tyflyguy

My favorite bar in the Castro

I love this place. I've lived in the Castro for about 5 years and this bar has become my regular hangout. The guys are typically very easy-going and the bartenders very friendly. Part of the appeal for me is that 440 attracts a fairly wide age range of men. You'll see men in their 20's to men in their 60's. Friday's through Monday's are definitely the peak nights. Monday night is underwear night which gets going around 10. The bar can really get crowded and hot, which may not appeal to everyone. 440 may not be the nicest space in the Castro, but you'll always find lots of sexy/friendly men and awesome bartenders.

I'm not sure what I expected, but...

I'm not sure what I expected, but overall this place was a big disappointment. I would have rated it as "skip it," but there are so few gay bars around that you don't have a lot of choices. The actual club is really cool, I thought. It is a great space. There is a spacious dance section, a separate area where there are drag shows, and a back patio. I would have given the club 5 stars for it's setup. The real problem with The Garden is the people. This is the same problem I had with the Saddle. We started out at the Saddle on a Saturday night and found the crowd to be really unfriendly and clique-ish. So we decided to head over to The Garden. Basically, everyone who was at the Saddle came over to The Garden. I understand that most people here come to the bars with friends, but I have never seen such an unfriendly bunch. You could look around the club and see little circles of people standing. No one was really mingling. It was odd. I grew up here and have moved away. I brought a friend from out of state with me for this visit and have spent several days listening to him talk about how friendly the people in Iowa are, only to have the gay crowd at both the Saddle and The Garden ruin it in two hours. I tried at one point to start talking to several locals, thinking that maybe I just needed to start the conversation. Nobody seemed interested in talking to anyone besides their friends. Lame. This is why I moved away. I think I rate it "skip it" after all. Go hang out at a straight bar or dance club, at least someone will talk to you there.

It's ok, not great.

I'm a flight attendant and have been to plenty of bathhouses/sex clubs throughout the country. I was a little let down with the East Side Club. I should first mention that I went on a Tuesday and a Wednesday night. But, I'm not going to review the crowd. I'll keep my review to the club and staff. I love New York. But one thing I will not do is excuse rudeness. I've been to many places in the city and have not experienced rude service. Rude is rude. I don't care if you are a New Yorker or not. Or if you are used to it or not. "It's just how NYers are." That's ridiculous. The staff was bitchy and rude. I clearly was a newbie to this club, as I paid the visitor membership rate, only to be placed on the top floor, away from everyone else, while the club was basically empty. They don't allow "visitors" to be roomed on the lower floors next to locals. Lame. The club consists of three floors. The entrance is on the 6th floor of the building. You take an elevator to the 6th, which puts you on the middle floor of the East Side Club. I was "greeted" by the guy at the front booth who clearly could not/did not want to take even 10 seconds to explain anything to me. It wasn't as if the place was busy. After entering they have "monitors" escort you to your room. This is nice considering the rooms would otherwise take forever to find. The place is not laid out very well. Or rather I should say, the numbering system makes no sense (I was on the *third* floor in room 225/237). Other than that, it seems like the monitors just walk around and watch guys jack off or play on the 2 computers in the computer room. I got a private room with a bed. It was about average as far as cleanliness goes. Very typical bathhouse room. The East Side Club has a steam room, however it was "out of service" both nights. So, I can't rate it. For the many, many rooms there was only one small shower room with 4 showers, 2 bathrooms, 1 urinal. Not the cleanest in the world, but it's a bathhouse, not a spa. This is a very basic bathhouse. I mean that it really only has private rooms. This may have something to do with local laws. There are no public play areas. No porn playing at all. This leaves the place feeling a little boring. Ok, so I lied. I will review the crowd. It was lame. This isn't necessarily the club's fault. But, when I go to a bathhouse or sex club I like to have sex. There were, on both nights, a large amount of men who were not interested in sex, much less even a blow job. I have my theories as to why this is, but I'll leave for you to decide that for yourself. All in all, both nights I went were "bleh." The place was boring and lacking in amenities. The staff was rude. If they want to become even an average bathhouse they really need to step it up a couple of notches.