Boston to Get Dani's Queer Bar in Near Future
Boston queer nightlife (long on a decline) is getting new life sometime over the next few months with the announcement of the opening of Dani's Queer Bar.
According to local news site Universal Hub, a group called LGBTQ Nightlife Events, which has been running queer nights at local clubs over the last few years, is getting ready to settle down with a permanent home on Boylston Street in the Back Bay.
The story broke in the college newspaper The Simmons Voice, which sourced the story after LGBTQ Nightlife Events posted on their Instagram page in January.
"LGBTQ Nightlife Events really started post-pandemic," Co-Founder Thais Rocha said in an interview with the Voice. "We used to have events prior to that, but they were really all over the place. It was more about having fun and creating space, and then post-pandemic it really became more of a serious matter."
Since it appeared, the Instagram account has more than 6,000 followers.
The group was profiled last November in the Boston Globe (behind a paywall).
Boston currently has no lesbian bar, as existing spaces like Vicki's and Cavana's were shut down decades ago. Queer women and non-binary people looking for love — or just a sense of safety and community — have few options outside of male-dominated spaces like Club Café or Legacy Boston, Rocha told the Globe.
"I am very hopeful for March of this year. We don't want to keep delaying it," Rocha explained to The Simmons Voice about the opening.
The Simmons Voice added that LGBTQ Nightlife Events has made it their mission to open Boston's "first queer bar for women and non-binary LGBTQ+ community members who feel like we have no place."
"All the gay spaces we have now, they're great," said Rocha. "But you look around and all you see is gay men. Which is fine, it's fun, but it's not somewhere you can go and see a sea of people that look like you in one way or another."
While Rocha did not reveal the bar's location, only saying it will be somewhere in the city's Back Bay, Universal Hub revealed that in filing with the state, Dani's Queer Bar lists an address of 907 Boylston St. — the former home of the Pour House.
The Pour House, along with other bars that share a stretch of Boylston Street near Massachusetts Avenue, closed with the pandemic. "Landlord Charles Talanian, who was a part owner of the Pour House, purchased its liquor license through its bankruptcy proceedings," Universal Hub reported.
"Talanian originally planned to lease the space and the liquor license to a group headed by a former Pour House manager, but that deal fell through."
LGBTQ Nightlife Events co-founder Thais Rocha told the Voice she hopes to open the new bar, which would be the 28th lesbian bar in the US, this month. However, she has yet to appear before the licensing board for permission to either buy Talanian's license or for approval of a management agreement under which he would retain the license, but let her use it. The new license would also need approval by the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission.