The Garage (Closed Permanently)

Trashy, mixed personality

On the plus side, you can wear just about anything you want to the Garage and fit in. It's a mixing place for preppy, leather, drag, b-boy, and country/western. With all the military bases in the Hampton Roads area, you also get a good mix of them thrown in. Plus, most everyone there is feeling a little sleazy / trashy (otherwise they wouldn't be there), so it's easy to hookup--regardless of what you're after. Does the crowd tend to clump into groups depending on their tastes? Yeah, but that's not unexpected... guys have preferences and tend to look for those. I've never felt like I couldn't mix with other groups if I wanted to and have never felt excluded or blocked-out. Considering the mix, it's honestly as friendly a place as you can imagine given all the VERY different groups. Friendly bartenders and the strippers on Sun / Weds range from jaw-droppingly hot to just tragic, but that's part of the fun. Probably a bit too much drag show for my taste, but that's a southern gay thing and to be expected.

loved it

went for the weekend and had a great time would love to go back

Small Town Mentality

The Garage has potential, but the issue for me is the mentality of the partrons. Regardless of whether the patrons were in drag or leather, they all appeared to stand around in little whispering groups like high school girls. As an out of towner, people would look and then try to impress by flitting among their friends in attenpt to let it be known how popular they were. I guess this is the result of there being so few options in the city and everyone knows each other. I was also struck by the segragation of the partons - the blacks tended to congregate at the front with the whites at the back. I noticed a few Latin patrons who stuck to themselves which is a shame as several were hot and dripped of hot sex. In fact, they were the hotest men in the bar. The bartender was extremely nice the night I went. It would be nice if the place had lower lighting. I always like to stand in the background and observe and the lighting and positioning of the crowd did not allow for this. There was not much circulating of the crowd. Groups tended to pick spots and plot them for the entire evening which make it hard to move around. The main problem is that these people need to travel a bit. The evening though was not a total waste - I did meet a hot little bottom whom I taught a few new tricks.

It's getting better...

The garage is Hampton Road's bear and leather bar and closest gay establishment to Downtown Norfolk. They have made a lot of improvements to the place physically, but it still could use more work. The bartenders are friendly and the drinks are strong. The entertainment is terrible and will leave you wishing it was over as quickly as possible. This includes the male dancers (which because of Virginia stripping laws are pointless) and drag queens on certain nights. Fridays and Saturdays are pretty good nights to go, as there is a more mixed crowd (it is typically older most days of the week). Saturdays the crowd often thins out by midnight when folks start heading out to dance at the Wave. Go here to have a drink and talk to the bartenders if you are staying downtown and don't have a car.