Heard Through the Gay Bar Grapevine 2

As mentioned yesterday, this week, I will feature a series of posts, as I heard from the gay bar grapevine along Roxas and Pasay. All these are based on hearsay, gossip, chismis, not about macho dancers, hostos or managers, but about the gay bars in this part of town.

Enjoy!

Bar on the Rise

Long-time gay bar along Libertad, “Answer for The Emotionally Needy” (ATEN), is booming more than ever.

It has two floors for entertainment – the ground floor being the entrance, then the second floor for the macho dancers and the third floor disco for the models/hostos. That floor’s biggest draw? Cheap drinks, unlike the P400+ per drink of other macho bars. That’s why most of the clientele of ATEN are supposedly GROs from the nearby girlie bars in Manila. Ooh! Cheap drinks for cheap… skates.

Before, when macho dancers were forced to leave Home Base as they couldn't reach the monthly quota, they would always consider applying to ATEN. If we ask where certain ex-Home Base MD was working, the usual reply was "sa ATEN." So, my friends and I had an impression that ATEN was a run-down bar filled with "unsellable" MDs. In short, bagsakan ng mga MDs na laos o walang customer.

Quite the contrary now, apparently. Sources said the hostos here (the non-strippers) are frequently tabled, with around three girlalu customers per night. Never vacant; never bangkay. Each girlalu may afford to buy them just 2-3 drinks, but with more customers a night, an MD can easily reach 10 drinks daily. "Kahit na wala raw customer na mayaman na magbabagsak ng 20 drinks," as one MD said, "at least may kita naman araw-araw para maabot ang quota (Even if there's no rich customer to give 20 drinks, at least, there's income everyday to reach the quota)."

But lately, the bar's second floor, the macho dancing one, is also gaining ground. Apparently, more “big time” customers are going to the bar for its macho dancers. MDs of competitor bars are also wondering why. Parking is supposedly difficult (fine, they can take a taxi), the place a bit run-down, and the vicinity dimly lit and unsafe at night.

When asked if they are interested to transfer, an MD responded in the negative, reasoning "maraming awayan, siraan. Tapos ang pangit ng lugar. Feeling mo pwede ka masaksak kahit kailan. (there are lots of fights, backbiting. Then the place is unsightly. You get the feeling of being stabbed anytime)."

Maybe his mind may change about working for that bar, once he becomes unsellable in the bar he's working in now and fail to meet his monthly quota.

Apparently, it was the first gay bar to open in Pasay. This was according to an MD friend who rode a taxi to work one night, and requested to be dropped off at another gay bar. Nearing the gay bar, the taxi driver asked if he was working there, and the MD responded truthfully. That taxi driver who was in his mid-to-late 30s said he used to work at ATEN years ago. My MD friend wasn't surprised; that driver had an aged pretty face.

But if ATEN was really the first gay bar in Pasay, I wouldn't know. I was still too young when it opened. When I asked my more mature vecky friends, they also haven't heard of the bar before in the 90s or early 2000s.

Well, now ATEN is really making its mark. Just Google "gay bar manila", and at the top of the page, that is the only bar that appears on Google Maps.



Last: When two bars close, another two bars open

GB Goer
Learn more: Lessons from Gay Bars in Manila
http://machosandhostos.blogspot.com/
email: char.affairs@gmail.com; Follow at twitter: @gbgoer

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