The Midway Café

About this place The Midway Café

The Midway Café in Jamaica Plain is one of Boston's most beloved LGBTQ+-friendly music venues — a small, independent bar and live music room on Washington Street that has functioned as the social and cultural centre of Jamaica Plain's lesbian and queer community for decades. The music programming runs seven nights a week: local bands, touring acts, open mics, DJ nights, and the queer-specific programming (Women's Wednesdays have been a regular feature) that makes the Midway a lesbian community hub in a way that few bars anywhere in the US can claim. Jamaica Plain itself — a neighbourhood south of the South End and Roxbury — has been Boston's most progressive and LGBTQ+-identified residential neighbourhood since the 1970s, with a large lesbian and queer community that has shaped the neighbourhood's character, businesses, and politics. The Midway is the living room of that community. Cover charges are minimal; the drinks are neighbourhood-bar priced; the music is good. For visitors staying in the South End who want to understand the depth of Boston's queer community beyond the Boylston Street clubs, a trip to the Midway is essential.