If there’s a downside to the Abbey it’s actually the bar’s success: Not so very long ago, it was the nucleus of gay life in West Hollywood, but as its popularity has grown, increasingly the crowd-particularly at night-seems to be made up of tourists. The drinks at this West Hollywood stalwart are notoriously strong (albeit pricey) and the upscale, Gothic-meets-the-Mediterranean indoor/outdoor spaces, plentiful cabanas and hunky bartenders are all aesthetically satisfying. The Abbey is annually voted one of the world’s best gay bars, which explains the long lines on the weekends to get into this once-humble coffee house-which now boasts four full bars and five times the amount of real estate it originally occupied.
