She says the name “No Bar” is a reference to “No Holds Barred,” as in, “there are no rules here.” That said, it’s a hotel bar adjacent to an upscale restaurant in a gentrified neighborhood in New York, so perhaps the “no rules” part is more of a vibe than a reality. “When she presented the idea, it clicked as a natural progression of our culture of openness and inclusivity.a way to connect with not just the LGBTQ community, but the downtown social community at large.” “I brought Angela on board because I respect her vision and abilities,” says Amar Lalvani, CEO of Standard Hotels. “But to have a fixed place where you can experience what folks experience in these smaller parties,” but in a more expansive setting, “is exciting to me.” “There’s an opportunity to go to a party maybe once a month,” she says. When Dimayuga took on her role at the Standard in 2018, she noticed that the hotel had plenty of great restaurants, but there were no venues focused around “the programming and the people that make up the space.” She realized she could essentially recreate Gush in one of the most recognizable hotels in the city. (The characters are primarily white and upper-class.) Other places she found were male-centered, not diverse enough, or simply too far away from where she lived.
“I think people refer to The L Word a lot, but The L Word isn’t really my scene or my people,” she says. When Dimayuga moved to New York in 2006, she felt alienated by the lesbian bars she encountered. This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from. Now, with No Bar, she’s hoping to bring this subculture to a decidedly mainstream space. In 2017, she launched a monthly roving party called Gush, which drew a diverse, primarily lesbian crowd. Dimayuga has long been a fixture in New York’s underground queer nightlife scene. It’s also the first high-profile project by creative director and former Mission Chinese Food executive chef Angela Dimayuga, who came on board last year to oversee the Standard’s restaurants and programming. The bar, located just adjacent to Narcissa, the hotel’s high-end restaurant, is aiming to be both a casual hangout and a night club, serving craft cocktails and fancy bar snacks.
It’s in this climate that No Bar at the Standard East Village opened on Wednesday, one of the first gay bars inside a major national hotel chain. The spectrum of options has never been wider. Meanwhile, traditional gay bars are struggling to survive, not because of lack of demand, but because of rising rents and high overhead costs.
In New York, at least, a scene recently dominated by drag nights and disco lights now includes roving dinner series like Queer Soup Night, POC-focused dance parties like Bubble_T and Papi Juice, and Brooklyn bars where you can get your astrological chart read, like Mood Ring-all seeking to make gay nightlife more diverse and inclusive.