Dani’s Queer Bar

Cathedral Station is a sports bar and pub that welcomes everyone of all identities. There's a bar area, dining area, an entertainment space complete with pool table and dart boards, and an outdoor patio that's always a popular place to relax between games. The bar serves everything from beers to delicious and cheap cocktails, and the kitchen produced classic pub, as well as a more adventurous brunch menu and a range of evening nibbles.

Trophy room serves classic gastro-pub style food alongside a range of craft beers and creative cocktails from an award-winning menu. Its ambience is perfect for both an intimate date night or a night on the town with your friends and tucked away in the heart of the South End, it's one of the few bars in the area open till late. A mixed crowd of locals and tourists makes this a super vibrant and inclusive place to spend your night.

Jacque's Cabaret is a slightly offbeat and quirky bar that specialises in flamboyant drag and cabaret. It has dive vibes and is one of the lesser known gay hangouts in the area, having not changed much over the years and kept its traditional and rough around the edges charm. Jacques hosts outstanding low-budget drag shows every night that are reliably popular, so much so that reservations are a must on weekends.

Midway Café isn’t an LGBTQ+ bar every night, but Thursday’s Queeraoke has become a Boston queer institution in its own right. Running for well over 15 years, the weekly night mixes karaoke with bursts of pop, house, dancehall, hip-hop and electronic music, creating something much closer to a queer party than a conventional singalong. The Jamaica Plain location is well away from the South End bars, reflecting how spread out Boston’s LGBTQ+ scene really is. It attracts a particularly broad crowd of queer women, gay men, trans and non-binary locals, with an alternative, friendly and distinctly neighbourhood feel. Outside Thursdays, Midway remains an independent live-music bar with an eclectic programme.

Boston waited a long time for a dedicated sapphic bar, and Dani’s Queer Bar has quickly become one of the city’s most important LGBTQ+ spaces. Created specifically for queer women, trans and non-binary people while welcoming the wider community, it combines cocktails and Brazilian-inspired food with drag brunches, karaoke, bingo and busy Friday and Saturday parties. The Back Bay location puts Dani’s within walking distance of Club Café and the South End nightlife, although there isn’t a traditional gay-bar strip in Boston. Expect a younger, genuinely mixed queer crowd, with sapphic visitors particularly well represented and the atmosphere shifting from neighbourhood bar earlier on to dancing and DJs later.

Drawdown Brewing offers a refreshingly different kind of LGBTQ+ night out. This small Jamaica Plain brewery puts women’s sports, soccer and LGBTQ+ programming at the heart of its TVs and events calendar, alongside its own locally brewed beers and plenty of non-alcoholic choices. Boston Gaymers socials, themed bingo and major women’s sports watch parties regularly appear on the schedule. The Egleston Square location is away from Boston’s traditional South End gay venues, giving Drawdown a much more neighbourhood feel. Expect queer women, LGBTQ+ sports fans, local regulars and friends gathering for a pint rather than a late-night club. There’s outdoor seating when the weather cooperates, and Stony Brook and Green Street Orange Line stations are both nearby.