New York City Boy

Travel writer Dan Allen discusses his indispensible guide to the Big Apple

BY LAWRENCE FERBER

Dan Allen ventured into many fascinating nooks and crannies — both historical and geographical — while researching The Out Traveler's first guidebook, The Out Traveler: New York City (Alyson Books, $15.95). Given, the Michigan-born Allen currently lives in Manhattan's East Village and spent many formative years in the city (as a club kid, as an NYU student), but he discovered many surprising, exciting facts and places while compiling the guidebook's gay history timelines; neighborhood maps; sidebars on movies, people, literary works of note; and, of course, hotels, restaurants, bars and shops.

FRONTIERS: What makes this The Out Traveler: NYC gay guide stand out, or different from, a Damron or competing LGBT guidebook?

DAN ALLEN: I've tried to do something that's never been done before with a New York gay guide: to not just have lists of where to stay and what to do and the like, but also weave our history into the mix. There's so much gay history in New York City—far more than I ever imagined when starting—and I think it really helps bring history to life when you can see where something happened, even if it's just the parking lot where a building once stood.

What was the most surprising tidbit of NYC gay history you learned researching the book?

Wow, there were lots. Two of the first three executions in New Amsterdam were for sodomy. An early colonial New York governor, named Lord Cornbury no less, was a cross-dresser. Already by the 19th century there was such an active and totally decadent gay scene in the city. As late as 1965 the New York Times was still calling us “mincing perverts.” The Village People were born at The Anvil. And on and on.

Did you case out the Central Park Rambles during your research? Any hot action witnessed?

I actually wrote about 3/4 of the book in the Rambles. It's amazing how much you can do on laptops these days.

What is a place/bar/alleyway of note that might have been too dirty or sleazy to include in the book?

Nothing was off-limits, but frankly since the dirtiest and sleaziest sites like underground sex parties are generally the most nomadic, listing them wouldn't have been very accurate or practical. Besides, that's why we have Craigslist. But I can tell you about one hugely popular and pretty dirty underground club that's not in the book: Baña—hotsteammachine.com.

Has anything opened or closed since finishing the book?

Sadly, in this bloody economy it feels like more is closing than opening. In the East Village alone we already lost the excellent Rapture Cafe & Books, not to mention longtime skeezy holdout Dick's Bar on Second Avenue—although DTox did open over the summer just down the road, right between The Cock and Urge. These days I get a lot more excited about new restaurants, to be honest. I definitely would've included Artichoke Pizza on 14th Street.

How does NYC compare against L.A. as a gay destination?

I think both are basically fantastic, but they're sort of polar opposites in the way you experience them. It's a lot easier to get around New York, but there's so much more going on and it's constantly changing, knowing where to go and what to do takes serious work. On the other hand L.A.'s scene is more stable and simpler to get a grip on, but Point A and Point B are often way too far apart.

Dan Allen will sign copies of The Out Traveler: New York City at O-Bar in West Hollywood from 7-9 p.m. on Oct. 21.