Credit: @BarBoheme
There’s something slightly magical about nighttime, like a vaseline-covered movie lens from the 1920s that acts as a proto-Instagram filter and beautifies everything in sight. The sparkle and spectacle of drag shines bright at night, but if you haven’t seen drag during the day, you’re in for a treat. Bounding between the booths and picnic tables at Boheme, two queens perform a duet that leads to a standing ovation along the entire back patio. With the sun beating down on sequins, we are greeted with the elusive vision of a daytime disco ball set to a Beyonce soundtrack with a frozen cocktail in hand. Witnessing a drag show during brunch will give you a newfound respect for performance and wonder why drag isn’t an Olympic sport yet.
Houston’s drag scene is so perfectly representative of Houston’s renowned diversity. Like the most fabulous game of Dungeons and Dragons ever, we have every different class of drag performer imaginable. We have the Broadway musical drag acts, the sculpted, table-top-dancing drag kings, the geeky kawaii queens, raunchy comedy queens, classy, movie-star queens, and the city’s favorite drag host (OutSmart Magazine’s Gayest and Greatest winner for two years in a row) is Blackberri, the beautiful, bearded queen. We have our own live Drag Race show (Dessie’s Drag Race at Rich’s). Our local libraries host Drag Queen Story Time, in which our wide array of queens read stories to enthralled kiddos. There’s drag queen bingo and queen-hosted game nights. You can see Houston drag every day of the week, so of course, that includes Sunday mornings for brunch.
The Gayborhood is always popping with rainbow-tinted entertainment, like the biweekly drag brunch that Boheme has hosted for years. Some of their shows have a theme, like their recent Ladies of Pop drag brunch, but no reveler will be disappointed when they see how hard these queens work — the French toast and infamous frozen mojito doesn’t hurt, either.
All is right with the world when Persephone jumps up on the tables and nails Selena.
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Hamburger Mary’s is perhaps best known as the epicenter of drag, which you can catch all the time at night and on Saturdays and Sundays during the day. Staying true to their snacky namesake, Hamburger Mary’s offers bottomless tater tots along with mimosas by the pitcher. Drag brunch is so popular here that reservations are recommended, but it also makes it the perfect spot to hit with a group for a birthday or bachelorette celebration.
Neon Boots Dance Hall & Saloon is known for its Brokeback-style dance floor and dancing lessons, but they also host daytime shindigs like their upcoming Latin brunch drag show tribute to the Queen of Cumbia, Selena on May 5th.
