The Best Things To Do & Eat During Pride Month 2021

Happy Pride Month, NYC. It’s time for IRL drag shows, all-day bar hangs, and group brunches with live DJs who aren’t afraid to play “Rain On Me” three times in a row. NYC is quite gay all year round, but for the month of June, the entire city feels like one big sweaty-rainbow-colored tube sock full of drag shows, pop-up dinners, and brunch tea parties. So before you get too overwhelmed with all the flyers on your feed and calendars in your inbox, use this guide to find some of our favorite restaurants and bars in the city hosting Pride events this month.

June 1st - June 6th

BK Queer Flea at Three Dollar Bill

June 5th, 3-9pm

There are plenty of great ways to celebrate pride in NYC. One of the most impactful ones is to support LGTBQ+ vendors and small businesses at events like BK Queer Flea. The annual marketplace is back this year on Saturday, June 5th from 3-9pm at Three Dollar Bill. In addition to art prints, clothes, and handmade jewelry by local queer artists and designers, BK Queer Flea BK Queer Flea will also have a DJ and food by Three Dollar Bill. The event is free and open for walk-ins, so if you want more details on the vendors or any other details, check out the event page on Instagram here.

Ursula Pop-Up at Brooklyn Museum’s First Saturdays

June 5th, 1-6pm

New Mexican cafe and popular queer food pop-up venue, Ursula has announced a huge lineup of Pride events for June. The first is a collaboration with Ediciones and Nuestra Mesa for the Brooklyn Museum’s First Saturday event on June 5th. Ursula will be selling Frito pie + vegan nachos from 1-6pm in celebration of the museum’s Pride-themed outdoor community event called Still Here, Still Queer. For more events from the Ursula team happening all across Brooklyn this moth, check out their Instagram post.

Queer Brunch Tea Party at Maite

June 6th, 12-4pm

This Bushwick restaurant is hosting a queer brunch tea party with Brooklyn-based beer project, Dyke Beer on Sunday, June 6th from 12-4pm. There will be a live DJ, burlesque performances, and drag, as well as plenty of Dyke Beer to try. Plus you’ll have Maite’s rotating menu of seasonal Colombian-Basque dishes to enjoy between performances. This is a ticketed event and reservations are required, so make your plan ahead of time here.

Korean-Lebanese Pride Brunch Pop-Up at Edy’s Grocer

June 5 & 6th, 9am till sold out

This Lebanese deli in Greenpoint is hosting a Korean-Lebanese Pride Brunch Pop-up, with a portion of all proceeds donated to two LGBTQ+ nonprofits, the Lebanese Medical Association for Sexual Health and Pride Train. Edy’s pop-up brunch menu includes a bunch of dish collaborations with Korean chef and content creator James Park, which will only be available on Saturday, June 5th and Sunday 6th. Everything will be available for pick-up at Edy’s Grocer from 9am till things sell out on both days, so we suggest you start planning your weekend around this now.

Queer Beer: A Virtual Cooking Class

June 5, 4:45-5:15pm

The Hop Culture x Samuel Adams Queer Beer Festival is a digital craft beer event that’s all about supporting the queer brewers within the craft beer community. So if you’re still not ready for a drag show in a crowded bar, you should check out their lineup of virtual workshops and panels happening this month. This Saturday, June 5th there’s a virtual cooking class hosted by the Queer Food Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to the advancement of the LGBTQIA+ community in the food world. The class is being led by Chef Chala (they/them) who will cook a dish with white beer from Allagash Brewery from 4:45-5:15pm. To buy tickets, check out their website .

JUNE 7th - JUNE 13TH

MOFAD X Queer Food Foundation Presents: Food + Queer Bodies

June 9th, 7:00-8:00pm

The Museum of Food & Drink is hosting a virtual talk on Wednesday, June 9th about how the queer community is connected to food. It’ll be hosted by Andreas of The Aphrodisiac Kitchen in discussion with Luz Cruz of Cuir Kitchen Brigade, and you can purchase your tickets here.

Pride Party at Good Judy

June 12th, 3-6pm

Good Judy is one of our favorite new bars in the city and an absolute must-visit for a fun night out in Park Slope. If you’re looking for a reason to stop by this month, head to this gay bar for its Brooklyn Pride Party on Saturday, June 12th. Drag performers and DJs will be taking over the street in front of the bar, which is closed off to traffic thanks to the open streets program. And while it hasn’t been announced yet, the bar did mention that there might also be a Pride event that same evening.

JUNE 14th - JUNE 20TH

Tales From Our Table: A Virtual Cocktail Party

June 16th, 7:00-8:30pm

Andra Johnson, partner and bar director at Serenata in Washington, DC. and our first-ever guest bartender, is hosting a night of cocktail demos with expert mixologist Tiffanie Barrier. The event is a part of the Museum of Food & Drink’s virtual Pride series and will also include performances by several queer artists. To find out more about how to reserve tickets, head to The Queer Food Foundation’s website.

Queens Of The South: A Queer Brunch at Ursula

June 20th, 10am-3:30pm

Ursula is hosting a queer brunch pop-up on Sunday, June 20th with Woldy Reyes, the chef behind Brooklyn-based catering company Woldy Kusina, and Chef Tony Ortiz. You can expect a mashup of Filipino, Latinx, and New Mexican dishes here, plus a lineup of queer DJs and cocktails by Hunky Dory.

June 21st - June 27th

Queer Community Pop-up: Hags at Ursula

June 22, Time TBA

Hags, a queer, community-driven tasting menu restaurant in NYC, will be popping up at Ursula on Tuesday, June 22nd. The event is a part of the New Mexican cafe’s Queer Community pop-up series which has been ongoing since February 2021. You can read our interview with Eric See, Ursula’s owner, and his vision for queer pop-up events at Ursula here.

Hunky Dory Pop-Up: A Pride Summer Cookout with Food + People

June 23, Time TBA

We’ve been planning our social calendar around this event since we first saw that Hunky Dory would be hosting Food + People, a Black-owned community-focused food business known for serving incredible meatloaf burgers at pop-ups across NYC. So we recommend you show up early to get your order in for this daytime event at one of our favorite bars in Crown Heights.

More Events and Openings to Know About:

• One of the few lesbian bars in the city, Cubbyhole has just reopened for indoor bar service. They are requesting that you bring proof of vaccination to sit indoors, but you can also grab drinks outdoors on their flower-covered patio in the West Village when it’s warm. If you plan on bringing a group, you can call ahead to make a reservation at (212) 243-9041.

• Another West Village favorite, Pieces is back and better than ever. The popular gay bar is hosting a different drag show every single night this week. From a Monday night drag competition to a Saturday night Happy Hour from 2-8pm, this is the place to be if you’re ready for a crowded bar scene full of good wigs and loud gays right now. And now that the city’s midnight curfew has been lifted, the party doesn’t stop until 4am here. So keep Pieces in mind for your next ridiculous night out with a group of friends.

• Throughout June, Ilili will donate $2 from each order of its “We Are the World” cocktail to LebMASH, an organization of Lebanese LGBTQ+ activists. The organization launched the YallaCare campaign to support LGBTQ+ people impacted by COVID-19, the “nuclear-size” port explosion in Beirut, and the economic crisis in Lebanon.

• Every year during Pride Month and throughout the summer, Jacob Riis Beach becomes a queer haven on the outer edges of Brooklyn. There are beachside drag shows, DJ sets, and plenty of friendly faces taking in the sunshine. So before you pack another pint of ice cream that’ll inevitably melt on the car ride over, we thought you should know that Oddfellows just opened a new ice cream counter here. The new location has a bunch of picnic tables and umbrellas where you can enjoy a cone with much less anxiety.

• Consider this your official reminder that Big Gay Ice Cream exists. With three NYC locations on the UWS, South Street Seaport, and the West Village, you’ve got more than enough reasons to go to town on a strawberry sundae or a marshmallow-covered cone during Pride month. Follow their Instagram to stay up to date on the latest specials and new flavors here.