For the primary time in almost a decade, Edmonton may have two homosexual bars this summer season.
Evolution Wonderlounge will open a brand new location on Jasper Avenue and 115 Avenue, as its downtown location on 103 Avenue close to 102 Avenue winds down operations.
“It compelled us to begin wanting round so we discovered this area, so we’re like, let’s simply do each directly till the lease runs out,” Evolution Wonderlounge co-owner Rob Browatzke advised World Information.
The brand new bar will take over the Reign Premium Lounge & Kitchen, which has been sitting vacant since January.
Browatzke stated he acquired the decision from the owner that the area was accessible. The brand new area can be renamed ‘Evo’ and it comes with new alternatives.
The Wîhkwêntôwin location will supply two flooring for eating and occasions.
Evo, on Jasper Avenue and 115 Avenue, is taking up the area previously occupied by Reign Premium Lounge & Kitchen and will supply two flooring for eating and occasions.
World Information
Evo plans to open earlier within the day than a typical nightclub, so as to present joyful hour cocktails, dinner menu objects, and develop weeknight programming to incorporate trivia nights, bingo nights and karaoke.
Browatzke hopes it attracts a bigger clientele base.
“It’s one thing that we at all times wished to do after we first opened again in 2013. We had been really seven days every week and for joyful hour, and it simply didn’t work as a result of individuals didn’t wish to be in a basement,” Browatzke stated.
“The dancing and exhibits that folks affiliate with Evolution Wonderlounge gained’t be following into the brand new area till the opposite area closes,” he added.
Evo, on Jasper Avenue and 115 Avenue, is taking up the area previously occupied by Reign Premium Lounge & Kitchen and will supply two flooring for eating and occasions.
Dean Twardzik / World Information
The present Evolution area has been a goal of vandalism a number of occasions.
On Dec. 22, 2024, police stated a man was captured on surveillance video defacing an exterior window of the 2SLGBTQ+ nightclub, immediately over a “Defend Trans Children” poster.
The window of Evolution Wonderlounge was defaced in downtown Edmonton in December 2024.
Credit score: Evolution Wonderlounge
In April 2024, police stated three individuals eliminated and broken a Pride flag and threw it into a close-by rubbish can.
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Between January 2023 and July 2023, the enterprise handled six separate incidents of damaged glass and home windows.
“The development and the crime within the space was beginning to get a little bit an excessive amount of,” Browatzke stated.
Ron Byers, director of Rainbow Story Hub, says opening a queer bar on avenue degree is a major milestone.
“Most of them have been down within the basement or up on the second flooring. Only a few have been essential flooring. A part of that’s due to the concern of being came upon,” Byers stated.
Byers stated the primary homosexual bar opened in 1970, slightly below a 12 months after the Canadian authorities decriminalized homosexuality.
He stated most queer areas had been non-public golf equipment that required memberships (very like fashionable way of life golf equipment) and it was far more troublesome to enter these companies.
“Should you tried to get in by yourself, you had been actually grilled on the door to find out if try to be allowed in or in case you had been a attainable risk,” Byers stated.
Byers provides whereas there’s better acceptance of the 2SLGBTQ+ neighborhood, an area devoted to them continues to be wanted, particularly for individuals coming to phrases with their sexuality.
“Extraordinary bars and eating places are extra accessible to the queer neighborhood however there’s nonetheless a necessity. People on the market that don’t really feel snug within the public eye and like to have an setting with individuals like them,” he stated.
Browatzke agrees, given the present political local weather in Alberta, the place the provincial government passed legislation affecting trans and gender-diverse youth.
“Politics proper now are trending in a route that’s anti-queer anti-trans anti-drag and so areas like this develop into extra essential. One thing like this that’s so avenue degree and visual, I believe it’s going to be thrilling and interesting for the neighborhood,” he stated.
Evolution has been working for 12 years, and has been the one homosexual bar working in Edmonton since 2016, when Buddys Nite Club and Woody’s Video Bar on Jasper Avenue at 117 Avenue closed down.
The downtown location gained’t be closing till October, so town will see two homosexual bars working all summer season lengthy.
© 2025 World Information, a division of Corus Leisure Inc.
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