The Race Club hides a 1930s-styled basement under a Via Labicana shopfront dressed as a mechanic's workshop, with brick vaults, armchairs and a list of ten signatures alongside the classics, including a charity drink series that funds chosen causes.
Tip: Five euro membership at the door; the basement room is small so book a banquette on weekends. The upstairs garage is the cover, the cocktails are downstairs.
Address: Via Labicana 52, 00184 Roma, Rome
Coming Out opened in 2001 across the street from the Colosseum and anchors the Via di San Giovanni in Laterano gay strip, with a cafe-bar that runs from morning coffee through late-night karaoke and drag programming that fills the small dance floor on weekends.
Tip: Almost never closes, with a 07:00 to 05:30 daily cycle that makes it the go-to after-hours on the strip. Drag on Sundays and occasional Wednesdays.
Argot tucks a cavernous downstairs room into the back streets behind Campo de' Fiori, run by three Roman owners as a salotto di casa with dim lighting, kitsch furniture and a weekend live music slot alongside the cocktail programme.
Tip: Annual membership card required at the door; the live music runs weekends and pushes the room past 02:00. No kitchen so eat first.
La Punta is the Trastevere agaveria from the Jerry Thomas Project team, with one of Italy's deepest tequila and mezcal back bars paired with a tight Mexican-inspired food menu, and a tucked-in feel that reads more speakeasy than bar.
Tip: Small room, no street signage, reservations advised on weekends. Ask the bartender to walk you through the agave list; the back bar is the whole point.
Freni e Frizioni has run a Trastevere ex-garage at Via del Politeama since 2007, with a small inside room, an aperitivo buffet from 19:00 and the river-side piazza outside that fills with a young Roman crowd well past midnight.
Tip: Six euro cocktails through aperitivo include the vegetarian buffet, the cheapest way to drink in Trastevere. The piazza in front is the room past 22:00.
Coming Out opened in 2001 across the street from the Colosseum and anchors the Via di San Giovanni in Laterano gay strip, with a cafe-bar that runs from morning coffee through late-night karaoke and drag programming that fills the small dance floor on weekends.
Tip: Almost never closes, with a 07:00 to 05:30 daily cycle that makes it the go-to after-hours on the strip. Drag on Sundays and occasional Wednesdays.
L'Alibi opened on the slopes of Monte Testaccio at the end of the 1970s and is Italy's longest-running gay club, with three rooms, a rooftop terrace and a programme that swings between drag, house and commercial nights through the weekend.
Tip: The terrace runs through the warm months and is the reason to come; the inside rooms can be hot and packed past 02:00. Tessera at the door.
Garbo runs a small Trastevere cocktail room a couple of corners from Piazza Santa Maria, with a cozy bar layout, a mixed crowd and a thirty-something feel that pushes hardest from Thursday through Saturday past midnight.
Tip: Tuesday through Sunday only; the room fills by midnight on Friday and Saturday so plan an earlier arrival if you want a banquette.