The Eagle

If you like 'em big, hairy and a bit rough around the edges, the Eagle is where you'll find them. There are several Eagles scattered around the North America (NYC, Washington DC, Atlanta, Chicago, Montreal, Toronto, etc.) but they all have the same thing in common: the smell of drying leather and shoe polish, sweat, and the buzz of Titan adult playing in some corner attracting men like moths to a flame.

NYC Eagle is no different. There are three levels to New York's version, with the third level an outside upper deck with wooden seating areas around the perimeter. Downstairs there is a small caged area that holds coats or something otherwise unexciting.

Always dark but not quite a darkroom. I found New York's quite "conservative." Mostly a jeans and T-shirt set, with not many men in full leather "regalia." That may have to do with the bar being just steps away from other NY clubs filled with straight fashionable NewYorkers.

If you like the leather or levi scene, you should go; but if you are looking for the hot, wild dungeon atomsphere you see in videos, you may be disappointed. The men range from portly, old and wrinkled to sexy big and buff as is they stepped right out of a magazine. The barkeep is a tall hot stud of a manly man but the other bartenders can be somewhat unremarkable.

Wednesday night has a jockstrap party and Thursday is leather/rubber dress code. Neither is strictly enforced, however. The bar is rarely busy before 11:00 except on Sundays, when there is a well attended "beer blast" in the early evening. The roof deck is popular in fair weather and always popular with smokers.

The security staff is vigilant in policing sexual activity, yet everybody goes there to cruise. It can be frustrating.