Last Friday, Feb. 14, Brewnuts hosted an intimate, all-ages Valentine’s Day drag show in the interior of their beer-and-donut shop. With just four performers and roughly 30 attendees, the show was uniquely approachable for those unfamiliar with drag, but still just as fun and camp-y as a larger performance.
Brewnuts, located in the Gordon Square Arts District, sells “small batch, craft beer-based donuts” and local craft beer on tap. They also host a rotating list of unique events each month, many of which are aimed at engaging the local Cleveland community. According to the mission statement on their website, Brewnuts aims to “combine the hospitality of the corner donut shop with the comfort of your favorite watering hole.” This is exactly the kind of vibe I experienced in their shop, and one that more places should hope to cultivate—a laid-back evening venue is hard to come by and there’s really no reason for it. I will say that I was skeptical of a beer-based donut, but I ended up being pleasantly surprised. You couldn’t taste any actual beer in the donuts, at least not in the ones that I sampled, but their slightly yeasty flavor and bready texture did make them a natural pairing for the store’s adult beverages.
As for the performance itself, three drag queens—Aurora Thunder, Anhedonia Delight and Agata Why—and drag king Ryder Slowly did two lip-sync numbers each with a brief intermission in between for costume changes. Anhedonia Delight and Ryder Slowly have performed at Case Western Reserve University before as a part of oSTEM@CWRU’s annual drag show, but the other two were new to me. Aurora Thunder was a great opener and MC, and Agata Why had incredible stage presence, standing at six-foot-four at least. No one queen/king struck me as being the best; rather, they all danced and strutted and dropped to the ground with the ease of seasoned professionals. Ryder Slowly might’ve narrowly edged out the others in terms of energy with a series of crazy high kicks, but to be fair, his costume did allow for the most ease of movement.
When the queens/king weren’t actively dancing and lip-syncing, they each gave a small speech promoting not just their own act, but also those of the other queens, as well as other upcoming events at Brewnuts. One of the shop’s owners, Shelly Pippin, also spoke about the importance of community and drag in the current political climate. A drag show with children in attendance—and I want to stress that there was no age-inappropriate content whatsoever—is a contentious issue for many and one that the Brewnuts team chose to lean into rather than ignore. I’d never been to an all-ages drag show before, and it was really heartwarming to see the wholesome interactions that took place between the kids and the queens.
At the end of the day, drag is about entertainment and self-expression, neither of which are incompatible with children. In fact, I think kids can really benefit from being in such liberated and supportive environments.
Even if you missed seeing last week’s show, drag is a regular occurrence at Brewnuts along with other themed events—some past functions of note include a Chappell Roan night and Valentine’s Day dinner complete with garlic bread donuts. If these sound of interest to you, be sure to follow Brewnuts on Instagram for regular updates, as well as the performers themselves if you have your heart set on seeing a performance from a particular queen or king.