Brian Clark, co-founder of 4West Lounge in Harlem, NY, joined Cheddar News to discuss the opening of his LGBTQ+ bar and how more is needed not only in the city but around the country. 

<div class="block">Brian Clark, co-founder of 4West Lounge in Harlem, NY, joined Cheddar News to discuss the opening of his LGBTQ+ bar and how more is needed not only in the city but around the country. </div>

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Co-Founder of Harlem's Premier LGBTQ+ Bar on Community Reaction and What Lies Ahead

Meanwhile, June is Pride month and all month long. Chett News has been shining a light on trailblazers who are breaking new ground for the LGBT Q Plus community. And I recently sat down with Brian Clark who co founded Harlem's Four West Lounge right here in New York City. Take a look. It really started off just as it was nothing else open. So everything was closed. And a big kudos to my partner, Troy who was an entrepreneur had a uh for thinking about the process and it was like, let's create a space and maybe we can rent out my apartment. Cool. OK. And Troy blew his mind like, oh my God, he didn't even realize how many people in our LGBT Q community can come out into one place at one time and have a good time with no issues, no fights, no drama, just a good time. So from there, he realized, wow, there is a need in the community to support the LGBT Q. So there's not many places. So then we did a little research, there's very few spaces and places black owned that exists. So then we said, let's create a space and let's make it for. And what has sort of been the reaction so far, especially as you mentioned, there's not a lot of one gay bars just in general, but two black owned LGBT bars. Right. Right. Uh We get so many thank yous. Uh, the crowd is just so the people that come in are like, so grateful for used to be here. They come again. They, they say thank you. One person told me one time they used to get bullied in the area of where they used to walk by and to now come here in the space and be safe as a safe space. And so now you basically have this permanent space here. What has sort of changed over the last few years to where, you know what four West lounge has become now from what it was just a few years ago. Sure. So now we're in the process of scaling the business and we're scaling the business, we're creating different processes and procedures so that we can grow and grow other locations as well. Um So right now we're actually in a moment of opening up for West A TL Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia. Yes. Yes. So that's pretty exciting. And um, so yeah, pretty much getting this tight squared away so that we can kind of duplicate the process. What advice would you have for any business owners out there that are looking to start a business? But also those that are Black owned and LGBT Q focused as well. What advice do you have for them? My advice would be just do it, do it a lot of times we often wait. It's not perfect you think? Oh, I'll wait another month or two and it's a better timing. There's no better time just to do it. And once you do it, the business will teach you truly the business with you. What is it about? The vibe here? You look at this and it's decorated really great. It's got this cool sort of dark, almost like jungle beach vibe to it. What is it? What's sort of the secret sauce of this place? The secret sauce I would say is when you come in, our theme is welcome home. So we want you to feel at home um with customer service at the door. So from our security to our bartenders to our bar backs, everyone, we want you to feel comfortable. And when we first opened, we were called the gate. Cheers of Harlem sounds great. Did you know everybody's name when they were in a lot of people know each other. We know each other's name. If not a name, it definitely made you feel comfortable to say hello? Like I know your face. Do you feel like that's a, a successful mantra for any business out there? Sort of be a part of the community? I mean, you feel part of Harlem, but you feel really part of the community here where people feel like they feel safe here. Absolutely. I mean, we're nothing without the community. I mean, for West would not exist if we did not have the community support. So it's really, really important for us that we reach out, we branch out to the community for an example. Um I went to Howard University, shout out to Howard and I intentionally make partnerships with the Howard Alumni Association here in New York City to do events here. So it's not just gay events. We do all events. We are, we are the community. Uh, we participate in bar crawl. It's not a gay bar crawl, you know, so we are the community. We want you to know that we're here, we're here to stay, we want you to use it and take advantage of us and have a good time here for West. Right. Last question that I promised my last one. What does Pride Month mean to you? Pride Moth means being you and all of you. And this is an opportunity and a time for you to be able to be free, see others like you and have a good time.