Esquire Names Trade One of America’s Best Gay Bars for Second Year
metroweekly.comWhat makes a good gay bar? Does it depend on the DJ or dance floor? Is it the strong drinks or the decor? Or maybe it depends on what cute people come in (or who you go home with at the end of the night)?
In reality, it’s not one thing. The ability to be considered a “good,” if not the best, gay bar requires an ambiance composed of many things.
And in Washington, D.C., there is no shortage of options. Esquire magazine recently published a list of the “32 Best Gay Bars in America,” two of which are located in D.C. — Logan Circle’s Trade and Eastern Market’s As You Are.
It’s Trade’s second consecutive appearance on the list. “Trade was started with a kind of mindset of being a little more low-key, not taking ourselves too seriously, and really not trying to be all that cool,” says Ed Bailey, who, along with longtime business partner John Guggenmos, owns Trade and its sibling establishment a block and a half away, Number 9. “I think that resonates a little bit and makes people a little bit more at ease.”Trade’s strategy of trying to not be “cool” has, in fact, had the opposite effect.
