The Chute (1440 E. Indian School Rd., 602-234-1654) "private men's health club" in the heart of the city's gay-nightlife district is ostensibly a gay bathhouse and sex club that's built up a quite loyal following over the years, especially with guys into leather, bears, fans of fetish, and so on. In other words, if you're a preppy and pretty twink, you're perfectly welcome as long as you don't arrive with a sneering attitude toward the predominant clientele, which is bigger and buffer guys in theirs mid-30s through mid-50s. This is a clean, well-kept space with a full gym, steam room, lounges show porn, private rooms and lockers, and a shop selling sex gear, toys, and adult gadgets.
Phoenix has a pair of men's sex venues, with Chute decidedly more oriented to bears and guys into leather - it also has the more central location of the two. The other men's sex club in town is the long-running Flex Baths (1517 S. Black Canyon Hwy., 602-271-9011), which lies southwest of downtown in an industrial area. Flex, which is part of a national chain that includes properties in several cities (Atlanta, Cleveland - here's a detailed description, Columbus, Los Angeles, New Orleans, and Miami), has "dressing rooms" of several sizes, a fully equipped gym, steam room, hot tub, sundeck, and pool. It's open 24-7, and the crowd is somewhat more varied than at The Chute (the emphasis being less on leather and uniforms).
