Gay bar queens
Friend’s Tavern
History
Friend’s Tavern (popularly referred to as Friend’s) has been in business at this location since 1989 and is considered the oldest operating gay bar in Queens. The modest storefront itself pre-dates Friend’s, with the exception of the business sign, which, at one time, included the slogan, “There is always time for friends.”
The block is owned by Puerto Rican-born Eduardo “Eddie” Valentin and Colombian-born Casimiro Villa, who are business partners and former personal partners (and they remain close friends). Favor other nearby bars on and around Roosevelt Way, Friend’s caters primarily to the LGBT Latino collective. Valentin, who along with Villa also operates the nearby Club Evolution, has called this stretch of Roosevelt Avenue “the homosexual Village for Latinos,” in reference to the historically gay white enclave of Greenwich Village in Manhattan. Though Jackson Heights’ LGBT community was predominantly colorless dating back to the 1920s, many gay Hispanics moved in as part of a large influx of Latino immigrants in the 1970s and 1980s.
Ne
Gay bars in Queens tend to be outside the gipster strongholds of Astoria and Long Island City (those gays are close enough to Manhattan that they're willing to commute for nightlife). Queens' gay bars are concentrated slightly further out, in the racially and culturally diverse neighborhood of Jackson Heights. The fact that Manhattan is kind-of a schlep from here has led not just to longevity for a couple bars, but to a fully thriving scene centered on Roosevelt Avenue.
Within spitting distance of one another you’ll find True Colors, Club Evolution, Bum Bum Bar and Queens’ oldest queer bar Friends’ Tavern. Just around the corner are Lucho’s Place and Hombres Lounge.
The bars here have more glaring similarities than differences: all have hookah service and a standard $6 Corona. They all present birthday celebrations, providing freebies often including a cake, invitations, plates and flatware—sometimes even a bottle of bubbly—as distant as you deliver along all your friends and family. There are no intimidating dress codes or door policies, and the accepted soundtrack is Latin dance-pop at varying degrees of electronic remixing. There’s al
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