Living in Los Angeles for the past eleven years has spoiled me.
As my wife and I zipped up our coats, and walked briskly to the subway station on New Year’s Eve, I wondered how I had survived New York’s cold winters back in college.
We were in town for a week, starting the day after Christmas, and I wanted to find a New Year’s Eve party that catered to lesbians and bisexual women. After putting feelers out on my Instagram story, someone recommended an event called CUNTY NYE at a bar called The Bush. The tag line for this Bushwick-based establishment is “a dyke bar for the queers.”
After finding mixed reviews for The Bush online, I asked my friend Imani–who is local to the area–what she thought of the place. She assured me that while a regular night at the bar might at times be lackluster, the events are always really good. That was all I needed to hear to drop $60+ on two tickets to CUNTY NYE.
We arrived shortly after 10pm, and there was already a decent crowd. Imani and my wife, Emma hit the dancefloor immediately, while I went to order a drink. The vibes were great, and everyone we interacted with was friendly. It’s also worth noting that the bar is co-owned by a Black woman (Nikke Alleyne), and the clientele is racially diverse, which is a plus.
Later that night, a go-go dancer performed and the crowd went ballistic, loving every second of it and rushing up to give her dollar bills. At some point, Emma caught this hilarious video of me nonchalantly eating a beef patty while said go-go dancer was doing her thing. In my defense, if they’re going to sell beef patties at a bar, I am going to eat them.
As the night went on, more and more people showed up. Too many people in fact. There was also only one functional toilet, and so the wait for the bathroom took a staggering thirty minutes.
Emma rushed out of the bathroom right at 11:59pm, ready for the countdown. At midnight, the DJ said happy new year on the mic and played another song. That was it. No countdown. They skipped the most important part of any New Year’s Eve celebration.
A tad disappointed, we pushed our way to the exit of the overcrowded bar and saw that there was a long line of people still waiting to get in.
There is an undeniable demand for The Bush (sorry, I had to do it). They host cool events that bring the community together. However, this establishment would benefit from having better crowd control practices and from calling a plumber.
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