Weekly soiree keeps Here in the now

By Rick Dunn, Globe Correspondent, 8/07/2003

Plenty of nightclubs and bars have promotional websites, but few are as directly involved in promotion as the recently launched www.hereboston.com. Its Tuesday night party, Here, has captured a large, well-heeled gay crowd. Holding forth downstairs at 711 Boylston, a restaurant/club on the corner of Boylston and Exeter streets, Here is the brick-and-mortar extension of a slick site conceived as a gay online magazine. The site features news, entertainment, political commentary from David Brudnoy, and, of course, gossip -- pretty much anything that one might chit-chat about over cocktails. The site helps promote the party and vice versa.

"I started `Here' because there was nothing like it in Boston for gay men," says promoter and entertainment writer Tim Nasson. The club is intimate (capacity is 325) with tables, plush couches, and two small dance floors. Music is kept to conversation level. The club also offers a light menu in the lounge until 2 a.m. (calamari, $9; New England crab cakes, $9).

Rob Mannke, a regular in Improper Bostonian's Bartender Hall of Fame, is the familiar face behind the bar. "We also attract a slightly older crowd, primarily 25- to 40-year-olds," says Nasson, "the kind that want to socialize with their peers and not club kids."

The website, says Nasson, was a synergistic way of creating a clientele. "Because of my writing background I decided to launch the site, with the help of my business partner, Dave Foucher, who is not only a contributor to the site's entertainment content, but also its designer and webmaster. The site is updated daily and is getting bigger and better by the day.

"We will soon be adding a men's health and fitness section and a travel section. The site is now getting over 10,000 unique visitors a day. I am not taking ads out in the gay papers. I was able to create an e-mail list of over 10,000 gay New England men over the years while promoting at various Boston clubs, and with that list I not only launched Here, but also the website."

The recent dip in the bar business didn't scare Nasson away from Tuesday nights, typically the slowest of the week. "The gay-bar business is definitely down, but I think it's unfair to just blame Internet chat rooms and hook-up sites like Manhunt.net. Gay men want to go out, but they want value for their money and they want to go to nice places."

One reason, he says, is the club's commitment to guest celebrities (adult film star Matthew Rush visited recently), giveaways, and theme parties. Last week's Beach Ball, hosted by drag star Miss Kris, featured a bathing suit contest where the winner walked away with a trip to South Beach in Miami.

Nasson: "We will have special events each week until Labor Day, including the only Boston DVD release party of the Academy-Award winning `Chicago' on Aug. 19. We'll have a cast of drag queens dressed as their favorite character from the movie. We're planning a big Back-To-Work & School bash on Sept. 23." Cover is $7, $4 for VIP status, which can be obtained (you guessed it) by visiting the site.

Calling Gloria Machine, the popular Boylston Street bar and dance club, celebrates its fifth anniversary with a special appearance by '80s star Laura Branigan ("Gloria," "Self Control") on Aug. 17.