Sáfica at The Bush
A sapphic bachata party with actual beginner lessons before the DJs — optional lessons at 7pm and 7:45pm, then the party — which makes it the rare recurring night where you can arrive not knowing how to dance and leave having learned something. Hosted by Nadia Guevara at The Bush on a near-monthly schedule, with themed editions (the December 2024 one ran as “Dyke the Halls”). It runs in a Bushwick room in a majority Hispanic and Black neighbourhood, which the bar’s owners have said was a deliberate choice. The honest caveat: near-monthly rather than weekly, and ticketed — the pricing on record dates to late 2024, so check the current listing rather than turning up with $8.
bushbk.com · See our Bushwick happy hours
PAT at Union Pool
The long-running monthly house and disco party at Union Pool, organised with DJ JD Samson — a fixture on every sapphic events list in the city, and one of the few nights that has been running long enough to have a crowd that knows each other. Its own framing is “for anyone from anywhere wearing anything and loving who they want,” and it draws a genuinely mixed room. It runs at a bar with a courtyard, a photo booth and a taco truck, which makes it an easier first visit than a club. The honest caveat, stated plainly: it is monthly, not weekly, and it is broadly queer rather than lesbian-specific — it is on the sapphic lists because the crowd is there, not because the party is billed that way.
union-pool.com · See our best outdoor bars in NYC
The women’s sports bars
NYC went from zero to three in about a year. Pair with best sports bars in NYC.
Wilka’s Sports Bar
New York City’s first bar dedicated to women’s sports, soft-opened in early September 2025 on the Bowery by two hospitality-industry friends, Melissa and Lauren. WNBA, women’s soccer, tennis and more on the main screens rather than the small one in the corner, in a room laid out with long tables and booths. Hell Gate found it standing room only during a WNBA playoff game with a crowd about 95% women. The name comes from wilk, Polish for wolf. Two honest caveats: this is a women’s sports bar, not a lesbian bar — it draws the same crowd on game nights and is a different room on a random Tuesday — and no hours are published on their own site.
wilkasnyc.com · See our best sports bars in NYC
Blazers
Brooklyn’s first women-owned sports bar, opened in winter 2026 on Bedford Avenue by three founders — Debany, Caroline and Chandler — who were frustrated by how few New York rooms actually showed women’s sports. WNBA, NWSL, PWHL, college basketball and gymnastics, with a full kitchen and a programme that runs well beyond game days: trivia, bingo, speed dating, book swaps and small business workshops. Open from noon at weekends, 5pm on weekdays, to 1am Friday and Saturday. The honest caveat: a women’s sports bar rather than a lesbian bar — it is here because it is where a lot of the same crowd ends up, not because it bills itself that way.
blazerssportsbar.com · See our Williamsburg happy hours
Athena Keke’s
The only venue on this page that opens at 9am on a weekday — which, if you follow a European league, is the entire reason to know about it. A queer women’s sports bar in Clinton Hill, and the newest of the three women’s sports rooms to open in New York inside roughly a year, alongside Wilka’s and Blazers. Weekend brunch service runs until 3pm both days; the kitchen and bar run to midnight Thursday and Friday. Two honest caveats: it is a queer women’s sports bar rather than a lesbian bar, and no opening date is published anywhere — so treat everything except the posted hours as needing a check before you travel.
Queer-welcoming rooms with the same crowd
Not lesbian bars, and labelled as such — but worth knowing. More in best cocktail bars in NYC.
Ligaw
A Filipino-inspired cocktail bar on Ludlow founded in October 2025 by a married couple, Katrina Sobredilla — named World’s Best Mixologist in 2022 — and her wife Leighann, a pastry chef. The name means “to court, to woo, to wander” in Tagalog, and every item on the menu carries a written note explaining what its name means. The Pineapple Pizza Bun is the signature bite; the house wine is SOULEIL, a female-owned French brand. The honest caveat, and it is why this sits here rather than in the six: this is a serious craft cocktail bar owned by a lesbian couple, not a lesbian bar. Time Out counts it among the city’s sapphic rooms; the venue’s own site sells it as a cocktail bar. We have gone with the venue.
ligawnyc.com · See our best cocktail bars in NYC
Metropolitan
One of Brooklyn’s original gay bars, founded in 2002, open 3pm to 4am every single day of the year — with a large year-round outdoor patio and garden, a private second-floor patio, two fireplaces for winter and free Sunday BBQs from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day with rotating DJs and backyard shows. It hosts Queeraoke every Tuesday, which is where the sapphic crowd reliably turns up. Always 21+. The honest caveat: this is a long-running gay bar that welcomes everyone, not a lesbian bar — the crowd shows up for Queeraoke and the summer backyard rather than by default. Full drag programming in our best drag shows guide.
metropolitanbarny.com · See our best drag shows in NYC
NYC lesbian bars: FAQ
How many lesbian bars are there in NYC?
Six with a permanent address you can walk into, verified venue by venue in August 2026: Cubbyhole and Henrietta Hudson in the West Village, and Ginger’s Bar, The Bush, BOYFRIEND co-op and Gladys Books & Wine in Brooklyn. Published counts differ slightly – the Lesbian Bar Project’s national list carries five NYC bars, and Time Out New York’s June 2026 guide counts seven by including Ligaw, which we have filed as queer-welcoming because the venue’s own site sells itself as a cocktail bar. Dave’s Lesbian Bar in Astoria would make seven, but as of its own 2026 copy it is still fundraising for a permanent space and running as a monthly pop-up.
How many lesbian bars used to exist in the US?
Roughly 200 in the 1980s. The Lesbian Bar Project launched on 28 October 2020 having identified just 15 in the entire United States – and exactly three of those were in New York City: Cubbyhole, Ginger’s and Henrietta Hudson, with Ginger’s closed by the pandemic at the time. The number has since recovered: the project’s list carries 36 nationally in 2026, and an April 2026 survey counts 37 dedicated lesbian and sapphic bars across the country.
Which NYC lesbian bars have a happy hour?
Three of the six. Cubbyhole runs daily 4-7pm with $5 Dyke Beer and cheap well drinks. Henrietta Hudson runs 6-8pm on every day it is open – Wednesday through Sunday – with draft beer, house wine and mixed drinks at $7 and beer pitchers at $21. Ginger’s Bar runs Monday to Friday 5-8pm with half off domestic bottles, drafts and well drinks, and it is cash only. The Bush advertises ’drink specials daily’ but publishes no days or window, and BOYFRIEND co-op and Gladys publish none.
What new lesbian bars have opened in NYC?
Three of the city’s six did not exist four years ago. The Bush opened in Bushwick in April 2023 – the first new dedicated lesbian bar in New York in roughly thirty years – and is reported as the only Black-owned lesbian bar in the city. BOYFRIEND co-op opened its permanent Bushwick space in March 2025 as New York’s first lesbian worker-owned cooperative, after running as a pop-up since summer 2022. Gladys Books & Wine opened in Bed-Stuy in late summer 2025 as the city’s first Black lesbian-owned bookstore and wine lounge. Ligaw, a Filipino-inspired cocktail bar run by a married lesbian couple, opened on the Lower East Side in October 2025.
Where are the recurring lesbian and sapphic nights in NYC?
MISSTER runs every Wednesday at The Woods in Williamsburg, 10pm to 4am with no cover – the only genuinely weekly one. SCUFF runs queer country line dancing at Playhouse in the West Village on Wednesdays at 8pm, $20 a ticket, alternating with beginner nights, and it sells out. Bachata Safica runs near-monthly at The Bush with beginner lessons before the DJs. PAT runs monthly at Union Pool with DJ JD Samson. Dave’s Lesbian Bar runs monthly pop-ups in Astoria, mostly at Bohemian Hall & Beer Garden.
Last updated: August 2026. Prices and hours change – confirm with the venue before you go. Spot something out of date? Let us know.
