BABE Wine Bar Offers a Queer Wine Oasis in Brooklyn

^{all photography by Grace Brown}

For Them and BABE Wine Bar have teamed up to make underwear that’ll have you feeling like a BABE. Buy yours in the For Them store and read on to learn more about the wine experience for hot queers offered by BABE.

While wine bars are a dime a dozen in Brooklyn, there isn’t a single one like BABE. BABE founders Ren and trent have created an intentionally queer space, full of queer, mostly BIPOC wine drinkers, a space where expert queer somms pour for you, with temporary tattoos and good music and great vibes. Ren and trent have managed to take the traditional narrative around wine and turn it fully upside down in the best way. And you know I love that!

Having been to two BABE events now, I understand why their events sell out in mere minutes. In fact, after their May event sold out, an Instagram commenter quipped that BABE tickets are the new Beyoncé tickets. This became even more apparent when the For Them x BABE Anniversary Party RSVPs dropped and sold out in less than a minute!

I got the chance to sit down with both founders a few days after the one-year anniversary of the Instagram DM that started it all, when Ren first suggested she and trent start a queer wine bar.

We’re sitting in the garden bar of the Ace Hotel in Brooklyn, a leafy, sunlight-dappled indoor garden where later that evening, dozens of queer wine drinkers, mostly BIPOC, sip wines poured by the city’s most in-demand queer somms. I open with a Very Important Gay Question: big three, but as though they’re wine. I discover Ren is a Cancer sun. She chooses a muscadet — “ocean, moon child.” trent, a Scorpio sun, opts for a chilled red instead — “unexpected”.

From the first few minutes of the interview, it’s clear trent and Ren care deeply about wine, about creating an intentional queer community around wine. Their menus are approachable, inclusive. At their June event, three of their five wines were non-alcoholic. Wine has a reputation of being stuffy, boring, classist, straight — wine can be alienating! trent and Ren are working very hard to make sure that it isn’t.

“What I really like about the way we do wine is that — I won’t say all queers, but these queers — we are very thoughtful about accessibility,” trent tells me.

“All of our wines are going to be sustainably sourced, sustainably farmed,” Ren adds. “That’s something we take very seriously. Most, if not all, are minimal intervention.”

Their shared mindset around accessibility means making traditional wines an option, too. “We’re not just drinking cool, hip wines from California,” Ren says. “We’re drinking, like, Burgundy too, because that’s also accessibility, right? We want people to be enjoying the full range and scope of what wine is, and why not also drink really classical wines?”

I love the wines Ren and trent continue to choose for BABE! After trent’s Scorpio-as-chilled-red declaration, I’ve found myself opting for a chilled red more and more. I make sure to lean on the BABE somms whenever I’m at an event, though! BABE makes sure their somms are all queer, all experts, and this definitely makes a difference. At their June event, Oniyx Acosta and Zwann Grays were pouring, both of whom are hallmarks of the wine community in NYC. As an aside, Oniyx mentioned that they’re working on making a Virginian Mamajuana-inspired vermouth, which I cannot wait to try.

Also setting BABE apart from other queer wine events is their predominantly BIPOC crowd, a (very) welcome change for this queer South Asian. At both BABEs I’ve been to, I’ve run into more than a few people I know, and spotting a few people I know of. For the Bravo Dykes among us, I saw none other than RHONY celesbian Racquel Chevremont and her very cool fiancé Mel Corpus (!!) at BABE in May!

“We want our people to feel seen,” trent says. “We created this because we weren’t seeing enough of ourselves in spaces and in the industry. We want what we are creating to be centered in that and to uplift that. It is on purpose that you see a lot of Black folks here, a lot of people of color, because we need our spaces.”

Speaking of spaces, trent and Ren have plans to grow beyond the pop-up and into a dedicated space. They plan to begin fundraising again in the fall. For now, though, BABE has a newfound residency at the Ace Hotel in Brooklyn, which is where trent and Ren held BABE’s anniversary party in collaboration with For Them during pride month.

“We have a lot to celebrate, and we want to celebrate our cuties!” trent tells me. “We want to celebrate ourselves, we want to celebrate being in community.”

BABE x For Them had many of the things I’ve come to expect from BABE: a fun wine list, great music, temporary tattoos. But they also had issues of the Autostraddle Insider scattered on tables, and their temporary tattoos had a For Them spin on them. Also, it was the night Zohran Mamdani won the Democratic mayoral primary, so youknow the vibes were top-tier. Also, there were BABE afters at Gingers!

A full year of BABE events later, the community continues to prove that BABE is a space unlike any other, for us, by us. I can’t wait to go to my next BABE!

For Them has collaborated with BABE to release a special run of our queer underwear with a BABE band. Get yours before they’re gone!