Philadelphia finally has a lesbian bar again.
Val’s Lesbian Bar officially opened its doors on Wednesday Night to a packed crowd full of women and queer people enjoying a space made just for them. Now you, your ex-girlfriend and her new partner (who you probably also dated one time) have a place to meet up and talk horoscopes.
According to the bar’s owners and girlfriends Clover Gilfor and Julia Harris, Val’s is Philly’s first lesbian bar since the Toasted Walnut closed in 2021. Gilfor is also one of the very few (perhaps only) trans women to own a bar in the country.
“We just wanted this space to exist,” Harris said. “We wanted a space to exist for the lesbian and queer community in Philly that could be a place you could go, six nights a week and just have a drink — a place where you can go on a weekend for a party, a place where you can go sing karaoke and just be surrounded by other lesbian and queer people.”
A bar of their own
The inside of Val’s is large, with two floors, two bars, a pool table and a side patio. There is a subtle Valentine’s theme (it’s Val’s bar after all) — with pink and red menus, decorative streamers, hearts and roses. Still, the overall vibe is a bit divey, filled with cozy booths and vintage decor. Even though the bar is just opening, the space already seems worn-in and well loved.
“We wanted this to be a place that celebrates love in all its forms, and we wanted to create a space that was kind of cute and a little sexy and a little romantic,” Harris said. “A little kitschy, a little vintagey.”
“It matters to the queer community to have a place where people feel kind of sexy and they feel like they’re doing a little bit of cruising,” Gilfor added.
Claire Choquette and Lane Radeke — two stage directors who are also a couple — were excited to come to Val’s on opening night. The pair planned to be there until close.
The fact that the word lesbian was specifically in the bar’s name was means for celebration. “The title is super important,” Radeke said. “Because then it has to stay that way. It can’t not.”
“[It] makes me feel like crying,” Choquette said. “It’s emotional to be in a space that’s for us, because there are so few. I travel for work all the time and keep up with the lesbian bar project and try to go to lesbian bars in every town I go to, and there just aren’t that many.”
According to the Lesbian Bar project, there were over 200 lesbians bars in the United States in 1980. By 2021, that number dropped to 24.
“I feel like we’re always reading about all the bars that closed — all the lesbian bars that didn’t make it past the 2008 crash,” Choquette said. “And so, it feels historical honestly, to be at a lesbian bar opening. And I feel like hopefully it’s going to be on the upswing in the next few years.”
“This is just the beginning”
Val’s is located in Queen Village, just a few blocks from Marsha’s — Philly’s first female sports bar, which opened last September.
Kara Wentworth and Kelly Bird, two friends from Mount Airy, came to the bar with their wives and ran into each other. It was Bird’s 52 birthday.
“Best birthday present ever to be here together on the opening day,” Bird said.
Next, the group was heading to Marsha’s. Just a year ago, crawling from one female-forward bar to another wasn’t on the table in Philadelphia.
“I think there’s been a story that lesbians don’t have money, that lesbians don’t go out, that this space isn’t needed or isn’t needed anymore, and the opposite is true,” Wentworth noted. “This afternoon, we were getting ready. I started plucking my eyebrows, and I was like, ‘we’ve been living in a city without a lesbian bar, and now we’re living in a city with a lesbian bar.’”
“We’ve got to turn up,” she added. “So I hope that this is just the beginning of a strong community of support from people who are excited to be in queer space, an explicitly queer space.”
The bar’s menu is both cocktail and mocktail friendly, featuring drinks with names like “Butch Bait” and “Touch-Me-Not” as well as a curated beer and draft list. (We should note that the two cocktails we tried were strong and delicious.) Food items include grilled cheese, a pickle plate and toasted chickpeas. Bar manager Kelly Donahue created five mocktails for the menu — just one fewer than on the seasonal cocktail list.
“I am sober. I don’t drink,” said Rebby Zanolla from South Philly. “I love an environment where there’s something else.”
Zanolla said it felt “easy” to be at Val’s. They were playing pool with West Philly store manager Jadyn Duguid, who proudly sported an “I Heart Dykes” t-shirt.
“I usually don’t stay at bars for too long,” Duguid said, “But, when I’m able to play at a pool table, I’ll be here all night, babe.”
“One-hundred percent!” Zanolla added. “It’s part of the joy of the lesbian bar. There’s something uniting us that isn’t just drinking… I appreciate that there’s a pool table here, because it gives me another side quest.”
“We want to be a refuge”
Gilfor and Harris were running around the packed house throughout the night, “slinging grilled cheeses” and working behind the bar to make sure patrons had what they needed.
“I’m feeling hungry, but I’m feeling really good,” Gilfor said. “You know, for an open it can be really scary, but our systems are working. Our staff is absolutely crushing it. People are enjoying themselves.”
Gilfor and Harris met five years ago. They are a rare “Tinder success story,” according to Gilfor.
“Our personalities just complement each other, which obviously is great in a romantic partnership, and it’s also been great in this business partnership,” Harris said. “Clover makes me laugh every day, so much! We have so much fun together. I think she’s so smart and brilliant and beautiful.”
When asked what made her fall for Harris, Gilfor’s reply was quick: “Look at her!”
“We both love passing the time by making up nonsense songs,” she said. “I think something that really made me fall in love with Julia is that she was, and still is, really able to help me see, when I’m feeling overwhelmed or I don’t have a handle on things. It can be easy for me to seclude myself, and Julia is one of the first people to really get me to come out of that, and that’s been a huge thing for me.”
The pair are excited for their space to become a hub for Philly’s lesbian and queer community — they look forward to hosting events and fun, like the tarot card spread they had at their soft opening. They also have a newsletter for those interested in following the bar’s happenings.
Harris believes Val’s opening couldn’t come at a better time. Despite its roomy interior, as the night wore on, the bar kept getting busier and busier. When we left at just 8:30, there was already a long line at the door with around 40 people in it.
“Over the last 100 years of lesbian bar history, lesbians have faced all sorts of oppression, political threats, violence, and we’re seeing that history, unfortunately, is not over,” she said. “We’re seeing surging homophobia and especially transphobia across the US and across the globe today tied to rising fascism and it’s really scary.”
“We want to be a refuge,” she said. “And not just a refuge, but a place to have fun and feel free and feel like you can be yourself.”
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