Industry Brings Drag, Pop and LGBTQ+ Nightlife to Hell’s Kitchen

On West 52nd Street in Hell’s Kitchen, Industry occupies a ground-floor space that combines a neighborhood gay bar with the atmosphere of a late-night club. The Manhattan venue opened in 2010 and has developed a profile among LGBTQ+ nightlife options in the city, particularly for young gay men and tourists.

Industry is owned by Bob Pontarelli, who is also associated with Elmo, a restaurant, and the now-closed gay bar Barracuda. The venue’s programming centers on pop music and recurring drag performances. Its calendar includes several weekly drag shows, with some hosted by queens known internationally. That combination of dance-floor music and live performance has helped make Industry a frequently mentioned stop in coverage of Manhattan’s gay nightlife.

The bar’s setting is part of its identity. Industry is located in a Bauhaus-style office building, and its interior takes inspiration, in a loose sense, from Berlin’s Berghain. Rather than relying on a single open room, the design uses surrounding walls and separated areas to create different pockets within the venue while still allowing patrons to move through the space.

Inside, the visual details mix club, lounge and theatrical elements. The room includes stage-style lighting, leather seating, oriental rugs, disco balls and a wooden bar. A rococo billiards table adds an ornate contrast, while black globe lamps associated with the 1970s contribute to the room’s retro touches. The result is a setting that places performance and socializing alongside the expected nightclub features.

Industry once stood directly across from Therapy, another gay bar that closed in 2020. That former neighboring relationship places the venue within a changing Hell’s Kitchen nightlife landscape, where LGBTQ+ bars and clubs have long served as gathering places for residents, visitors and performers.

For people looking for a drag-focused night out in Manhattan, Industry’s identity is straightforward: a pop-oriented gay club with a regular performance schedule and a deliberately designed interior. Its audience and programming reflect the overlapping roles that LGBTQ+ nightlife venues can play—as places to dance, watch drag, meet friends and experience a visible part of Hell’s Kitchen’s entertainment culture.

Source and reuse information This backgrounder adapts factual material from “Industry Bar” on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industry_Bar The adapted text is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license (CC BY-SA 4.0): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/. This story has not been independently reviewed or fact-checked.

Further links listed by the Wikipedia page (not independently checked): - https://www.timeout.com/newyork/lgbt/gay-bars-in-hells-kitchen - https://nymag.com/listings/bar/industry/ - https://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/20/fashion/20boite.html - https://www.papermag.com/the-30-best-gay-bars-in-manhattan-1427344530.html - https://www.industry-bar.com/ - https://getoutmag.com/the-queens-of-nyc-drag-star-search-barracuda-queens-industry/ Image rights Photograph description: Tropfest 2013 on tonight: Sydney, Australia; Red carpet and awards update Not many festivals can claim the title of being Australia’s most prestigious short film festival and largest short film festival in the world at the same time. Such is the stage of Tropfest – one of Australia’s most iconic cultural events. From its humble beginnings in 1993 as a screening for 200 people in a Sydney cafe, Tro Creator: Eva Rinaldi. License: CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0). Original image page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ARhys_Wakefield.jpg. The image was resized for display; no other changes were made.