Pennington says she felt happy - and yes, gay -that night surrounded by so many loved ones, including the bar’s owner, Kathy Jack. After the bar collectively sang Pennington a happy birthday, she pulled a Barbie from her cake and licked the icing from the doll’s legs. Pennington was celebrating her sixty-first birthday at the happy hour that night. Here, you can often find duos singing Indigo Girls covers, drag and burlesque performances, and karaoke. The place was so packed, someone could practically sober up before even making it back to their seat.ĭee Pennington, the creator of “Chick Happy Hour,” sat on a grandiose wooden armchair (which she calls her throne) on the Sue Ellen’s stage. On this particular night, patrons passed from room to room in the two-story bar, flirting with one another as they made their way to the downstairs counter, sometimes ordering two drinks at a time. As one regular put it, “Chick Happy Hour” is a roving monthly congregation of the city’s lesbian socialites who gather the first week of every month, each time at a different bar. On a Thursday night in December, well before the coronavirus pandemic had reached the United States, two to three hundred women were gathered at Sue Ellen’s, a remnant of Dallas’s once-bustling lesbian nightlife.
