New gay bar-disco opens in Buenos Aires centre

Last night I went to the opening night of Eminence situated at Lavalle 918. The facilities there are:- on the first floor, pub and cruising bar; on the second floor, dark room and private rooms; on the third floor, chill-out space and room for private functions; on the fourth floor, disco. There is a lift to transport customers between floors. The building must be around sixty years old and the rooms have very high ceilings. The lift is a classic reminding one of a Paris hotel of the 1920s.

The place was full last night as one would expect on an opening night and the crowd were really a mixed bunch and included taxi-boys and transvestites. I will return in a month or so and review the place properly. However there were three aspects from last night which need attention. The air-conditioning was hopelessly inadequate given the warm night and large crowd; there was no bottled water at the bar; and the city's no-smoking regulations were being totally ignored.

Eminence is open from Monday to Thursday from 2 p.m. to 3 a.m. and Friday to Sunday it is open 24 hours. The web site is here

For up-to-date information on gay places in Buenos Aires, Argentina see Guide to Gay Buenos Aires

Contramano re-opened

Contramano Closed
Following an inspection by city government officials a few days ago the oldest gay bar in Buenos Aires has been closed. This is very strange because all enclosed public spaces that re-opened after the Cromagñon tragedy have to comply with strict regulations before they are granted a certificate which Contramano undoubtedly has. Could be a case of homophobia. News here if and when it re-opens, or you can check the Contramano web site here.

Later
Further to my earlier post, Contramano has now re-opened as a bar-disco with a capacity for 220 people. I intend to check it out at an early opportunity.

For up-to-date information on gay places in Buenos Aires, Argentina see Guide to Gay Buenos Aires

Angels - hottest disco in town?

To be honest I am no great lover of discos (sign of advancing years I suppose) and so I am a thousand miles from being an expert but after visiting Angels (Viamonte 2168) last Saturday night I may be tempted to indulge more often.

Tell any Argentine that you plan to go there (or have been there) and the reaction may be a grimace, a curled lip, or a wrinkled nose. Its not really that Argentines are phobes, snobs and racists because mostly they are not but Angels attracts a crowd that is one rung lower down the social ladder than the regular gay discos and includes a proportion of immigrants like Peruvians, Bolivians and Paraguayans. Add to that several transvestites, some aging queens, and a lot of very cute young boys and you will realise that Angels isn't like any other popular gay disco in Buenos Aires. Additionally there is a not-very-dark area on the first floor which gets busy later in the night. For my money this disco has character that all the others lack.

I hadn't been there for quite a long time and the new smoking laws have made a big improvement. The ground level dance area (latin music) and the first floor bar are now smoke-free and only the second floor dance area (dance music) is for smokers. Also, unlike other discos I have been to here, the sound level isn't so loud it causes your skull to reverberate. I have heard complaints about the newly re-opened Amerika that it is too straight which you can't say about Angels which has to be 99% gay.

The one big problem with going to Angels is getting in. The club nominally opens at 1 a.m. but it doesn't start to get busy until around 2:30 a.m. This is because entry is pathetically slow with only one pay box open. If you arrive before 1 a.m. you will get in reasonably quickly but then have to sit around inside waiting for more people to enter. However if you arrive from 1:30 a.m. onward you need to join a long queue in the street which advances about 5m every ten minutes and you could be queuing for an hour or more.

The disco web site (in Spanish) is at http://www.discoangels.com.ar/ and the entrance charge on Saturday without a promotion ticket is $18 (includes three drinks - beer or soda).

For up-to-date information on gay places in Buenos Aires, Argentina see Guide to Gay Buenos Aires

Amerika Re-opens!

As you can't fail to notice if you go to the Amerika website the disco is finally re-opening on Friday 22nd December.

However only part of the first floor will be open and none of the second floor so reducing the total area from 2500 sq.m down to 1346 sq.m and thus reducing the capacity of the disco down to 1866 people. There is inevitably going to be a big demand so if you are planning on going I suggest you arrive early (for Buenos Aires, that is)!

Later
Note added January 2007: Amerika is now open at full capacity (includes the popular dark area).

For up-to-date information on gay places in Buenos Aires, Argentina see Guide to Gay Buenos Aires

Amerika re-opening soon

The Appeal Court has ruled in favour of the the very popular gay disco Amerika and so plans are being made for the re-opening. The date will be announced on here when it is known.

For up-to-date information on gay places in Buenos Aires, Argentina visit Guide to Gay Buenos Aires

Amerika disco still closed

The long-running dispute with the neighbours over noise continues. Amerika disco was closed at the beginning of June for (supposedly) two weeks. The dispute is still not resolved; I will put a note on here when it does re-open.

For more up-to-date information on gay places in Buenos Aires visit Guide to Gay Buenos Aires