As gay and lesbian travel goes, New Mexico tends to be most popular among couples seeking romance, not singles on the make. Upscale, arty towns like Santa Fe and Taos have little in the way of gay nightlife, and even the largest city, Albuquerque, has only a handful of gay bars and clubs, and a couple of longtime favorites have closed in recent years, including the briefly popular downtown club, District, which disappeared in summer 2008 after replacing the now-shuttered Pulse as the main game in town. Still if you are visiting, and you're looking for some lively places to dance, mingle, and cruise, you'll find a few inviting hangouts in Albuquerque.
Here's a brief rundown on the bar and club scene in gay Albuquerque, and you can also find plenty of current info on the gay and lesbian scene in the city and throughout New Mexico from the website CommonBondNM.org. For where to go in the Santa Fe, see my article on nightlife in gay Santa Fe, and also be sure to consider the fabulous and festive Mine Shaft Tavern, a lesbian-owned roadhouse just an hour north of Albuquerque in the funky town of Madrid.
In Albuquerque, most of the gay bars are in the Nob Hill section of town, which is also home to several restaurants and coffeehouses with a gay following.
Historic Nob Hill, which is bisected by historic Route 66, lies just east of the University of New Mexico and a couple of miles east of downtown. Until December 2007, this was the site of Albuquerque's most popular gay nightspot, the Pulse, but the club closed after many years in business, as did the nearby Martini Grille in 2008, which was also a gay fave.
Doing well in Nob Hill, however, is the Albuquerque Social Club (4021 Central Ave. NE, 505-262-1088), a private club for gay and lesbians, and it's become the neighborhood's - and one of the city's - most popular gay venues. You must be a member to enter, but all are welcome (as long as they have a valid photo ID). The cost is $10 for an annual membership if you live in-state, and $5 if you live out of state. This had been mostly a locals' hangout, but it's enjoyed a big resurgence of late and now draws sizable crowds, especially on weekends, and has a friendly staff. The one drawback for late-night owls is that the club is only open until midnight most evenings, although on Fridays and Saturdays the doors stay open until 2 am.
Drive east along Central for a couple of miles and you'll reach one more gay nightspot, the friendly and eclectic Sidewinders (formerly known as The Ranch) (8900 Central Ave SE, 505-275-1616), a cousin of the popular Sidewinders in Cathedral City, California, near Palm Springs. This festive, down-home club has country-western music and dancing on weekend nights, a fun "beer blast" on Sunday afternoons, and karaoke on many weekedays. The crowd comes in all flavors - women and men, younger and older, bears and jocks, clean-cut and edgy. It's a nice option if you're heading out with a varied bunch of friends, and attitude is minimal here.
Albuquerque has the only lesbian bar between Dallas and Phoenix, and it's the one gay club in town that's not near Nob Hill or Central Avenue. Exhale (6132 4th St NW, 505-342-0049) is in the North Valley, a short drive north of downtown, and it's steadily become a fixture of gay Albuquerque nightlife. Although the crowd is primarily lesbian, plenty of gay guys come here, too, enjoying the good music and relaxed and friendly vibe. There's a spacious patio that's well-utilized in summer, an attractive cocktail lounge, a pulsing dance floor, and a chic upstairs lounge. It's truly one of the best lesbian bars in the country, and one of the nicest gay establishments in Albuquerque.
Albuquerque also has some less traditional gay nightlife options, including the highly inviting local coffeehouse-restaurant chain, Flying Star. These hip, smartly furnished hangouts are spacious and attractively decorated, several of them with fireplaces and most with large patios. There are six of them throughout Albuquerque. The one in Nob Hill along Central Avenue has the gayest crowd and is downright cruisy some evenings. The downtown and Corrales locations also draw plenty of "family", but you'll feel quite welcome at any of them (others are found in the North Valley, Uptown, Northeast Heights (which opened in fall 2007), off of Paseo del Norte. The latest branches opened in 2008 in Bernalillo, just north of Albuquerque en route to Santa Fe (and home of the fab Hyatt Tamaya resort), and May 2009 in Santa Fe at the cool new Santa Fe Railyards District (500 Market St.. Would that every city had a hangout as festive as this one. All of the Flying Stars serve three meals a day, a wide range of coffees, wine and beer, and fresh-baked goods, and they also have free Wi-Fi.
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