The Best Atlanta Gay Bars and Clubs

In a space just off Cheshire Bridge Road that used to be The Chamber, and was also a country-western bar called Wild Mustang for a spell, you'll find this large, popular dance club that's especially well-regarded for its absolutely packed Latin nights on Fridays. Some of the top DJs in town spin here on weekends, and the club also occasionally still has country-western dance nights (which are well-appreciated by local fans, since Hoedowns is no longer around).

If you're like me, and you make a couple of trips a year to Atlanta to see your parents in the north-of-perimeter suburbs, Le Buzz is a godsend. It's in Marietta, making it the only GLBT nightlife option serving the quite large suburbs (and neighboring towns like Roswell and Alpharetta). But it's also a genuinely inviting gay bar - even worth the trip from downtown Atlanta when Le Buzz has one of its justly famous drag shows going on. This is one of the South's best gay show bars, regularly drawing top regional talents. There's dancing on weekends, an increasingly popular "Ladies Night" on Thursdays, karaoke some evenings, a more intimate martini bar, and some very hot go-go dancers.

The former Decatur lesbian bar is now located in hipster-haunted East Atlanta Village and continues to draw a loyal bunch for drinks and socializing - it's basically an easygoing neighborhood bar. The clientele is pretty much exclusively women, and mixed racially.

A legendary men's strip club that has become acclaimed for its huge stable of humpy, hunky dancers and the fact that the boys here remove *all* of their clothes. There's pretty much a guy for every taste in this place, and it's a particularly fun adventure for a group of friends looking to celebrate, cut loose, and gawk at some lovely bodies. On the other hand, the prices are steep for drinks and admission, and the club has a slightly cheesy Chippendale's-esque mood about it...like it's a theme park for male striptease. It's fun, but in some ways the genuine cruisiness of The Eagle or fetishy outlandishness of The Heretic seem a bit sexier.

Atlanta's only true gay sports bar (Amsterdam, see above, has a bit of the vibe but is more broadly a video bar), Woofs is decked with sports memorabilia, has pro and college games airing on more than 30 TVs, and attracts players from local GLBT sports teams. For ardent sports buffs, this place is pretty impressive - not just a gay hangout with a sports theme but a venue where you really can watch any number of games and events alongside a similarly enthusiastic bunch of fans.