Ruby opened in 2007 on Nybrogade in a 1740 townhouse facing the parliament buildings, with an unmarked black door, leather chesterfields across a string of small rooms and a list of pre-Prohibition classics.
Tip: Ring at the unmarked door; walk-in only, but the upstairs salon takes overflow. The 18th-century cellar is the date-night seat.
Address: Nybrogade 10, 1203 København K, Copenhagen
Geoffrey Canilao opened Balderdash on Valkendorfsgade in 2014 in an 1732 townhouse, with a secret-door back room, a spirits lab on the floor above and a daily-changing menu built around Danish seasonal produce.
Tip: Wednesday through Saturday only; the secret room behind the bookcase seats six and takes reservations. Strawberry-foie gras old fashioned in season.
Centralhjørnet on Kattesundet has run as a gay bar since 1950 in a tavern that itself dates to 1917, and the room claims the title of the world's oldest continuously operating gay bar with rotating drag shows.
Tip: Open from noon every day; the late drag sets land Friday and Saturday. Cheap beer at the counter; tip the queens.
Oscar on Regnbuepladsen, the Rainbow Square next to City Hall, runs as a non-smoking LGBTQ+ daytime cafe and evening bar with a Friday DJ programme, kitchen running lunch through dinner and a daily happy hour.
Tip: Happy hour daily 16:00 to 21:00; Friday DJs pull the room from 21:00. Pavement seats across the rainbow plaza in summer.
Geoffrey Canilao opened Balderdash on Valkendorfsgade in 2014 in an 1732 townhouse, with a secret-door back room, a spirits lab on the floor above and a daily-changing menu built around Danish seasonal produce.
Tip: Wednesday through Saturday only; the secret room behind the bookcase seats six and takes reservations. Strawberry-foie gras old fashioned in season.
Curfew sits behind an antiquary-bookstore facade on Vesterbrogade, with a buzzer entry, a 30-seat counter and a list led by Humberto Saraiva Marques, the bartender behind World's 50 Best wins at previous rooms.
Tip: Ring the bell at the bookshop facade; walk-ins welcome but Friday and Saturday seat by capacity. Closed all of July.
Lidkoeb opened in 2012 in a former pharmacy in a Vesterbrogade courtyard, run by Adeline and Rasmus Shepherd-Lomborg of Ruby; three floors stack a ground-floor pub, a cocktail bar and a whisky lounge under the eaves.
Tip: Walk through the courtyard gate; the whisky lounge upstairs runs Friday and Saturday only and takes the brown-spirit drinkers off the cocktail floor.
Centralhjørnet on Kattesundet has run as a gay bar since 1950 in a tavern that itself dates to 1917, and the room claims the title of the world's oldest continuously operating gay bar with rotating drag shows.
Tip: Open from noon every day; the late drag sets land Friday and Saturday. Cheap beer at the counter; tip the queens.
Oscar on Regnbuepladsen, the Rainbow Square next to City Hall, runs as a non-smoking LGBTQ+ daytime cafe and evening bar with a Friday DJ programme, kitchen running lunch through dinner and a daily happy hour.
Tip: Happy hour daily 16:00 to 21:00; Friday DJs pull the room from 21:00. Pavement seats across the rainbow plaza in summer.
Vela on Viktoriagade runs as Copenhagen's reference lesbian bar and nightclub, a Vesterbro institution with dimly lit booths, poetry and speed-dating nights through the week and a packed weekend dance floor.
Tip: Wednesday and Thursday lean to events and reading nights; Friday and Saturday are dance nights from 22:00. Cash plus card.