The Eagle’s quaint bi-level building is wedged between two much larger ones of the same style one a garage for a car dealership and the other an industrial supply warehouse. With the rapid gentrification of Chelsea has come a dramatic change in the tenor of the neighborhood’s gay culture, one where couples pushing strollers are now easier to spot than the club kids of old. Several similar bars, like The Ramrod, Badlands, and The Mineshaft, also operated in the nearby Meatpacking District, but they, too, are now closed. Rawhide was the most high-profile to go, closing in 2013, after 34 years in business, when its rent nearly doubled. Welcome to one of the last remaining leather bars in Chelsea.īars similar to The Eagle, including The Lure, The Spike, and Rawhide dotted Chelsea in the 80’s and 90’s, but all have closed as the neighborhood has gone upscale. A single, dim, glowing red light shines in the doorway, which is cased over in plastic streamers reminiscent of a meat-packing plant.
Unlike other gay bars in Chelsea that are adorned with bright, colorful lights, a rainbow flag, and made complete by the sounds of pop music rattling the sidewalk, The Eagle on West 28th Street, between 10th and 11th avenues, is dark and quiet. On a block that exemplifies the changing landscape of Chelsea – industrial buildings on one side and luxury apartment buildings on the other – a throwback of New York’s gay scene lives on.
