The Kinky's (Closed Permanently) Formerly: The Funnies

The 20th century is alive and humping in this two-floor establishment started in 1999 by Roger Van Walleghem, who sadly died in August 2019, aged 66. Since 1987 Van Walleghem had run the space's previous incarnation, The Funnies. One of only three gay establishments in the former gay ghetto around Van Schoonhovenstraat near Central Station (down from around ten businesses at the turn of the century), the rather intimate, well-worn and local-feeling Kinky's — which bills itself as an "underwear gay men's cruising club" — operates on a simple concept: drinks, casual chat, locker rooms and showers on the ground floor, darkrooms for the suitably undressed (naked, jockstraps, underwear, chaps) upstairs. There are slings and things, and the full-on motorcycle in the ground-floor bar dates the place in quaintly sexy fashion. Customers were accustomed to unscrewing the lightbulbs upstairs, so in 2012 Van Walleghem installed club-effect laser lighting, which injects the darkroom areas with a certain disco atmosphere. Check website for regular golden shower nights. And yes, the apostrophe in the bar's name might strike some as a bit odd. Open Friday and Saturday once a month; check website. Closed Thursday and Sunday.