Edinburgh in 1 night with 2 gay guys at 3 gay bars
"Visiting Edinburgh for a few days, we hit three gay bars on Saturday night. Each one was fun in its own way."
Mark
Edinburgh, Scotland, was a stop along the way for us. My husband, Dan, and I were headed to World Pride in Amsterdam this summer, looking for another place to visit going all the way to Europe.
When we settled on the Faroe Islands, we decided we’d get there by transferring through Edinburgh. And hey, might as well check that out too.
In the middle of our three nights in Edinburgh – a fine city with culture and lovely people, worth a couple of days – was a Saturday night of bar-hopping to three local spots that we thought were pretty cool.
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In late July, it was still cloudy, drizzly and cool. Staying at Motel One – Royal put us within walking distance of a lot of the city we wanted to see, including a funky meal at Montrose and a fantastic one at Tipo.
It was dinner at Montrose that started our Saturday night bar-hopping amongst the gays.
First up was the neighborhood gay bar across the street, Regent Bar.
Walking in, it felt like every eye turned to watch these two newcomers walk through the door.
It was a diverse crowd of a few dozen people, mostly older than us, in our early 50s – a blend of men and women, including a few guys in cowboy hats and harnesses.
The music followed suit, some ‘80s, some ‘90s. And the light was really bright. Again, Regent isn’t a “dive bar”; it’s a “neighborhood bar.”
When we ordered our drinks, we certainly felt out of place.
“Ketel One shaken up with a twist,” I said.
“That’s the most American thing I’ve ever heard,” the bartender laughed.
And that’s kind of the way our hour there went. We tried striking up conversation with a couple of guys at the bar, as well as a trans woman who strutted in looking for someone. They were nice enough, but they were doing their thing.
We didn’t feel unwelcome; we felt like outsiders in a neighborhood bar. That’s exactly who we were.
It seemed like a popular spot. There was a lot of friendship growing there; we could see that.
It just wasn’t for us.
The Abbey of Edinburgh
Our next stop – CC Bloom’s, named obviously for Bette Midler’s iconic character from “Beaches” – was about a 15-minute walk back in the direction of our hotel.
“You guys know what kind of bar this is, right?” The bouncer at the door of CC Bloom’s asked as we tried to enter. It took us aback, and we chuckled.
“Should we start making out?” Dan asked. The bouncer smiled and opened the door.
Apparently, given CC Bloom’s location toward the center of the touristy area, some straight guys have entered, not realizing it caters to the gays and the women who love them. And a few times, it hasn’t gone well.
When we entered, we realized why he asked. The crowd was about a third women – seemingly mostly straight women. This wasn’t a mix of lesbians and gay guys like Regent. This was Edinburgh’s rendition of The Abbey.
It was a good-sized crowd, the relatively small dance floor packed pretty much throughout, dancing to pop songs and remixes of pop songs. If you want to sing along while you’re dancing, this is your spot.
There was a more outwardly friendly vibe at CC Bloom’s, with a few people – mostly women – coming up to us to say hello. That didn’t happen at Regent.
One woman told us after 90 seconds of chatter that we were her “favorite people of the night.” I don’t know that she was drinking Ketel One shaken up with a twist, but she’d had plenty of something.
The vibe was upbeat, but it really wasn’t our scene, mostly because of the music. We prefer house music, tech house – EDM.
But again, a fun night. We could have stayed there and had a good time. If someone’s looking for laughter and smiles, dancing and singing with a mixed crowd and pop music, CC Bloom’s is perfect.
When we left around midnight – the sky had just gotten fully dark – we thought we’d head back to the hotel and call it a night. We’d had a fine time, no reason to complain.
Finding our music and our people at The Street
We decided instead on one last stop at The Street.
That made the night for us.
Again, we like house and tech house music. The Street has a basement – The Street Nightclub – they open up for dance parties on the weekend. That’s exactly what we were looking for that Saturday night in July.
The place was packed. Shoulder-to-shoulder, but with just enough room to move around the crowd of about 150 people. It was mostly guys, but women were clearly welcome too.
Here we found the most overtly friendly crowd of the night. Maybe everyone was a couple of drinks into the night by then and loosened up. For whatever reason, lots of people were saying “hello” to us, dancing, chatting by the bar.
Plus the DJs – Trendy Wendy and Eva Crystaltips – were exactly what we were looking for, even with bongo drums at one point adding extra life to Wendy’s set.
For us, The Street delivered that Saturday night like no other.
Mind you, we went back Sunday afternoon, and it was just a general bar upstairs as it poured buckets outside – no DJ, just playing some music from a playlist, a couple dozen people socializing with an Aperol spritz.
Yet Saturday night at The Street was, for us, special.
Everybody likes different things in music and a bar. As we walked the 10 minutes back to our hotel, we both reflected on that.
In Edinburgh, Scotland – a city of about a half million people, about the size of Sacramento or Kansas City – we found three LGBTQ+ nightlife spots, each of which could be exactly what any one person or group of friends is looking for.
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