The Best Gay Bars in Fort Lauderdale and Wilton Manors

What's not to like about a bar whose website menu lists "Naked Guys" right at the top? Yup, Boardwalk Bar (1721 N. Andrews Ave., 954-463-6969), which fringes Wilton Manors, is all about dudes who happen to perform nude - the club often draws actors from Fort Lauderdale's prolific gay porn industry. If you're more into regular guys off the street, check out Wednesday's amateur strip contests. This is a classic gay stripper bar, with pole dancers, lap dances, and all the usual fun. It's a clean and nicely kept place, but the cover charges and spendy drink prices are a turnoff for some. Hey, it's all about the entertainment at this place.

In the same scene-y shopping center as Georgie's Alibi and Java Boys Coffeehouse, Club Boom (2232 Wilton Dr., 954-630-3556) - also sometimes called Atomic - is a two-level space with a sleek and stylish video bar up top, and a decent-size dance floor on the main level. This is one of the better places in great Fort Lauderdale for dancing and otherwise cutting loose on weekends. The crowd on the dance floor is mostly the usual sea of shirtless, tanned, and cut guys in their 20s and 30s, and but there are always plenty of exceptions to the rule - women, straights, older guys. Boom employs some of the best DJs in the area, and the Sunday T-dances are lots of fun, as are the Studio 54 retro dance parties. From the upstairs bar, you get a very nice view of all the moving and shaking down below on the dance floor.

Club Fort Lauderdale (110 N.W. 5th Ave., 954-525-3344) is part of the well-established "Clubs" bathhouse empire (there are others in Columbus, Dallas, Houston, Indianapolis, New Orleans, Orlando, and St. Louis) and one of the nicest gay bathhouses you'll find in the United States. It's an expansive, clean, well-maintained facility that's attractively designed and centrally located in downtown Fort Lauderdale. It's little wonder that Club Fort Lauderdale has such a loyal following. The layout and amenities are typical of these kinds of places, with locker rentals and rooms (including rather swanky cabana units), and there's a grotto-inspired steam room that's extremely popular.

The other men's bathhouse in town, the Clubhouse II (2650 E. Oakland Park Blvd., 954-566-6750) is also open 24 hours and has the typical amenities for such a place: sauna, steamroom, lockers and private rooms, a video lounge, and so on. In comparison with the bigger and more popular Club Fort Lauderdale, this establishment between the Oakland Park and Lauderdale Beach areas is more popular with the leather and bear community, and it also tends to draw a somewhat older crowd.

Billing itself the "best little butch bar in Fort Lauderdale," the Cubby Hole (823 N. Federal Hwy., 954-728-9001) is a favorite of the city's very enthusiastic bear community. Certain theme nights, like the two-for-one drinks specials doled out on Wednesday night to any attired in boxers or briefs (or boxer-briefs, one supposes), are extremely well-attended. A cruise-y mood prevails in this fun hangout that doesn't take itself too seriously.

The Corner Pub (1915 N. Andrews Ave., 954-564-7335) is a chipper little neighborhood gay bar near the main drag in Wilton Manors, drawing a fairly local bunch for cheap happy hours, to shoot pool, and listen to tunes on a pretty good juke box.