Entering the Black Rabbit on a recent April night, there were cheers more reminiscent of a party than a bingo night.
Two drag queens stood on the stage calling out numbers, and the crowd responded with applause and shouts of excitement. “It really makes us flattered and proud that we get to be such a valued third space in the community,” says Will Truce, co-founder of the meadery and bar.
Behind the drinks, foods, and events, the bar aims to create a space for those in Reno to come together and celebrate the local community.
“The core of who we are and how we got into initially having a meadery and then letting that grow into a bar and event space is through love of our community,” Truce says.
With this focus on community, the bar now hosts various events such as live bluegrass, shibari workshops, drag queen bingo, electronic nights, and various charity fundraisers to help underrepresented groups. “It also does a wonderful job of supporting other organizations' missions and arts," Truce added.
What began as a small venture of making mead or honey wine with coworkers has evolved into Nevada’s first self-proclaimed meadery and a bar stocked solely with local and regional spirits. “We want to be known as a community bar; we want our mead and our drinks to bring people together,” said Ryan Breland, a bartender at Black Rabbit.
Truce began making mead while working as a teacher here in Reno. A fellow teacher and local beekeeper, Al Sindlinger of Al’s Bees Honey, offered him honey. “He knew my background was in microbial ecology and asked me if I wanted to turn his honey into some alcohol. I knew the social studies teacher (and Black Rabbit co-founder), Jake Conway, had made homebrew before, so he and I just started working together,” Truce recounted.
After years of experimentation, the two were ready to open in 2019. Yet, with the COVID pandemic, they realized the importance of spaces like bars in positively bringing people together.
“Why don’t we also celebrate the local community so people have more of a reason to come together?” Truce remembers asking. “And I do wonder if a lot of these social, political, and cultural tensions that we have in the modern age are, in part, a lack of places for a diversity of people to come together and just casually enjoy life and potentially get to know each other.”
Through the bar’s evolution, Truce continued to stress the importance of community in creating a space people want to be in. “I don’t think people go to bars to drink so much. I think the primary reason why people go to bars is to have a good time, to get together with people they know and maybe they don’t know. It’s oftentimes to celebrate something in their lives. But people go to bars to be with their community,” he said.
Third spaces, or places outside of work and home where people can gather and connect, are often hard to come by in a rapidly evolving world with social media becoming the primary source of social interaction. Yet, third spaces are vital for the health of the community, creating a sense of belonging and strengthening social ties.
We experienced this firsthand when we began going to Black Rabbit. Initially, it was to meet friends who hung out there, but over time, it became more than just a place to grab a drink. It was where we could meet new people, form unexpected friendships, and feel part of something larger than ourselves.
This certainly seemed to ring true during the drag queen bingo, where the performers recognized several audience members as regulars to their shows and asked the audience to clap for those who always came out to support their events. “It’s really important that we strive to celebrate our local community and be a safe, fun, and celebratory place for people of all walks of life to gather and feel a deeper sense of community with each other,” Truce concluded.
We ended the night with a crossed-off bingo board, and even though we didn’t win bingo, we definitely won because we connected with new people around us. Places like the Black Rabbit remind us why third spaces matter and how it makes the place more than a bar. It becomes a space where friendships are formed, creativity is celebrated, everyone is welcome, and the community is connected.
Reporting contribution by Victor Velez and Alizé Aguilar in cooperation with a COM 210 class at UNR with Amy Pason