In the era when Columbus’s queer nightlife was still finding its shape, Tradewinds 2 stood out as one of the city’s definitive leather and Levi’s bars. Active through the 1970s and 2000s, it carried that unmistakable Midwest leather-bar energy: dim lights, denim everywhere, familiar faces, and a crowd that knew exactly why they were there.
Tradewinds 2 wasn’t about flash or spectacle — it was about community, camaraderie, and a space where men could show up as themselves. The bar mixed cruising heat with neighborhood-bar ease, the kind of place where you could lean against the rail, trade stories, watch the room, and feel part of something.
Printed on a sweatshirt, it becomes a tribute to those cold Ohio nights warmed by friendship, flirtation, and a bar that helped anchor Columbus’s early LGBTQ landscape.
