Jacques Cabaret Has Been a Gay Bar in Bay Village Since the 1940s
Boston’s oldest continuously operating gay bar opened in 1938, fought the city in the 1970s, and still has drag every night.
Jacques Cabaret is the oldest continuously operating gay bar in Boston. Henry Vara opened it in Bay Village in 1938 as Jacques Restaurant, and by the mid-1940s it was a gay bar.
How did it survive?
It had to fight for it. In 1965 a city councillor proposed bulldozing the neighborhood’s bars. In 1975 the licensing board ruled the bars had to move or lose their liquor licenses; the state overturned that. In 1976 the board cut closing time from 2 AM to midnight.
It has stayed a family business the whole time. In 1967 Vara opened another bar, The Other Side, across the street.
Is there drag at Jacques?
Yes, Jacques has drag shows every night. Plenty of RuPaul’s Drag Race names have played it:
- Katya Zamolodchikova, who started the monthly burlesque show Perestroika there in 2006
- Jujubee, Sapphira Cristál, Plane Jane, Kori King and Briar Blush
For more drag, Club Café in the South End runs drag musicals and a monthly drag brunch; they’re on our theater page and the Club Café page. Bay Village is a short walk from the Theater District.
Sources: Wikipedia: Jacques Cabaret.
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