An Oasis in a Red Zone: All Aboard is Lake County's newest—and only—bar for queer folks and allies alike

When All Axs—Lake County, Ohio’s first and only queer-friendly bar—closed in 2020, queer residents were left without a local hub.

“It was a gay desert,” say realtor Stu Lucker, who grew up in Painesville, Ohio, a red city in a red county. (Lake County voters favored Trump in the last presidential election by a 13% margin.)

Three years later, a new Lake County bar called All Aboard is looking to fill the gap by creating a safe space for the area’s LGBTQIA+ community and its allies. This venture represents a partnership between Lucker, who owns the land and the building, and former All Axs manager Dennis Baker who owns the bar.

Baker, who grew up in Willoughby, was introduced to All Axs by a friend who invited him to a drag show there when it first opened. “‘I was like, a drag show in Willoughby? I never thought I’d see the day,’” recalls Baker. Months later, Baker was managing All Axs and expanding their drag shows. Baker even met their fiancee, the drag queen Porcelain, at All Access.

Lucker started going to All Axs “as as a home away from home.” He credits affirmation and support from All Axs and LGBTQ+ Allies Lake County as the reasons he eventually came out of the closet.

After All Axs closed, Lucker spent three years looking for the right space to open their new venture. Lucker called Baker when Deekers, a neighborhood bar housed in the former Mentor railroad depot, came up in a friend’s commercial real estate listing. The pair knew it was the spot they had been looking for and Lucker purchased the building. Before opening in April, they focused on brightening the place up — new paint, new amenities like volleyball courts, and lots of new events.

Events now happen every day of the week inside the almost-6,000-square-foot building on Station Street. You may run into Lucker on Wednesdays for karaoke. Thursdays are trivia, and Fridays rotate between DJ nights and drag shows. On a recent Sunday, they launched the drag-queen-hosted Vivvy’s Boxcar Brunch. “Our food is way better than it has any right to be,” jokes Baker.

The bar also hosts monthly meetings of the LBGTQ+ Allies Lake County’s young adult group. Tips from those gatherings go right back to the organization, the first and only LBGTQ+ nonprofit in the county. Next year’s Lake County Pride plans to host its after-party at All Aboard as well.

Greggor Mattson, Oberlin College professor and author of the book “Who Needs Gay Bars?” calls LGBTQ+ bars “places where queer joy can flourish in a world where we’re starved of it. They also often act as hubs for solidarity and activism, helping us find each other to change the world to serve our needs.”

Currently, the biggest challenge facing the bar is stigma, something Baker has seen since his involvement in All Axs. “Nobody wanted to show up at first when they opened and started doing drag shows—even the LGBTQ community,” recalls Baker. “It was the fear of everybody who’s watching this bar now knowing that, ‘Hey, it’s a gay bar.’”

Baker and Lucker find that definition too limiting. “I don’t wanna call it strictly a gay bar; it’s not. It’s a gay bar. It’s a straight bar. It’s an everything bar,” says Baker. Lucker jumps in: “Come in, it’s all aboard.” 🔥