Big Gay Frat House Blog

BGFH's 2010 Best of the Gay Awards

The Big Gay Frat House hasn't thrown any of our own parties lately, but that doesn't mean we've given up our mission to promote San Francisco's gay nightlife. We love the annual "best of" polls done by the Bay Guardian, SF Weekly and other publications, but there aren't enough gay categories on them. So we decided to create our own awards.

We created our own poll, posted here on the blog, and sent out messages to our friends on Facebook as well as the more than one thousand members on our email list. The results therefore may not necessarily reflect each of our individual opinions (quite a lot of them really surprised us, actually), but are rather those of our friends and supporters who bothered to vote. If you would like to vote next year, sign up for our mailing list. If you are a bar or restaurant owner, or a club promoter, be sure to rally your troops next year.

Also, we preemptively disqualified the BGFH from any awards. That didn't stop some voters from trying, however.

Here are the top winners for each category. You can click on each category to see commentary about the winner and the runners-up. You can also check out the winners by venue -- quite a lot of places proved to be popular, but not always the most popular.

  

Winners of the 2010 Best of the Gay Awards

• Favorite Bar or Club: Toad Hall
• Favorite Place to Go Dancing: Badlands
• Favorite Weekly Club Night or Party: Booty Call Wednesdays at QBar
• Favorite Monthly Club Event: Wet and Wild at Club 8
• Favorite Place to Play Pool: The Cafe
• Favorite Place for Go-Go Dancers: The Cafe
• Best Weekday Happy Hour: Toad Hall
• Favorite Fancy Cocktail: The Juanita MORE! at QBar
• Best Place to Hang Out With Friends: Toad Hall
• Best Place to Meet Someone New: Badlands
• Favorite Place for Coffee or Tea: Spike's Coffees and Teas
• Favorite Casual Dining Establishment: Harvey's
• Favorite Place for Elegant Dining: 2223
• Favorite Place to Go to Brunch: Barracuda
• Favorite Place to Take a Date: Bed
• Favorite "Risque" Place, Party, or Event: All Male Strip Show at Deco Lounge
• Favorite Beach: Ocean Beach
• Favorite Annual Street Fair or Festival: Folsom Street Fair
• Favorite Social Services Nonprofit: Magnet
• Favorite LGBT Artistic Organization: SF Boylesque
• Party, Event, or Club That No Longer Exists That You Miss the Most: Lucky Pierre at The Stud

Again, these were voted on by people on our mailing list, and we may have differing opinions in some cases. Sign up to vote next year, and lobby your friends, too!

Best of the Gay Awards by Venue

Are you curious did your favorite bar or restaurant fare with the Big Gay Frat House's first annual Best of the Gay Awards?

The Cafe won the most awards, a total of seven, including two firsts, two seconds, two thirds, and one fourth. Second place, in terms of number of awards, went to The Mix and 440 Castro with five each, followed by Toad Hall and Club 8 with four awards each.

Remember, these ones won because of who voted. If you disagree with the results, be sure to join our mailing list and vote next year. 

Here, in alphabetical order, is a complete list of the winners:

2223 Restaurant

• Favorite Place for Elegant Dining (First Place)

• Favorite Place to Take a Date (Third Place)

440 Castro

• Best Place to Meet Someone New (Third Place)

• Favorite "Risque" Place, Party or Event: Underwear Night, Mondays (Second Place)

• Favorite Weekly Club Night or Party: Monday Underwear Night (Fourth Place)

• Party, Event or Club That No Longer Exists That You Miss the Most: Frathouse (Third Place)

• Party, Event or Club That No Longer Exists That You Miss the Most: FAGGOT First Wednedays (Fourth Place)

AIDS Emergency Fund

• Favorite Social Services Nonprofit (Fourth Place)

Badlands

• Best Place to Meet Someone New (First Place)

• Favorite Place to Go Dancing (First Place)

Badlands (original, pre-2000 remodel) 

• Party, Event or Club That No Longer Exists That You Miss the Most (Fourth Place)

Baker Beach

• Favorite Beach (Third Place)

Barracuda

• Favorite Place to Go to Brunch (First Place)

Bed

• Favorite Place to Take a Date (First Place)

Blackbird

• Best Place to Hang Out With Friends (Fourth Place)

• Favorite Place to Take a Date (Fourth Place)

Blue

• Favorite Casual Dining Establishment (Second Place)

• Favorite Place to Take a Date (Second Place)

Boulevard

• Favorite Place for Elegant Dining (Second Place)

The Café

• Best Place to Hang Out With Friends (Second Place)

• Best Weekday Happy Hour (Second Place)

• Favorite Bar or Club (Third Place)

• Favorite Place for Go-Go Dancers (First Place)

• Favorite Place to Go Dancing (Fourth Place)

• Favorite Place to Play Pool (First Place)

• Favorite Weekly Club Night or Party: Boy Bar on Fridays (Third Place)

Café Flore

• Favorite Place for Coffee or Tea (Fourth Place)

Castro Street Fair

• Favorite Annual Street Fair or Festival (Second Place)

The Cinch

• Party, Event or Club That No Longer Exists That You Miss the Most: Charlie Horse (Second Place)

Club 8

• Favorite Bar or Club (Second Place)

• Favorite Monthly Club Event: Wet and Wild, third Saturdays (First Place)

• Favorite Place for Go-Go Dancers (Third Place)

• Favorite Place to Go Dancing (Second Place)

Conant Foundation

• Favorite Social Services Nonprofit (Third Place)

The Cove Cafe

• Favorite Casual Dining Establishment (Fourth Place)

Culture Whores

• Favorite Monthly Club Event: Cockfight at Underground SF (Third Place)

• Party, Event or Club That No Longer Exists That You Miss the Most: FAGGOT First Wednedays at 440 Castro (Fourth Place)

Deco Lounge

• Favorite "Risque" Place, Party or Event: Sunday All-Male Strip Show (First Place)

Dixieland Dykes

• Favorite LGBT Artistic Organization (Fourth Place)

Dolores Park

• Favorite Beach (Second Place)

Dore Alley Fair

• Favorite Annual Street Fair or Festival (Fourth Place)

Eureka Restaurant and Lounge

• Favorite Place for Elegant Dining (Third Place)

Folsom Street Fair

• Favorite Annual Street Fair or Festival (First Place)

Foreign Cinema

• Favorite Place for Elegant Dining (Fourth Place)

Fort Funston

• Favorite Beach (Fourth Place)

Fresh

• Favorite Monthly Club Event (Fourth Place)

• Favorite Place to Go Dancing (Third Place)

Grindr

• Best Place to Meet Someone New (Second Place)

Gus Presents

• Favorite Weekly Club Night or Party: Boy Bar on Fridays at The Cafe (Third Place)

• Party, Event or Club That No Longer Exists That You Miss the Most: Frathouse at 440 Castro (Third Place)

Harvey's

• Favorite Casual Dining Establishment (First Place)

• Favorite Place to Go to Brunch (Second Place)

Home Restaurant

• Favorite Casual Dining Establishment (Third Place)

Lime

• Favorite Place to Go to Brunch (Third Place)

LookOut

• Favorite Weekly Club Night or Party: Mary-Go-Round, Wednesdays (Second Place)

Magnet

• Favorite Social Services Nonprofit (First Place)

The Midnight Sun

• Best Weekday Happy Hour (Third Place)

The Mix

• Best Place to Hang Out With Friends (Third Place)

• Favorite Bar or Club (Fourth Place)

• Favorite Fancy Cocktail: Juicy Lucy (Second Place)

• Favorite Fancy Cocktail: Tommy Margarita (Third Place)

• Favorite Place to Play Pool (Second Place)

Moby Dick

• Favorite Place to Play Pool (Third Place)

Ocean Beach

• Favorite Beach (First Place)

Peet's

• Best Place to Hang Out With Friends (Fourth Place)

• Favorite Place for Coffee or Tea (Second Place)

Phil'z (at Sit and Spin)

• Favorite Place for Coffee or Tea (Third Place)

The Powerhouse

• Favorite "Risque" Place, Party or Event (Fourth Place)

Project Open Hand

• Favorite Social Services Nonprofit (Second Place)

QBar

• Favorite Fancy Cocktail: The Juanita MORE! (First Place)

• Favorite Place to Go Dancing (Fourth Place)

• Favorite Weekly Club Night or Party: Booty Call Wednesdays (First Place)

SF Boylesque

• Favorite LGBT Artistic Organization (First Place)

SF Gay Men's Chorus

• Favorite LGBT Artistic Organization (Third Place)

SF Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band Favorite

• LGBT Artistic Organization (Second Place)

SF Pride

• Favorite Annual Street Fair or Festival (Third Place)

Spike's Coffees and Teas

• Favorite Place for Coffee or Tea (First Place)

Starbelly

• Favorite Place to Go to Brunch (Fourth Place)

The Stud

• Party, Event or Club That No Longer Exists That You Miss the Most: Lucky Pierre (First Place)

Toad Hall

• Best Place to Hang Out With Friends (First Place)

• Best Place to Meet Someone New (Fourth Place)

• Best Weekday Happy Hour (First Place)

• Favorite Bar or Club (First Place)

Trannyshack

• Favorite Monthly Club Event (Second Place)

Trigger

• Favorite Place for Go-Go Dancers (Second Place)

Truck

• Favorite "Risque" Place, Party or Event: Speakeasy, Tuesdays (Third Place)

Underground SF

• Favorite Monthly Club Event: Cockfight (Third Place)

Go back to The BGFH's Best of the Gay Awards for more winners.

[Note: The Best of the Gay Awards are nominated by friends of the Big Gay Frat House. It's a completely unscientific opinion of those people on our mailing list or friends on Facebook who bothered to vote. Please leave a comment to express your own favorites ... and join our mailing list to be able to vote next year.]

Favorite Bar or Club (Best of the Gay Awards)

1. Toad Hall
2. Club 8
3. The Cafe
4. The Mix

The boys of the Big Gay Frat House are a pretty diverse bunch in our interests, and as a result, our friends who've joined our mailing list and have come to our events also cover the spectrum of the gay community. There are those who only go out for happy hour and are home in time for prime time on TV. There are those who only go out to the late-night weekend events. Some can only be dragged out for special events or fundraisers once in a blue moon. And some hardly ever stay in.

In the end, Toad Hall appealed to the broadest mix of our voters. It has booth and table seating indoors to catch up with friends, a DJ and dance floor on busy nights, and one of the nicest outdoor smoking patios -- nice enough that even nonsmokers often hang out there. Oh, and some of the cutest bartenders and floaters in the Castro, which it shares with its sister bar, Badlands, across the street. Toad Hall placed in four of our Best of the Gay categories, winning in three of them.

In a bit of a surprise to us, second place went to Club Eight on Folsom Street. They host an array of diverse events which helped when it came time to get out the vote.

Third place went to The Cafe, where one of the BGFH boys can be found rather frequently (and has over 8,000 photos there to prove it). Though Boy Bar on Friday nights first brought us back to The Cafe, their Sundays with go-go dancers as well as super inexpensive hot dogs and hamburgers have made it one of our favorite weekly events. The Cafe placed in seven of our 2010 Best of the Gay categories, more than any other bar.

Fourth place went to The Mix, a gay bar with the distiction of being the first to open in the Castro (6:00am every day).

Go back to The BGFH's Best of the Gay Awards for more winners.

[Note: The Best of the Gay Awards are nominated by friends of the Big Gay Frat House. It's a completely unscientific opinion of those people on our mailing list or friends on Facebook who bothered to vote. Please leave a comment to express your own favorites ... and join our mailing list to be able to vote next year.]

Favorite Place to Go Dancing

1. Badlands
2. Club 8
3. Fresh at Ruby Skye
4. The Cafe and QBar (tie)

Badlands only placed twice in our contest, but both times it came in first: Favorite Place to Go Dancing and Best Place to Meet Someone New. Once a rustic beer bar with several pool tables and wooden walls covered with old license plates, the bar was remodeled in 2000 to become one of the few dance bars in the Castro.

Second place went to Club 8, an old Victorian house on Folsom Street that was renovated to be nightclub, with separate DJ booths and dance floors on two stories. It's home to several specialty nights like Club Dragon and Club Nur, as well as our winner of Favorite Monthly Club Event, Wet and Wild.

Third place went to Fresh, a monthly gay dance event at the normally straight(ish) Ruby Skye. Fourth place was a tie between The Cafe, which has a brand new remodel, and QBar, home to our voters' Favorite Weekly Club Night or Party.

Go back to The BGFH's Best of the Gay Awards for more winners.

[Note: The Best of the Gay Awards are nominated by friends of the Big Gay Frat House. It's a completely unscientific opinion of those people on our mailing list or friends on Facebook who bothered to vote. Please leave a comment to express your own favorites ... and join our mailing list to be able to vote next year.]

Favorite Weekly Club Night or Party (Best of the Gay Awards)

1. Booty Call Wednesdays at QBar
2. Mary-Go-Round at LookOut
3. Boy Bar at The Cafe
4. Underwear Night at 440 Castro

In San Francisco, there's something fun going on in gay bars every night of the week. But apparently Wednesdays are the new Fridays because the top two winners for Favorite Weekly Club Night or Party were both for Wednesday night events.

First place went to Booty Call Wednesdays, an event by Juanita MORE! and one of her MOREboys, Joshua J. It originally premiered at the Bar on Castro; when the bar lost its lease and the new owners renamed it QBar, Booty Call was one of the events that stayed behind.

In addition to great music and cute go-go boys (and sometimes go-go drags), the back room gets transformed every week with a new art installation. Resident photographer Isaac has taken over from the original photographer, Brandon, to take portraits of the guests. You can often see who made it out on Wednesday by whose Facebook profile photos have changed on Friday. You can check out more photos on Flickr.

Second place went to another Wednesday night event, a drag show at the LookOut called Mary-Go-Round. Three of San Francisco's drag superstars rotate hosting duties: Cookie Dough, Pollo Del Mar, and Suppositori Spelling. Check out some of the Flickr photos.

It took Gus Presents' weekly Friday night at The Cafe, called Boy Bar, to bring me out on a weekly basis -- and back to The Cafe after a long absence. Of the almost 6,000 photos of go-go boys I've taken, the vast majority were taken at Boy Bar, and that's where I first started to become known as a snapper of nightlife photos. You can see more of my photos on Flickr for Boy Bar, which came in third place among our voters.

Fourth place went to Underwear Night at 440 Castro, which is held every Monday. Nope, no photos, sorry.

Go back to The BGFH's Best of the Gay Awards for more winners.

[Note: The Best of the Gay Awards are nominated by friends of the Big Gay Frat House. It's a completely unscientific opinion of those people on our mailing list or friends on Facebook who bothered to vote. Please leave a comment to express your own favorites ... and join our mailing list to be able to vote next year.]

Favorite Monthly Club Event (Best of the Gay Awards)

1. Wet and Wild at Club 8
2. Trannyshack at DNA Lounge
3. Cockfight at Underground SF
4. Fresh at Ruby Skyy

The winner for Favorite Monthly Club Event is also the youngest event on the list, being less than a year old: Wet and Wild, held on the third Saturday of every month at Club 8. The product of a new club promotion team known as The Boys, Wet and Wild is hosted every month by Lady TaTas with a different guest drag or trans co-hostess every month. Along with amazing video visuals and hot go-go boys, the event also always features a brief drag show around midnight along with some sort of wet and/or wild contest or show: the San Francisco winner of RentBoy's "Hookie Awards," an underwear fashion show, a bobbing for dildos contest, a wet underwear contest, and more. You can check out more restricted photos of Wet and Wild on Flickr.

Heklina's legendary drag show Trannyshack, our secon place winner, used to be held every Tuesday at The Stud. After a brief hiatus, it was reborn as a month event at the DNA Lounge. The show features some of the most shocking, controversial drag performances ever seen on stage -- truly a San Francisco institution.

Third place went to Cockfight, held on the third Saturday of every month at Underground SF in the Lower Haight. It's brought to you by Culture Whores, the people who were behind the lamented Faggot First Wednesdays. You can check out more Cockfight photos on Flickr. And fourth went to Fresh, the monthly gay dance party held once a month at Ruby Skye.

Go back to The BGFH's Best of the Gay Awards for more winners.

[Note: The Best of the Gay Awards are nominated by friends of the Big Gay Frat House. It's a completely unscientific opinion of those people on our mailing list or friends on Facebook who bothered to vote. Please leave a comment to express your own favorites ... and join our mailing list to be able to vote next year.]

Best Place to Play Pool (Best of the Gay Awards)

1. The Cafe
2. The Mix
3. Moby Dick

At one point, The Cafe had a huge advantage for anyone wanting to play pool, as they were the only bar in the Castro with two pool tables. Alas, the second one is in the VIP room which is currently closed indefinitely due to legal issues. Even so, it still won the Best Place to Play Pool category by a landslide. The table itself is rather broken down, unfortunately (due to go-go dancers jumping up and down on it several nights a week), but players say they have the most room to maneuver in the space. They sponsor four teams in the gay pool league. For smokers, it's the only bar where the smoking area is close enough to the table that you can puff between shots. And the table is currently free of charge until 9:00pm on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays.

Second place went to The Mix, where quite a lot of our friends play, though they report the cramped space can make it a bit challenging at times. Third place went to Moby Dick, the only bar nominated that does not sponsor a pool team. Their table is a bit smaller, and perhaps it's not regulation size?

We were a little surprised that these were the only bars to receive nominations. Where's the love for Blackbird, The Pilsner, Buck's Tavern, or even Lucky 13? Maybe next year.

Go back to The BGFH's Best of the Gay Awards for more winners.

[Note: The Best of the Gay Awards are nominated by friends of the Big Gay Frat House. It's a completely unscientific opinion of those people on our mailing list or friends on Facebook who bothered to vote. Please leave a comment to express your own favorites ... and join our mailing list to be able to vote next year.]

Favorite Place for Go-Go Dancers (Best of the Gay Awards)

1. The Cafe
2. Trigger
3. Club 8

Over the last four years, I've taken literally thousands of photos of go-go boys. (5,957 photos, to be precise.) And the vast majority were taken at The Cafe, our clear first-place winner for our voters Favorite Place for Go-Go Dancers. Go-go dancers had practically died out in the Castro before Gus Presents brought them back to The Cafe with their Friday night party called Boy Bar. And it was Boy Bar that brought me back to The Cafe after a long absence. (This photo was the very first one I took of a Boy Bar go-go boy.)

In addition to dancers on Friday nights, they also have go-go dancers on Thursdays (Latin boys), Saturdays, Sunday afternoons, and Sunday evenings. For a brief period they also had them on Wednesdays.

Second place went to Trigger, whose gilded cage above the bar certainly provides the fanciest place for go-go dancers. They have some of the cutest boys there, too, including one of my all-time favorites, TJ Hawke.

Third place went to Club Eight, the only SOMA bar to make this list. With specialty events catering to admirers of Asians (Club Dragon) and Middle Easterners (Club Nur) plus other monthly events like Wet and Wild and Big Top, Club Eight certainly provides a lot of variety.

Go back to The BGFH's Best of the Gay Awards for more winners.

[Note: The Best of the Gay Awards are nominated by friends of the Big Gay Frat House. It's a completely unscientific opinion of those people on our mailing list or friends on Facebook who bothered to vote. Please leave a comment to express your own favorites ... and join our mailing list to be able to vote next year.]

Best Weekday Happy Hour (Best of the Gay Awards)

1. Toad Hall
2. The Cafe
3. The Midnight Sun

It's all about the two-for-ones, apparently.

Our voters named Toad Hall as the place with their favorite happy hour. They do have two-for-one happy hours every day, though the actual hours seem to fluctuate. Their prices are among the lowest for two-for-ones ($4.50 for wells with a mixer from the tap, $4.75 if the mixer comes from a bottle). And some voters specifically mentioned that they extend two-for-one to certain called drinks that other bars do not.

Second place went to The Cafe, which certainly has the most generous definition of hours in which to be happy. All night on Mondays and Tuesdays. Until 11:00 on Wednesdays. Until 10:00 on Thursdays. Until 9:00 on Fridays and Saturdays. Until 11:00 on Sundays. We did check their website to confirm the hours, but we didn't actually need to.

Third place went to The Midnight Sun. And no, we will not be repeating our stories of our first experience at their all-night Monday night happy hour.

Go back to The BGFH's Best of the Gay Awards for more winners.

[Note: The Best of the Gay Awards are nominated by friends of the Big Gay Frat House. It's a completely unscientific opinion of those people on our mailing list or friends on Facebook who bothered to vote. Please leave a comment to express your own favorites ... and join our mailing list to be able to vote next year.]

Favorite Fancy Cocktail (Best of the Gay Awards)

1. The Juanita MORE! at QBar
2. Juicy Lucy at The Mix
3. Tommy Margarita at The Mix

There are several places in San Francisco that have menus of their own house specialty cocktails. Martuni's, Sugar Lounge, Catch, and Blackbird all come to mind. And many bartenders pride themselves on their own inventions. But even so, we knew this would be a challenging category for our voters.

But a few specialty cocktails managed to surface, and topping the list by a landslide (perhaps because I've bought one for so many people) was The Juanita MORE!, a special drink at QBar named after legendary drag queen Juanita MORE who throws a Wednesday party there called Booty Call. (And yes, that is exactly what I am drinking in this photo taken at Booty Call.)

The cocktail calls for crushing fresh mint leaves and then adding chocolate syrup, Blackberry Stoli, blackberry puree, and fresh lime, which is shaken vigorously with ice. The cocktail is then strained and served up in a martini glass with a final layer of champagne poured on top. Amazing! Be sure to tip heavily on that one, because that takes a lot more work than my usual vodka soda with a squeeze of lemon.

Second and third places went to cocktails served at The Mix: the Juicy Lucy and the Tommy Margarita. We haven't tried them yet, but that can be easily remedied.

Go back to The BGFH's Best of the Gay Awards for more winners.

[Note: The Best of the Gay Awards are nominated by friends of the Big Gay Frat House. It's a completely unscientific opinion of those people on our mailing list or friends on Facebook who bothered to vote. Please leave a comment to express your own favorites ... and join our mailing list to be able to vote next year.]