Like Garces, queer newcomers to Boston — along with longtime residents — have flocked to Dani’s, which has become known for its Latin track, “Sapphic Saturdays,” and drag brunches.
The bar has developed a national reputation, too. Queer people around the US know Dani’s as Boston’s lesbian bar, one of a small but growing group of such establishments nationwide that make up a running list called the Lesbian Bar Project. Patrons said Dani’s fills an important niche as a safe place to be openly queer, especially when anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and attacks are on the rise.
Garces moved to Boston from Gainesville, Fla., last summer and today works for Xfinity in East Boston. During the anniversary event, she was handed her usual drink, a whiskey sour, the moment she approached the counter. The festivities surrounding Dani’s anniversary were the perfect way to mark her own time in Boston, she said.
“With me moving to Boston only a year and four months ago, it’s a celebration of making it a year — a year of feeling at home in a place, especially at a time when we are not feeling a lot of love and support around us,” Garces said.
Manager Ari White was one of the first people to get a key to the bar before it opened, and for months she labored remodeling the space. Before it could become Dani’s, the dive-y metal beer signs that adorned the interior of 909 Boylston St. needed to be torn down and replaced with glittery decor, White said.
“There was a lot of scraping gum off the bottom of the bar that had been there for God knows how long,” White, 26, said.
During the anniversary celebration, White beamed as she looked around to room, where patrons sipped cocktails and munched on yucca fries and chicken strips.
“I don’t even recognize it, just because of how much this space has transformed and all it has become,” she said.
At Dani’s second bar, one floor down in the basement, Zöe Murillo took in the crowd. She and her partner visited Boston from Orlando, Fla., to attend the recent Red Sox game against the Yankees, and made a point of coming to Dani’s for the anniversary event, she said.
“We don’t have a lesbian bar where we live so we were like, ‘we need to support it,’” Murillo, 30, said. “In a queer women space, I don’t have to worry about unwanted attention.”
The book clubs and singles mixers at the bar have become a haven for women especially, White said. As one of the most LGBTQ-friendly cities in the country, Boston had many queer spaces before Dani’s, “but a lot of them are a bit more centered for men,” White said.
“Being able to open a space that promotes queer folks, whether you’re a trans woman, whether you identify as sapphic, lesbian, or bisexual, is really important, especially when sometimes in the community, we can be a little bit overlooked” she said.
As reggaeton and pop blasted through speakers, Garces said that beyond being a sapphic-friendly space, everyone is embraced at Dani’s, no matter what letter of LGBTQ they identify with (or even if they don’t identify with one at all).
“I could come in here completely upside-down with my clothes on backwards, and everybody would just be like, ‘that’s a cute look Karen,’” she said.
Claire Thornton can be reached at claire.thornton@globe.com. Follow Claire on X @claire_thornto.
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