Freddie’s Beach Bar (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Best outside-D.C. bar: Freddie’s Beach Bar
555 23rd Street
South Arlington, Va.
703-685-0555

Runner-up: Club Hippo (Baltimore)

Blue Moon (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Best Rehoboth bar: Blue Moon
35 Baltimore Ave.
Rehoboth Beach, Del.
302-227-6515

Runner-up: Rehoboth Ale House

Number Nine (Washington Blade photo by Lee Whitman)

Best happy hour:
Best place to meet men:
Number 9
1435 P Street, N.W.
202-986-0999

Runner-up for both: Cobalt

Best drag show: Big Bang Bingo at Mellow Mushroom
2436 18th Street, N.W.
202-290-2778
mellowmushroom.com

Runner-up: Ziegfeld’s

Best place to meet women: glittHER by V Spot D.C.
1807 4th St., N.W.

Dancing won’t feel right again without being covered in glitter.V Spot D.C.’s glittHER dance parties infuse great music, glitter, dancing and did we mention glitter? All while mingling with local ladies. (MC)

Runner-up: BARE by LURe at Cobalt

Stoney’s (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Best gay-friendly straight bar: Stoney’s
1433 P Street, N.W.
202-234-1818

Runner-up: Brixton

Best live music: 9:30 Club
815 V Street, N.W.
202-265-0930

Runner-up: Black Cat

Best neighborhood bar: JR.’s Bar & Grill
1519 17th Street, N.W.
202-328-0090

Runner-up: Nellie’s Sports Bar

Hottest stripper or gogo dancer:
Christian Lezzil

By day he’s a graduate student with one semester left to earn his master’s in literature. By night, Christian Lezzil strips at Secrets.

Having done some modeling during his time in Virginia Beach — he came to D.C. about a year ago — Lezzil says dancing nude, initially at the behest of a drag queen friend, was a lark. He says in addition to paying for grad school, it’s had an unexpected benefit — it’s given him plenty of material for his writing. He has two books — “Crimson & Caramel” and “The Maniac in the Coffee Shop” — out (written under his real name, Eddie Generazio).

“It started with a student body competition in Virginia Beach,” Lezzil says. “Somebody said I should enter and I just thought, ‘Hell, why not? I’m not doing anything else.’ I was waiting to hear back from my graduate school application. … I was looking for some kind of alternative lifestyle-type of thing to do and I just thought, ‘Well, what’s more alternative than dancing in a male revue?’ There’s a lot of poetry in there and it just kind of started taking off after I arrived in D.C. I got so much material, my second book kind of wrote itself.”

The 23-year-old bi Virginia native, Lezzil (a stage name) says he enjoys the irony of stripping and writing. He says many of his colleagues at Secrets are also smart, though some try to hide it. He views his Best Of Gay D.C. award as a validation of sorts.

“Maybe I’m just a jerk and I’m inflating it, but I think of it as a kind of performance art,” he says.

(JD)

Christian Lezzil (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Runner-up: Ben Reznik

Best men’s party: CTRL at Cobalt
Last Saturday of the month
1639 R Street, N.W.
202-232-4416

Runner-up: Bear Happy Hour at Town

BARE by the Ladies of LURe at Cobalt. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Best women’s party: BARE by LURe at Cobalt
Third Saturday of the month
1639 R Street, N.W.
202-232-4416

Runner-up: glittHER by V Spot D.C.

Joshua Vogelsong of the Black Cat’s Gay/Bash. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Best alt party: Gay/Bash! at Black Cat
Next event: Oct. 26
1811 14th Street, N.W.
202-667-4490

Runner-up: Mixtape