Back 2 Earth

On Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in northeast Portland, in a building with genuine queer history behind it, Back 2 Earth has taken a beloved former gay bar space and turned it into something entirely its own: a genuinely inventive, wildly decorated, deeply community-minded queer venue with a rainbow astronaut on the sign and absolutely no interest in being a cookie-cutter gay bar.

The space itself is the first thing that'll grab you. A whole wall alive with over 150 living plants, another wall projecting shifting scenes, daytime nature giving way to underwater biology in the early evening and full outer space once the night gets going, restored century-old lamps gifted by a member of Pink Martini, a shelving system behind the bar that lights up and moves, hanging moss installations, and a more intimate back room lit with clouds and a table that plays footage of pond water microbiology underneath the glass. It sounds like a lot because it is, but it works, this is a bar built by someone who clearly wanted to make something nobody else in Portland was making.

Back 2 Earth's calendar is packed with dance parties, drag shows, karaoke nights, open mics, and even a collection of board games and tabletop RPGs for anyone who wants a quieter night that still counts as going out. Regular events like the recurring "Saturgays" nights bring in local performers and DJs, and the crowd genuinely spans the spectrum: gay men, lesbians, trans folks, and leather and fetish community members are all explicitly, intentionally welcomed here, a deliberate move by an owner who also runs the Eagle Portland and wanted this space to fill a different, more universally queer role.

That inclusivity isn't an accident or a marketing angle, it's baked into the bar's whole philosophy: a fresh start with no baggage from what came before, built around the idea that Portland's queer community has more to gain from coming together than staying siloed into separate spaces. For gay men specifically, that means a bar where you're genuinely welcome without it being exclusively about you, and where the crowd on any given night might be more interesting for it.

Open Tuesday through Saturday, Back 2 Earth rewards a bit of planning if you want to catch a specific event, but it's just as good for a spontaneous drink under the plant wall on a quieter night. If you're in Portland, this is the kind of queer space worth seeking out on purpose, weird in all the right ways, warm in ways that matter, and unmistakably its own thing. Pair it with LGBTQ+-friendly accommodation nearby through misterb&b, and let Back 2 Earth show you a side of Portland's queer scene that doesn't look like anywhere else.