Gay Bars in St. Louis: The Complete Guide for 2026
St. Louis has nine gay bars spread across four neighborhoods — The Grove strip, two side-by-side dives in Carondelet, a piano bar and the city's oldest, open since 1988.
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St. Louis has nine gay bars — more than Charlotte or Indianapolis, and a shade ahead of Nashville — and unusually for a city this size, they're spread across four genuine neighborhoods rather than one strip. The Grove on Manchester Avenue is the main event, but the South Broadway pair in Carondelet, the piano bar on Jefferson and the city's oldest bar in Tower Grove South are all worth the drive.
It's a deeper scene than its reputation, and the bars have real longevity: one open since 1988, one in a building that's been a bar for over a century.
The Grove — the main strip
Manchester Avenue is St. Louis's LGBTQ+ nightlife district and where most visitors should start.
Just John Club
One of the last dedicated gay bars on Manchester Avenue, and the biggest room in The Grove — a multi-bar venue with a dedicated dance floor, a stage for drag and karaoke, and two patios. If you're doing one night in The Grove, this is the anchor.
Prism
A cocktail lounge and drag bar further up Manchester at 4510. Prism opened in early 2022 in the space that previously housed The Monocle, and kept the room's bones. The more design-led end of the strip — go here for a cocktail and a show rather than a dance floor.
Rehab Bar and Grill
Billed as "the gateway to the Grove," and positioned that way on Chouteau just off the strip. Casual gay bar and grill with a spacious back patio, rotating drag, pool and karaoke. The low-key start to a Grove night.
Pro Tip
The Grove venues are spread along about half a mile of Manchester Avenue — walkable between Just John and Prism, with Rehab a short hop over on Chouteau. It's the only part of St. Louis where you can do more than one bar on foot.
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Carondelet — two bars, next door to each other
South Broadway in Carondelet has had gay and lesbian bars for decades, and the two survivors sit essentially side by side at 7101 and 7109.
Bar:PM
The livelier of the pair, with something on most nights — drag shows pulling some of the city's best-known queens, plus karaoke. Worth the trip south on its own.
Hummel's Pub
Next door at 7101, and a completely different room: a neighborhood gay dive where cold cheap beer is the point and everyone seems to know everyone. Rainbow flags on an otherwise unremarkable blue-collar corner bar.
Pro Tip
Bar:PM and Hummel's are next door to each other on South Broadway. Doing both in one evening is the most authentically St. Louis thing on this list — one for the drag show, one for the cheap beer afterwards.
The neighborhood bars
Grey Fox Pub
St. Louis's oldest continuously operating LGBTQ+ bar, serving Tower Grove South since 1988. The layout splits in two: a traditional corner bar that functions as the regulars' room for the surrounding blocks, and a dedicated cabaret space. Genuine institution.
Bastille
Soulard's only gay bar, open since 2001 in a corner building that has served as a bar for more than a century. Unpretentious and friendly, and it leans into the history rather than fighting it. The natural stop if you're already in Soulard for the market or the bars.
Keypers Piano Bar
A divey gay piano bar on Jefferson Avenue at Shenandoah, in residential south St. Louis. Live piano is the draw, with regulars and first-timers belting sing-alongs around the keys. There's nothing else like it in the city.
Bubby & Sissy's — across the river
Worth flagging clearly: this one is in Alton, Illinois, about 25 miles north across the Mississippi, not in St. Louis proper. It's a small-town queer bar with drag every weekend, karaoke on Thursdays, and an amateur drag queen and king night. Locals make the drive, and if you want a genuinely different night out it's the one on this list that delivers it.
Beyond the bars
The Club St. Louis
The city's gay bathhouse, open around the clock in the Loft District between Downtown and Midtown. Part of The Clubs, the national group of men's saunas whose lineage traces back to the Club Baths chain. See our guide to gay bathhouses and saunas in the US for what to expect.
MoKaBe's Coffeehouse
An LGBTQ+ owned coffeehouse at Arsenal and Grand in Tower Grove South, open since 1994. Founded by three women — Mo, Ka and Be, hence the name — as a gathering place for people on the margins, and it still functions that way. The daytime counterpart to Grey Fox a few blocks away.
Left Bank Books
Founded in 1969 by Washington University grad students and now the oldest and largest independently owned full-line bookstore in St. Louis, in the Central West End. Owner Kris Kleindienst has been with the store since 1974. A genuine piece of the city's LGBTQ+ history, not just a shop.
Pro Tip
The Grove's bars run late but the neighborhood bars don't — Grey Fox, Bastille and Keypers all skew earlier and quieter midweek. If you're out on a Tuesday or Wednesday, start with those rather than driving to Manchester Avenue and finding it half empty.
Where to stay
Aloft St. Louis Cortex is the pick if nightlife is the priority — a 129-room hotel in the Cortex Innovation District, about a 10-minute walk north of The Grove. That walkability to Manchester Avenue is unusual for a St. Louis hotel.
Planning a night out in St. Louis
- Base yourself near The Grove if you only have one night. It's the one walkable cluster.
- Carondelet is a trip, but a rewarding one. Bar:PM and Hummel's are ten minutes south by car and completely different from The Grove.
- Grey Fox and MoKaBe's are both Tower Grove South, a few blocks apart — an easy afternoon-into-evening pairing.
- Bubby & Sissy's needs a plan. Alton is a 30–40 minute drive each way across the river; don't tack it onto another night.
- Tower Grove Pride is the neighborhood Pride worth planning around — full schedule and satellite events on our Tower Grove Pride guide.
Browse what's on now at St. Louis events, or see all St. Louis venues.
Frequently asked questions about gay bars in St. Louis
How many gay bars are in St. Louis?
Nine: Just John Club, Prism, Rehab Bar and Grill, Bar:PM, Hummel's Pub, Grey Fox Pub, Bastille, Keypers Piano Bar, and Bubby & Sissy's — though the last is across the river in Alton, Illinois. There's also one bathhouse, The Club St. Louis, plus MoKaBe's Coffeehouse and Left Bank Books.
Where is the gay district in St. Louis?
The Grove, along Manchester Avenue in the Forest Park Southeast neighborhood. Just John Club and Prism are the anchors, with Rehab just off the strip on Chouteau. It's the only walkable concentration of gay nightlife in the city.
What is the oldest gay bar in St. Louis?
Grey Fox Pub, open in Tower Grove South since 1988 and the city's oldest continuously operating LGBTQ+ bar. Bastille in Soulard has been a gay bar since 2001, in a building that has housed a bar for over a century.
Does St. Louis have a gay bathhouse?
Yes — The Club St. Louis, open 24 hours in the Loft District between Downtown and Midtown, part of the national Clubs group.
Is St. Louis good for gay nightlife?
Better than its reputation. Nine gay bars is a strong count for a city this size, and the variety is real — a large dance club, a cocktail and drag lounge, a piano bar, two neighborhood dives side by side, and the city's oldest bar still running after nearly four decades. The trade-off is geography: only The Grove is walkable, so plan on driving.
Is Bubby & Sissy's in St. Louis?
No — it's in Alton, Illinois, roughly 25 miles north across the Mississippi. It's counted as part of the St. Louis scene because locals travel to it, but it's a 30–40 minute drive each way.
More St. Louis and Midwest guides
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Robbie S.
I'm Robbie, the founder of Out x Out. I'm from Minneapolis, though I'm spending 2026 building this community from the road — somewhere between South America and Asia. The idea for Out x Out came from a trip to Berlin, where the gay nightlife calendar was years ahead of ours: you could see not just where to go out, but which night to go — so naturally I wanted that kind of insider info for every city in the US (and beyond... eventually). I'm more of a behind-the-scenes type, but the whole point of this is connection: I'd take one real one over a hundred surface-level ones, and I'm trying to build that for the community, city by city.
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