Out Late: The Bush is igniting a lesbian cultural renaissance in Bushwick and beyond
“Out Late” is Time Out’s nightlife and party column by DJ, Whorechata founder, and Staff Writer Ian Kumamoto, which will publish every other Tuesday. The previous edition was about how 2010s nightlife shaped the vintage store James Veloria.
Everything began thanks to a terrible date Justine LaViolette went on a decade ago. After a less-than-ideal dinner (details undisclosed), her date took her to—where else?—Misster, the lesbian night at The Woods. “It was the worst date and also the best date of my life,” LaViolette recalls, because that’s also the night she met Nikke Alleyne, who would go on to become her business partner.
In all likelihood, LaViolette and Alleyne would have crossed paths eventually. That’s because there are not a whole lot of places in New York City, or much of the world, where women who love other women can socialize far from the gaze of men. And, if you have only two or three places available to you—no matter how amazing they may be—you’re very likely going to get bored. “We just needed more spaces, and there weren’t really any in this part of Brooklyn,” Alleyne tells Time Out. “There wasn’t any place where we could get a cocktail and also go dance and cruise and just have a time.”
Being the first of anything brings its own complex set of challenges, which became regrettably clear to the two friends from the start. When they were scouting locations for a bar in 2021, they found a space in Bushwick near the nightclub Nowadays and settled on it for their project. They poured thousands of dollars into the location and showed up one day to find that, unbeknownst to them, the landlord was already showing the space to someone else. “He was this Christian guy who I think felt uncomfortable with us the whole time and didn’t want to give us the space, but he also didn’t want to be honest about it,” says LaViolette. “He was literally showing the space to a church group!”
There wasn’t any place where we could get a cocktail and also go dance and cruise and just have a time.
That incident set the two back significantly, but looking back, it was a blessing in disguise: Their broker showed them another space on Troutman Street, which was attached to businesses that would later become occupied by trendy coffee shops, queer-friendly bars (including one where I was broken up with) and the vintage store Other People’s Clothes. The location, just two blocks from Maria Hernandez Park, was prime.
For months, LaViolette and Alleyne poured all their love into the new space. Their intention was to create a queer bar with great cocktails, yes, but also a place where queer women could have the type of spontaneous, sexually charged encounters that are readily available to practically everyone, it seems, except queer women. “There’s a lot of gay male spaces that have this hook up energy and we wanted to bring that,” said LaViolette. “Literally, we wanted people to come and make out.”
Literally, we wanted people to come and make out.
When they were finally ready to open The Bush in April of 2023, they expected a few people would wander in. Maybe LaViolette and Alleyne weren’t on the same part of Instagram as I was, but I remember seeing rumors circulating about a new lesbian bar in Bushwick, and there was a fervor around it that I hadn’t seen around an opening for a long time. On opening night, a line stretched down the block—a sign, clearly, that the demand for such spaces was much higher than the supply. LaViolette and Alleyne were so unprepared for this reception and so understaffed that they ended up having to work the bar themselves.
If you pass The Bush on a weekend night, you’ll notice that it’s low-lit, the music is bumping, and people are always dancing across its large, open space. Right now, to me at least, the bar feels more like a spacious gallery space, with little furniture and a lot of room to dance. The Bush seems a little unsure about its own identity, throttling the line between a bar and a club, and the layout can feel impersonal when it’s not packed to the brim, which is an issue that LaViolette and Alleyne are aware of. In the near future, they hope to fill the space with booths to make it feel cozier, so that it can be the type of space where two friends go to chat for post-work drinks, or where people can inch closer to each other on a first date, slowly.
Nearly two years since they first opened, it’s safe to say that The Bush has been a success. Now, LaViolette and Alleyne tell me, they just need more support beyond the weekends. There are only about 32 lesbian bars across all 50 states, compared to approximately 200 in the 1980s, and even for The Bush, keeping business flowing has been an uphill battle. “If the community wants longevity in this business, we need support not just on Friday and Saturday,” Alleyne tells Time Out. “The biggest challenge right now is getting people to support us Tuesday through Thursday.” It seems to me like The Bush, with its novelty worn out nearly two years after it first opened, is at an inflection point: It’s existence could signify the rare but brief success of a type of space that will eventually disappear, or the beginning of a new cultural era—it’s up to the, us, the patrons, to decide which one it will be.
If the community wants longevity in this business, we need support not just on Friday and Saturday.
LaViolette and Alleyne have big dreams for The Bush: They want to expand into a bigger space and then open more bars. They want others to look at The Bush and be empowered to open their own sapphic bars as well. There’s a sense of abundance, a sentiment that I’ve found is rare in nightlife, and they seem aware that other queer bars’ success is interconnected with their own. “Selfishly,” says LaViolette. “I want to cruise at a bar that I don’t work at.”
How to go to The Bush
Where: 333 Troutman St Store 4, Brooklyn
When: Tuesday-Thursday from 6pm-2am; Friday and Saturday from 6pm to 4am; and Sunday from 4pm to 12am.
The vibe: Community vibes on the weekday, crazy bar party vibes on weekends. Follow their Instagram to see what parties they’re throwing next.