Gayest and Greatest

After Dark

Best New Club: Meteor
2306 Genesse, 713/521-0123
With its hot décor in cool tones of blue and green, its developing patio (not landscaped yet, but in the works), and its mix between club-ness and lounge-ness, Meteor is a bar of a different color on the Houston gay scene. According to the owners, a new wing that will focus on dancing (read: music will be WAY LOUD) will open this fall, while on the lounge side conversation will be possible (read: music will be moderately loud). So far, we think it’s a great beginning for a most-needed new Houston hangout.

UPSTART
Coolest Club to Dance: South Beach
810 Pacific Avenue, 713/529-SOBE (7623)
The new South Beach rose from the ashes of our old favorite, Heaven, and has quickly become the hottest "cool" place to go in Montrose. "Coolest" is an accurate description; one of the "cool" features mentioned by readers is the blast of liquid nitrogen that hits dancers periodically from the ceiling, cooling down even the hottest bods in the room–and there are many of those on any given night!

Best Place After 2 a.m.: Hyperia
2001 Commerce, 713/224-4973
Take a guide the first time you go looking for this after-hours club (and you might consider taking a flashlight, too, if you care to see anyone’s face), but if it’s after-hours dancing you want, Hyperia provides Houston’s best.

Best Place to Shoot Pool: Slick Willie’s
1200 Westheimer, 713/522-2525
It describes itself as a family pool hall, and so it is–all kinds of family can be found at the Montrose location across from Hollywood Video. The wide expanse of tables make waiting for a table a rare event, and the staff is friendly and, for the most part, easy on the eyes. No wonder you vote Slick Willie’s your pool fave year after year.

Best Place to Show off Your Leather: Ripcord
715 Fairview, 713/521-2792
Ripcord–need one say more than that? I can honestly say that the Ripcord is the only bar I have ever been thrown out of–so they must have behavior standards, after all. Of course, being female (and probably drunk) didn’t help. Not that women are unwelcome: if accompanied by men, and you can behave yourself, it’s cool. Leather is the predominant, but not the only, dress code in this biker-friendly, neighborhood-but-with-an-attitude Montrose hangout.

Best Lesbian Bar-Upscale: Chances
Best Lesbian Honky-Tonk: New Barn
1100 Westheimer, 713/523-7217
For seven years, the Chances complex has been the place for women to come together. Techno to hiphop, butch to petite, young & not-so, even a few men enjoying themselves, Chances is known as the good energy place where everyone is super friendly. Chances, the New Barn, N’Between, the Chi Chi Bar–Lord have mercy, we can’t keep up with everything happening under this good-timing roof. Packed to the rafters on a recent Saturday visit, the Chances side plays pounding dance music, while across the way cow-butches swing their partners to Shania Twain and the like. This vast expanse of lesbian space follows the Houston tradition of huge women’s clubs (anybody else remember the Ranch?), providing quiet areas to get away from the music to play pool or chat.

Favorite Straight Bar: Prague
402 Main, 713/223-2223
Critics use words such as "trendy" and "overhyped," but you don’t care; this see-and-be-seen straight bar is your choice for favorite straight-folk night spot. Just make sure you know the dress code, ’cause it’s enforced, and make sure you take plenty of cash (or a paying date), ’cause you’ll need it at this hot downtown nightspot.

Favorite Piano Bar: The Briar Patch
2294 W. Holcombe, 713/665-9678
What a great find we think this is, and you agree, voting the Briar Patch your favorite piano bar again this year. When you would actually like to a) see your date without a lighter, b)converse without shouting, and c)pretend to be cultured, the Briar Patch is a lovely little venue tucked away in West University. A great place to take your gay Uncle Harold–you know, the one with the Rodgers and Hammerstein collection you hope he leaves you in his will? Watch for their relocation in November to the Rich’s area, just south of downtown.

Best Place to Two-Step: Brazos River Bottom 2400 Brazos, 713/528-9192 The BRB has provided two-stepping at its finest for as long as this native Houstonian can remember. Check out their informative website (you can even take a cyber tour), if you want to get a taste of the gay cowboy culture down at the BRB before you don your Wranglers, hat, and giant, uh, belt buckle and boot-scoot your way downtown to dance the night away.

Friendliest Bar Staff: Rich’s
Best Club If You’re Under 21: Rich’s
2401 San Jacinto, 713/759-9606
Rich's has been there for Houston homos through thick and thin. For over 20 years, this ever-evolving, but somehow familiar, dance club has provided a dance-till-dawn welcome. As for those under 21, Rich’s is often the first place new and exploring folks go to "feel out" the gay scene. (Any double entendres read into that sentence are strictly at your own risk.) A perennial favorite in many different categories, we think your votes for Rich's shows how at home you feel here. So do we.

Happiest Happy Hour: JR’s
808 Pacific, 713/521-2519
While it still rocks on into the night, JR’s, which opens at 11 daily (Sundays at noon), has for what seems like always been the gay bar where those who get started early gather to, well . . . get started early. A mixed male and female crowd spills over into the adjacent Sante Fe Patio, where you can retreat if you actually want to talk to someone, and Sunday night karaoke is still a pretty hilarious event, depending on how much alcohol singers have consumed before they take the stage. This place is a community institution, and we always feel comfortable stopping in for a drink and a look at the pool table action.

Best Bar Outside the Loop: Inergy
750 Chimney Rock, 713/666-7310
Wild Latin nights await you! This mixed gender, mostly Latin, partly drag, partly not, completely high INERGY joint mixes it all up together. Lady Shamu is the reigning queen of drag here at this outside-the-loop experience. Who'd have thought the "’burbs could be so much fun?

Liveliest Live Music Spot: Fitzgerald’s
2706 White Oak, 713/862-3838
Who'd have thought that this old wacky two-story house in the Heights would continue to be the best place for live music year after year? What it lacks in interior decorating, it makes up in charm and the intimacy of its space, with the casual Texas atmosphere all Houstonians, gay or straight, know just how to relax into.

Best Martini: Mo Mong
1201 Westheimer, 713/524-5664
Mo Mong defies the typical Houston Vietnamese restaurant experience. We are used to décor-free spaces with paper placemats and excellent food, but certainly not to sleek wooden walls, soaring ceilings, and perfect martinis. Mo Mong took this category last year as well, thanks in part, no doubt, to now-famous Martini Wednesdays, where crowds (and we do mean crowds, as in crowded) of vodka-infused patrons of all genders start early gearing up for the rest of the evening.

Best DJ: Michael Tank at South Beach
Michael started spinning at Pacific Street way back when, and quickly moved to the "DJ circuit," traveling around the club scene and becoming your favorite in the process. He was the driving force behind Rich's famous T Dance, and he has, of late, found a Friday night home at the new South Beach, your new favorite dance club. Saturdays, he still travels the circuit, so stop by South Beach on Friday, listen to his mix, and ask him where he'll be Saturday, so you can show up for a second night of great dance music.

Best Bartender: multiple
Many names made the list in this category, but mostly from the same bars: Todd and Gary at the Ripcord, Philip and Howie at Rich’s. Perhaps these joints have the best staff, or perhaps you just drink a lot when you’re there, eh, sweeties?