Attending Pride Parade in New York City (and eating at the famous Sugar Factory)

June is the month for LGBT (lesbian, gay, bi, transgender) pride. There are events held around the world during this time to celebrate the pride of people’s sexual orientations and choices and not to be ashamed. These pride events also demonstrate legal rights including same sex marriages. One of the well known parades called the Pride Parade are held in New York City, starting from the 36th street and ended on 5th avenue, which occurred this recent weekend on Sunday, June 25th.

The first march/celebration occurred in 1970 and over the years during its history, the celebration evolved their purposes that doesn’t just recognize sexual orientation and legal rights but a fight against AIDS and to keep remembrance of those victims who lost themselves through violence and the survivors and victims of illness. The march is presented from over 80 floats from a combination of businesses and organizations (non-profit to profit) throughout the state of New York and includes groups of people who support these groups and people who register to join the parade. Political candidates and activists also join in the march.

This was my first attendance for the pride parade and I wish I had joined years ago but I worked every day the parade was held for the last 3 years. The parade was just full of joy and walks of different life from so many different locations that joined in to make this celebration memorable, just like every year. The majority of the city that day was filled of all the colors, representing the rainbow flag that symbolizes LGBT, music that pumped up crowds and people dressed in characters/costumes. People who were walking the parade by the floats also handed the audience with free goodies (yay!!).

Here are photos that I took that day including all the different floats and the gathering of people:

Here’s a photo of me blowing bubbles during the parade:

After the parade, we made reservations to go eat at the famous restaurant in the Meatpacking District, Sugar Factory American Brasserie. I used to go all the time to the Sugar Factory candy store down in Atlantic City and it brings back nostalgia being around the candy store but this one was a restaurant that catered to customers with their deliciously sugary-looking crafted alcoholic drinks, milkshakes and desserts and entrees. The place is also known for many Hollywood celebrities sponsoring and visiting the place (which probably helped the restaurant’s marketing BIG time).

Overall, what do I think of Sugar Factory? I think that the place to many is considered “overrated” but I think if you want to just have a one-time experience over there, it’s fine. The prices of the drinks and the food are over-the-top (that burger is $17!!!! And honestly, it wasn’t the best cooked or the best combination of one.) But, I mean it’s New York after all and I also believe for a place so populated, the prices would be up there.

If you plan to come here, I do recommend you reserve a table ahead of time because you can end up waiting for an hour like others have. The Goblet drink we had, in my opinion and my friend’s opinion, are sweet to the point you can hardly taste the liquor but it’s one of those drinks that creeps on you. It was $36 and HUGE (depending on your alcohol tolerance, maybe a bit too much for one person). It was pretty good and tasty and seeing the drink smoke up when it was poured into the 60oz container was like a cool science experiment in the process.

Those goblets are definitely one of the main reasons people come here but I hate to see that it got wasted by so many customers by the time we were leaving (most of the leftovers from them wasn’t even drank by half!). I don’t see myself returning back here but sometimes, you just gotta have one-time experiences.

After the dinner, we walked all the way to go back to Port Authority to catch a bus back home in Jersey. On the way, we saw the Empire State Building lit in rainbow colors:

Love wins! Love always wins. Hope you guys will get to experience the pride experience in a Pride Parade one day. Attending a Pride Parade will open your eyes to a community that always has open arms for anyone.