Still, Rebel Rebel has rapidly become a thriving third space for Portland’s LGBTQ nightlife community, in a neighborhood - and city - that has lost so many of its inherently queer spaces.
This neighborhood was once home to queer holdouts, places like Embers and Fox & Hounds even nearby LGBTQ club CC Slaughters almost closed for good over the course of the pandemic. Rebel Rebel has only been open for a few months, but owner J Buck says his David Bowie-inspired bar has hit full capacity constantly since its opening. The interior amounts to a sometimes claustrophobic hall bathed in neon hues and shadow, with a corner stage and booths further inside for watching drag shows or setting up base camp before dancing to local queer DJs. Within the bar, men sport ornate Easter-inspired floral headdresses, club kids arrive dripping in luxury fashion accessories, tech gays chat with stylish lesbians. On the outside, Rebel Rebel - a compact Old Town bar boxed between Tube and Dixie’s Tavern - could be just a hole in the wall, a doorway one might miss if not for the drag artists in fetish gear outside.
