1. Old Nick’s Pub, 211 Washington St. 541-844-1280. OldNicksPub.com.
2. Cowfish Cafe and Lounge, 62 W. Broadway. 541-683-6319. Facebook.com/cowfish.danceclub.
3. Blairally, 245 Blair Blvd. 541-683-1721. Blairally.com.
Stepping into Old Nick’s Pub is akin to entering another world. From the gargoyles to the Victorian chandeliers, the Medieval tavern-themed eats to the brews, Old Nick’s welcomes adventurers of all sexualities, genders and spectrums.
It’s no wonder the community voted Old Nick’s as the best queer gathering spot in Eugene.
“There’s a natural crossover with the queer community and fantasy,” says owner and operator Emily Chappell. “There have been decades, the entire existence of the United States, where queer people weren’t allowed to be married, weren’t allowed to be openly queer, weren’t allowed to be themselves. There’s a lot of fantasy that was indulged in, just being part of a kinder world.”
Of course, you can’t forget the Victorian Gothic elements of Old Nick’s, either. “The Goths and the gays have been besties pretty much since the ’80s,” Chappell says.
The “queer pagan nerd bar,” Chappell calls it, wasn’t originally intended to be a queer bar. Instead, the focus was on being a live music venue, and it opened its doors in April 2015 with a slightly more British pub vibe than it has today. Unfortunately, this appealed to a group of Hammerskins, Chappell says, and she had to kick them out of the venue.
“It sort of set us up with the white supremacist community targeting us, because here was a live music venue with a European theme, something that they would want to hold on to, and they were being told they’re not welcome and this isn’t their space,” she says. “So we started to get targeted by them, and I just was like, without putting it delicately, ‘Fuck you guys.’”
From then on, Chappell has strived to make Old Nick’s an out-and-proud safe space. “I kind of naively thought that that would be an assumption, because that’s just what it should be,” she says. “We ended up having to stand up for our queer community a lot.”
Outside of being an ever-safe space, Old Nick’s hosts LGBTQ+ events on a weekly basis, from drag bingo and karaoke to Chub, the body positive dance party, and Queer Country Night. There’s always a way to be loud and proud at the pub.The pub will be closed for the first few days of the new year as it undergoes some renovations, but it will open up better than ever on Jan. 10, 2025, with a new name: Sparrow and Serpent. — Emma J Nelson