Can New York’s Gay Hotel/Nightclub Get Any Respect?

The website for New York‘s incipient queer nightclub/hotel complex Out NYC was updated today and Gawker’s Brian Moylan took its owners to task.

That’s the thing about this Out NYC hotel. It’s like your gay friend from Pittsburgh coming to visit and he wants to go to Splash and shop on Eight Avenue and have brunch at Cafeteria and, god, it’s just so damn cheesey.

The gay hotel in New York is an utter embarrassment to those of us that live here. I mean, it’s called “The Out NYC.” What, are they going to have rainbow flag room keys? Also, have you ever heard anyone who lives in New York refer to it as “NYC?” There’s a reason.

Just look at this place! The website. It’s all slick and modern in that CB2 way that the blandest homosexuals are supposed enjoy… The facade looks like a giant TV set and the cruising grounds courtyard inside is of course filled with dapper men, because lesbians aren’t really welcome at a gay hotel, are they?

True, the venue’s evolution hasn’t been the smoothest: The initial plan—which called for a five-story hotel, XL nightclub, retail shops and a 24-hour diner—has been scaled back dramatically. The opening date has been changed more times than Monroe and Moroccan’s diapers. Funding has come and gone.

And there’s that name.

All that aside, though, we’re hoping it surpasses expectations. The Axel chain of hotels have done a great job bringing gay-centric accommodations to global metropolises, and there’s no reason why the Big Apple shouldn’t have it’s own. Plus, as New Yorkers know, there are tragically few places to get your gay dance on—especially north of 23rd Street.

We pass by the building on Tenth Avenue and 42nd Street often. Right now it looks, shall we say, unfinished. (See photo at left.) But far enough along that a late-January opening for XL seems plausible.

Don’t hold us to that, though.

 

Images via Out NYC, Dan Avery

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