LGBTQ+ Denver Nightlife

Just a few blocks down on Colfax sits one of Denver’s most popular dance bars, Charlie’s.

It’s always a party at Charlie’s. With its mythical two-step lessons early in the evening, go-go boys, cheap sloshy beer and an entire room for its legendary drag shows, the folks at Charlie's know how to keep a dance card full. The mix of the cowpoke with the disco queen is quickly becoming iconic. 

An absolute must if you like: fierce and fabulous drag queens, cheap drinks handed out by topless cowboys, watching go-go boys hang from the ceiling, or having a good time while wearing and doing just about whatever you want. 

A few blocks north of Capitol Hill, there’s a new kid on a very storied block: the Pearl, a Sapphic-centric haven. In April, the onetime speakeasy Pearl Divers moved from Cap Hill to the mural art-adorned building at the corner of 22nd and California. The bar with benefits — Dancing! Eats! So much more! — was home to Denver’s poetry-activist mainstay the Mercury Café for 50 years. Pearl owners Ashlee Cassity and Dom Garcia have been putting their imprint on the space while honoring the Merc’s meaning for more than a few generations of Denverites. The duo kept some staff and still are home to a few of the weekly events the Merc offered, like the ultra-popular swing nights that take place in the second-story space known as the “Warehouse”; Latin Dance lessons as well as open-mic nights that unfurls in the Jungle, the space adjacent to the often-chill Rose Room on the main floor. 

It's a great thing that the two stayed the course. Parade.com put the current number of lesbian bars in the U.S. at a paltry 36 in 2024. Denver (and the nation) lost one when Blush & Blu on Colfax shuttered. 

It’s a balancing act, being both old school and fresh. It’s a sweet trick the Pearl is pulling off. Even its use of “sapphic” feels like a nod to an era when a good lesbian bar wasn’t so hard to find. The vibe is intergenerational and if you scan the Rose Room — the Pearl’s central salon — you’ll see a swath of patrons who represent all the ingredients in our wonderfully, willfully inclusive alphabet soup. 

“It’s going very well. We’re just so grateful for the support and love we’ve received. Being one of the few sapphic bars in the country is both an honor and a responsibility we don’t take lightly,” said Cassity. “The Pearl was born out of a deep desire to create a space that truly feels like home — for women, for the LGBTQ+ community and for anyone who wants to be surrounded by joy, safety and connection. We’re still pinching ourselves that it’s real, and we’re beyond excited to keep growing with our community.

“We try to have some kind of sapphic party — like a dance party — once a week,” she says, sitting in one of the sofas, waiting for the HVAC guy on an early summer afternoon.

But if that’s too high wattage for you, there’s Tuesday’s Trivia gathering and Wednesday’s Karaoke night. Both are a blast of raucous audience participation. The queue for trying your voice at Karaoke fills up quickly — and, of course, there are return belters. Take the slim brunette who looks like she might head upstairs for swing night once she croons her American songbook number. 

Listening to Cassity, there’s a hint of missing the old Pearl Diver (your first love sort of thing, perhaps).

“It was really cool,” says the Beaumont, Texas, native and hospitality trade expert. There were no eats, just cocktails of the traditional and tiki bar variety. “That's why we kind of kept some of the tiki theme, like masks,” she says, pointing to something in the shadows on a wall.

The Pearl serves up a getting-yummier-by-the-week bar food menu. In honor of Cassity’s Southern roots, the Pearl offers what she likes to call “NOLA street food.” So leave room for Cajun-spice-dusted fries, a terrific Cajun gravy, po’boys, cornmeal cornmeal-battered fried okra that might nudge memories of nights on Bourbon Street. 

A few miles north of Colfax, in the River North Art District (RiNo), sits one of Denver’s best dance clubs, Tracks, which has been a haven for LGBTQ+ people and allies for years.

Tracks continually delivers fun-themed nights, great music and some of the best drag queens Denver has to offer on Thursday through Sunday nights, usually starting at 9 p.m. The establishment and the event space next door have cemented Track’s legacy as a premier cultural center for LGBTQ+ and drag culture in the Denver community.

For young people, Tracks is a place to go for a fun time in a safe space, and it has been providing that kind of atmosphere for nearly 40 years.

The Small Talk - Nightlife