Day Trip: Ren Peir and trent, BABE Wine Bar

Struck by how few New York City bars are devoted to queer communities, two hospitality professionals took matters into their own hands. In 2024, Ren Peir and trent (who goes by a single uncapitalized name) co-founded BABE, a series of wine-fueled pop-ups raising money for the brick-and-mortar queer wine bar of their dreams. Each lively, vibey BABE event has sold out immediately. “It’s an almost overwhelming feeling to see how well-received it’s been,” says trent, who in their day job is a food and beverage creative. “In this time, it’s so important to have places where we can gather and lean on each other,” adds Peir, who works as a sommelier in her day job. “For us to be able to create that is really, really special.”

5 a.m. trent

On the day of an event, I make coffee and start my day with a little bit of prayer, some journaling, and meditation. After that, I start answering emails and checking texts. Ren can attest—she’s heard from me as early as 5 or 6 on the day of [laughs].

7 a.m. Peir

If it’s a nice day, I take a walk in my neighborhood to get the blood pumping and get a coffee… It grounds me before the chaos begins.

9 a.m. trent

I go to a flower shop or Trader Joe’s and see what looks cute. I love making flower arrangements for events because it feels like an offering to the space and to the people we’re bringing into the space. After I’ve picked up the flowers, I’ll head to the print shop to pick up our menus.

10 a.m. Peir

I’ll head to the venue, so I can be there when our glassware is delivered. We need so much stemware—it’s usually very a typical for our venues—so I’ll meet with a person from the venue to figure out if we need to move their barware or find a separate place for the stems. We go over the POS [payment system], too.

12:30 p.m.

trent: I’ll get to the venue with the flowers and start making the first arrangement. Usually, one of our somms comes a little early to help me knock them out. I don’t usually eat lunch on the day of. I try to save my appetite for family meal.

Peir: I usually keep a protein bar on me, and trent always has hydration packets and vitamin C on them, so sometimes I’ll ask for one.

2 p.m. Peir

We run all the glassware through the wash at least once, and then we polish and set them up. We invite a queer chef or queer pop-up to do the food, so we’ll get their space ready.

4 p.m. trent

Our somms start to arrive, and we have a family meal. I like to make sure that everyone has something good in their stomachs and the energy they need because it’s a long night.

4:45 p.m. Peir

I’ll taste through all our wines with the somms so they know how to talk about them. We curate all the wines for each event.

5 p.m. trent

I help the DJ or DJs set up. You just want to be sure the gear works and the sound is doing what it’s supposed to do.

5:30 p.m. Peir

Because we’re RSVP-only, we hire a person at the door to check for RSVPs and pass out wristbands. I get them set up with their chair and their supplies.

6 p.m. trent

I’m always surprised that there are people at the door right at 6 when we open. Our attendance is anywhere between 150 and 225 people a night.

7 to 10:30 p.m. trent

Between 7 and 8 is when we have our most concentrated crowd. We hire enough staff so that Ren and I don’t have to necessarily always be behind the bar. We want to get to know the people who come, we want to let folks know that we’re happy they’re there. People usually stay until the last call at 10:15 or 10:30.

11 p.m. Peir

We’re technically closed, but people linger, begging for that last glass [laughs]. We clean all the glassware and stack it in racks for the delivery people to pick it all up the next day. We also close out the POS and put everything back in place for the venue, and then head home around 1 a.m.