If there’s one thing Vegas can’t get enough of, it’s more inclusive spaces for LGBT folks. In the past few years, gay-themed events inside swanky nightclubs have become the status quo, and establishments like Bronze Café have drawn wide acclaim, but publicly lesbian-run establishments have been mostly non-existent.
So when the lesbian-owned LGBT hookah bar, Blo, opened this past weekend during Pride, we wanted to know what the new spot had to offer.
“There’s really no place for [lesbian] women in Las Vegas,” says general manager and co-owner Kris Grajeda, who also spearheaded Cream Vegas, an event production group specializing in lesbian nightlife. “There are events at male-owned venues, but we don’t have our own place.”
That’s changing. Grajeda is quick to add she wants all of the LGBT crowd to feel welcome at Blo, which will also host gay and 18-and-older evenings in the future (Blo is 18-plus before 10 p.m.). The lounge has a feminine touch, but not stereotypically so, and guests can catch anything from the BBC lesbian series Lip Service to RuPaul’s Drag Race to a football game on one of the many flat-screen TVs. Its menu—full of “Cocks,” “Hooks” and “Licks” (that’s cocktails, hookah and food)—features cheeky tobacco flavors like “Fruity Booty” and “Twerk It.” Tobacco not your thing? With an Internet café, oxygen bar and open mic nights in the works, Blo will offer much more than smoky entertainment.
Blo Hookah Bar 1725 E. Warm Springs #16, 772-0689. Sunday, Wednesday & Thursday, 6 p.m.-midnight; Friday & Saturday, 6 p.m.-3 a.m.
