Cubbyhole

Overview

West Village queer bar at 281 West 12th Street, bar on this site since 1987 (as DT's Fat Cat), renamed Cubbyhole in 1994 when Tanya Saunders bought the name from the prior Cubby Hole at 438 Hudson, one of the city's most durable lesbian and queer women's rooms.

The bar at 281 West 12th Street has operated since 1987, when Tanya Saunders and Debbie Fierro opened it as DT's Fat Cat, a room that quickly became a lesbian mecca around its jukebox culture and unpretentious neighborhood feel. In 1994, Saunders purchased the name 'Cubbyhole' from Elaine Romagnoli, who had run The Cubby Hole (two words) at 438 Hudson Street from 1983 until 1990 before closing it and opening Crazy Nanny's, effectively absorbing and continuing that West Village lesbian bar lineage. Saunders envisioned a 'neighborhood fusion bar' open to all while remaining rooted in lesbian and queer women's community. The bar is now owned and operated by Lisa Menichino, a longtime bartender under Saunders. Its kitsch-decorated ceiling and intimate scale have made it an institution. It is one of the very few bars in the country to maintain a continuous lesbian identity through four decades of LGBT gentrification and bar closures.

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