Best lesbian night
Local lesbians lament the city's lack of a seven-nights-a-week place to party. No single club is all-women, all-the-time. But on Saturday nights, Club Hollywood is where the girls are, and Phoenix readers agree this Chinatown karaoke lounge is the number-one lesbian locale. Since the recent demise of Kristen Porter's infamous Dyke Night at the Midway Cafe in JP, Club Hollywood has taken over the scene, catering to a varied crowd: femmes, trannies, queers, butches, and everyone in between, among, and around. Every Saturday features a Single Mingle between 10 and 11 p.m., with drink specials for those as-yet unattached. And Club Hollywood is also where you'll find Glitter Switch Drag Karaoke, hosted by the inimitable Heywood Wakefield, otherwise known as Aliza Shapiro, who heads up Truth Serum Productions.

It's no secret: Somerville's gay and lesbian population is on the rise. And Toast Lounge in Union Square is fast becoming the nucleus of the scene. The subterranean club is relatively new - its lesbian night (Thursday) just celebrated its one-year anniversary last month - and that Phoenix readers already are selecting it in this category proves Toast has heated up fast. Every night, women stream into the cavernous club, a funk-swank space, to dance and drink. It boasts on its Web site that it's the premier nightclub for women, and Phoenix readers can't help but agree.

Club Hollywood, 41 Essex Street, Boston, (617) 417-0186, www.shuttavac.com/hollywood/; Toast Lounge, 70 Union Square, Somerville, (617) 623-9211, www.toastlounge.com.