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Barracuda Lounge, or simply Barracuda, was a gay bar in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1995, the bar was known for its nightly . It was a sister establishment to Industry Bar, a nightclub, and Elmo, a restaurant. Barracuda was home to "Star Search", the longest-running bar show in New York City, which began in the early 1990s and may have served as an inspiration for RuPaul's Drag Race. In the 1990s and 2000s, Barracuda was a popular celebrity hangout, and it was frequently the site of promotional events for new music and Broadway theatre plays. The bar shuttered on March 23, 2025, due to damage from a demolition project in surrounding buildings. Critics generally praised Barracuda for its intimate, relaxed and entertainment-focused atmosphere, which was unusual at the time of its creation, and some credited this with revolutionizing the concept of gay bars.
Pontarelli and Heighton had previously co-owned Crobar, a venue in Manhattan's East Village, where a weekly drag show called "Star Search" began in 1991. They subsequently moved the show to Barracuda. Nashom Wooden, who performed in drag as Mona Foot, hosted "Star Search" in the 1990s, and Mimi Imfurst hosted it in 2011. Sherry Vine, Candis Cayne and Hedda Lettuce began their drag careers in the show, which, according to The New York Times, "preceded RuPaul's Drag Race by more than 15 years and probably served as one of its inspirations". It is billed as the longest-running drag show in New York City. Wooden (as Mona Foot) also hosted the first annual edition of the Glam Awards at Barracuda in 1997. The event, a ceremony à la Academy Awards for the queer nightlife community of New York, is now typically held at larger venues.
Jackie Beat, Peppermint and Miz Cracker also started drag at Barracuda. Vine, who worked at the bar for 20 years, had her own show there until the early 2010s, when she moved her performances to Industry Bar, Pontarelli's nightclub in Hell's Kitchen. Cayne was at Barracuda for 10 years. Prior to winning season 8 of RuPaul's Drag Race, Bob the Drag Queen was also a fixture at the bar. In the 2010s, Tina Burner, who went on to appear on the thirteenth season of Drag Race, hosted "Star Search" on Thursday nights. , the competition's host was Kizha Carr.
A 1999 episode of Sex and the City contained a scene filmed at the bar.
Actor Nathan Lane used to visit Barracuda weekly. Graham Norton, who dated Tina Burner, stated that the venue was where the two met. While attending Vine's show one night, Betty Buckley delivered an impromptu a cappella performance of the song "Memory" from the musical Cats, which was then in its first run on Broadway. Additionally, "there was a fabled lounge appearance of Australia's Queen of Yodeling, Mary Schneider, who presided over the club until 4 a.m. after singing a powerful version of 'The William Tell Overture.' The former television evangelist Tammy Faye Bakker Messner came calling... to promote a documentary about her life."
Pontarelli embraced the spontaneity that such events injected into the atmosphere at Barracuda, and he tried to further cultivate "the mood of the unexpected" by changing the bar's decor and visual themes up to twice per year.
On June 9, 2021, Barracuda's management announced via social media that it would reopen in two days, on June 11. The bar held a celebration for its 25th anniversary on September 26. In addition to drag performances, the event contained a memorial segment for Mona Foot, who died of a suspected case of COVID-19 in March 2020, and for another drag queen, Sweetie, who died of cancer in 2017.
Time Out called the establishment "a classic, no-attitude gay lounge in Chelsea that has outlasted many others due to its combination of cozy couches, awesome drag shows, generous happy hours and friendly bartenders". A Travel Gay review described the bar as "much-loved", adding: "The place is small, but that's part of its charm." Referencing Barracuda's popularity, Michael Cook of Instinct said: "If you open up must-read NYC columns like Page Six or New York magazine's Daily Intelligencer column, you frequently will read a dishy piece about what happened the night before at Barracuda." ShermansTravel listed Barracuda among "the best gay and queer bars in Manhattan", calling it "a Chelsea mainstay" and noting it for its generous happy hour pours and "top-notch" drag shows.
An EDGE Media Network announcement for the establishment's 20th anniversary in 2015 characterized it as "a bar of 'firsts'", remarking:
Miz Cracker said in a 2019 interview that Barracuda was the first gay bar she ever entered and that it was still her favorite. She further said: "In recent years Barracuda has been overshadowed by glitzier hot spots in Hell's Kitchen, including businesses run by the same owner, like Industry Bar. But she's still the only gay bar where I can kick up my feet and genuinely relax for a laugh in the dark with people of all kinds."
In December 2021, Eater Portland reported that the interior of Sissy Bar, a venue slated to open in 2022 in Portland, Oregon, will be designed in homage to Barracuda, which it described as "a classic New York drag bar with low lounge lighting and a lengthy bar". Specifically, "Sissy Bar will have a similarly designed backbar and a long banquette, with a yet-to-be-revealed 'Instagram wall'." Its owner said: "It's meant to be dark and cozy, with the right kind of lighting you want to sit in for a while."
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