cokescroaks

only real bar

Okay, I feel sorry for Fort Worth, because everyone here goes to Dallas to have fun, and we are basically down to one bar in the old gayborhood, The Rainbow Lounge. The others have burned down or just closed down over the years. The Rainbow isn't a bad bar, really, even though the crowd is a bit young and snotty or cowboy and used-up. I feel used-up sometimes, too. I understand. We can't do anything about that. It's just a weird bar with no real energy. Even the dancers just sort of stand and shift from one foot to the other, and several times when I've been there the dancers have outnumbered the patrons, like whoever owns it must just like to spend money on dancers, both male and female, even if no drinks are being sold. I don't really get it. They've just expanded the outdoor patio - which is good - but this is Texas so it's stiflingly hot out there during the day and unusable. I believe the turnover in dancers and bartenders is really high - I could be wrong. I like to dance and have fun but no one will ever join in and have fun with me at the Rainbow - the dance floor is always empty - they'd rather stand and look at me sideways and say catty things to each other, which is fine, I guess, if you'd rather not make friends or have fun, guys. I saw a drag show here fairly recently that was a really, really good drag show, so kudos to the queens, but when the drag performers aren't there, there is no life in this bar. The Rainbow is like the pretty zombie bar that ate all of the other bars in town and only APPEARS to be a real, live bar. There are a few other bars in Fort Worth, still, but I believe that one is mostly Hispanic (not that that's a bad thing) and the other is a boring neighborhood bar that's nearly out in Arlington, so for dancing and fun and glitz, the Rainbow is still the place to go in Fort Worth, but it's kind of a poor excuse for fun, and I usually just drive to Dallas now, sadly, like everybody else in this town does. :(

bar in bathhouse

It's great that there's actual alcohol served in this place - I don't know why but it's the first bathhouse I've been to that has booze. Nice area to sit at tables and drink, naked if you like. This place doesn't have a pool or showers or anything, so you can wear your clothes the whole time you're there if you like, which is a real turn-on for me. There's a dark room with a St. Andrew's cross, another room with a sling, a small porn room with a nice, soft leather couch, a blackout room in back with lots of holes, and there's even a regular full-sized bed you can use, with the curtains open so everyone can watch or with the curtains closed. Nice guys run the place. Like I said, not exactly a spa, because there's no hot tub or sauna or anything, and there are no private rooms, I don't think, just lockers, but who needs that when you can drink and wear your clothes and enjoy the company of a bunch of random naked men? It doesn't usually seem very busy, and I've been there a few times, but always enough men to find someone to play with, your way, tending toward kink when I've been. :)

Handmade leather and kink supplies

Not only has stuff that you'd normally order online and have to wait for, like toys, electricity kink items, and brand name rubber and latex stuff, also has hand-made leather jocks and harnasses and great, sexy hoods, gags, rings, leather shirts, utility kilts, women's items, and even a few dungeon furniture items, as well as books and magazines and incidentals like lube and hankies. GREAT, great place with all your bdsm needs, run by great, sexy people.

Karoake in a half a bar

Okay - apparently the bar was recently sliced in half to make way for a lesbian bar next door. The night I was there, (which, yeah, was like a Thursday, but still) there were maybe four guys in there at any given time, and then we have karaoke!! Um - yeah. Not sexy. I had more fun when I'd wander over to the lesbian side, where the two lady bartenders and three young, fem gay guys were playing beer pong because there was nothing better to do. :)

Need better DJs

Seems like all they play is diva anthems. I like the bar itself, and the crowd is pretty young and hot. Two levels with a balcony and an indoor balcony over the dance floor - a plush room with a stage for the drag shows - a quiet upstairs area that used to be a cigar lounge - nice, big outdoor patio area downstairs where you can smoke - crowd is younger - almost always a cover charge - a lot of fun straight people sometimes. A hot mess of a bar.

trashy is good

Nice dungeon area with cage and sling and other stuff - nice dark room - spent eight hours there the other day, going back. Met some guys who treated me pretty badly - that's what I wanted. :) Nice, new, clean, functional gym equipment in the gym room. Steam room and sauna seem fairly new and are big and clean. No pool, which sucks, but I still like this place. Choice of grungy dungeon or clean gym - rooms aren't bad - porn TVs in the rooms, but just one channel to choose from - bunk-type beds attached to the walls with really basic plastic-covered mattresses on them. Anyway. I've been in worse and I've been in better, and I like it kinda sleazy.

Hot and cold running men, 24/7

This place is great. There isn't any pretense about why people are there - it does have certain standards - security will make sure you aren't naked outside your room or in your room with the picture window curtains wide open - but it's all about what goes on in your room, or somebody else's room, with the curtains shut. Every room is accessible from the public areas - not hidden away in an interior hallway or anything - and other hotel guests and non-guest locals will stroll up and down the sidewalks and see what you're up to, what you might be in the mood for. :) The two bars are great - one is kinda country and it's open most of the time, and the other is a great big dance bar with go-go boys and it's always packed on the weekend nights - young crowd there and a little bit more mature in the country bar - but feel free to move back and forth between the two. Nice cute little gift shop with standard hotel gift crap and sex toys and underwear. I don't remember the restaurant being anything special, as far as the food, but it's nice. The staff is nice - you can tell they have to put up with a lot of crap and I feel for them - they handle it pretty well. There are two outdoor pools and they are nice and refreshing - not overchlorinated - and there are ALL kinds of guys who hang out there, from drag queen types to sexy twinks to "straight" guys who stop by on their way home from work. The pools are for guests but when the pools are closed at night the locals and the guests are just randomly roaming about. It's fun, and the opposite of uptight. There are about five other gay bars within a range of a few blocks, too. The whole neighborhood is fun on the weekend nights, folks just walking around half-drunk from bar to bar to the hotel to another bar. :) I wouldn't really expect to actually get a lot of sleep. :P

Not special.

The people who run the place seemed uncomfortable, like they didn't know they were in a gay neighborhood until I walked in the door. I couldn't get the wi-fi to stay connected, and there was no air conditioning in my room. I got my money back and left.

Dark and sexy

Okay - I gotta say I didn't buy much here - more goth stuff in smaller sizes for twinks was stocked than stuff that would fit me or my style, but I really enjoyed shopping here anyway. It was kinky and dark and felt a little dangerous, and that's a good thing. I made electric eye contact with some random guy customer - it just felt good. :) I did buy what might be termed a "toy bag" made of black canvas that was good-sized and really, really reasonably priced. They have a good selection of leather hoods and other kinky stuff that I just wasn't in the market for that day but might be inclined to go back and look at when I'm in that special dark place in my head. Ya know? :)

Small but great

The guy who runs the place - black guy, don't remember his name - is the best, friendliest, most naturally masculine, greatest guy ever. I bought a used leather Harley jacket from this shop that fit me like a second skin, a jacket so perfect and an experience so fantastic that I wrote a poem in praise of it in short order, a jacket that the guy recognized instantly was exactly perfect for me - and he didn't charge me what it surely was worth, I think, just because it was so clearly meant to be mine. I know, weird, but that's the kind of place this is - it has that Denver mellow-yet-vibrant-with-kink-overtones vibe all over it. :) Thank you so, so much for being there, CJ's. I've about decided to move to Denver for your type of matter-of-fact, laid-back, sexy, thuggishness. :)

Similar to Skivvies in Dallas

Not a great big store like Skivvies is, but with similar items stocked - Go Softwear - tank tops and jocks and T-shirts. Bought a black singlet here - the dude behind the counter was really encouraging about it looking good on me. :) I love places where you can try on underwear and walk around the store. Very sexy. Pretty good selection of popular styles for a small store.

Classy

You walk in and it's like the lobby of a nice hotel. The pool area outside is kind of small but I like it being right on the street with just a fence between. Frankly, it's been long ago enough now that I don't remember the rest of the facilities that well, except that the rental rooms seemed just a bit above the standard.

Not bad for the middle of the day

Just went in for one near-beer in the middle of the day - of course not too many guys that time of day but one really friendly Hispanic guy, a local who told me all about the different bars in town - seemed like it could be a great place at night when it was a little busier - kinda dark and slick. Bartender seemed kind of bitter or dissatisfied or something - but I will always give folk another chance - you never know when they're just having a bad day, just like we all do.

Great dungeon room

I got the private dungeon room while I was here - bars on open windows between the room and the hall - even a caged door-type area between the room and a public area - a sling in the room - an adjustable industrial-type fan on the wall, TV playing porn - adjustable red lighting, a St. Andrew's cross, and a full-sized bed with places to attach restraints. I had a REALLY good time and would recommend this room to anybody ANYWHERE - go to Denver and rent it. Wasn't that expensive, about twice the normal daytime room fee, I wanna say about fifty bucks but don't quote me - and some great freaky people prowling up and down the halls in the basement. :) I was there during the day on a weekday, and there were plenty of hot, aggressive (but not crazy aggressive - understanding aggressive) and versatile guys - some older guys, but Hell, they need to be served, too. :) There's an outdoor area upstairs but no pool in the whole place. :( Hot tub outside and nice grassy area. Big porn room with room for lots of guys to lounge. I forget what else. The dungeon was what I was all about, and it was hot as Hell.

Love the outdoor pool

Pool is right on the street, with just a fence separating it from Colfax, a pretty major street. Sexy. They have a really big indoor pool, too, while The Midtowne in Denver has no pool at all. The Swim Club doesn't have a sauna but has a steam room and a several great grungy areas - one is designed kinda like a military dorm or something with beds at different connected levels and two different porn movies playing. The other is a really sexy darkroom that you have to crawl into, that has a chain link fence separating two inside compartments covered with mattresses. All kinds of men just kind of piled in there when I was there. The staff is great. Better for relaxing and swimming, for sure.

Hmmmm.

The OKC Phoenix Rising offers an alternative to the bars in the Habana "resort" just down the street - but not sure it's a better alternative. The crowds in the hotel bars were bigger and having more all-out fun - but the Phoenix is good if you want to chill away from the crowds in a leathery atmosphere. The back deck area is nice. The inside is nice, too, but maybe not skanky enough for a good leather bar. Nice big dance floor, which is good for us crazy dancin' fools. A few of the patrons when I was there were kinda paranoid crazy scary and not sexy leather fun "scary." Cutest bartenders ever, tho - :) Good people working there. I had fun and just let loose and danced like a freak, which I do a lot, and just about everybody seemed to be in a live-and-let live, mellow, fun mood.

Good selection for a small store

Theater in back. Nice selection of merchandise, several racks of DVDs. Clean and friendly.

I stop here every time

They have mostly a HUGE selection of underwear, but they also carry T-shirts, used jeans (great and inexpensive!), gym shorts, and a few other shirts. They let you try on anything, even the underwear, and the changing booths have doors that hang halfway up, leaving your feet and head visible to the store. Then leave the booth and let the HOT salesguys tell you honestly if you look good in their stuff or not. SEXY. Great selection and atmosphere.

Hot crowd

Masculine dudes, leather and jeans, sexy place.