Lady Irina's Lisbon Drag Dinner Offers Queer Travelers a Place to Call Home
At a centuries-old apartment in Lisbon's Bairro Alto, a drag queen's intimate dinner parties have become a safe haven for LGBTQ+ travelers from around the world
I sat nervously on a red-cushioned stool in drag queen Lady Irina's boudoir awaiting my transformation. I had never been in drag before and worried what my five dinner companions — who were complete strangers — would think, even though they were waiting for their turn.
Vintage-looking jewelry and makeup brushes were sprawled across the vanity table in front of me. The walls of Lady Irina's drag sanctuary were covered with accessories and boas while colorful wigs perched on headforms.
Appearing from behind in a blonde wig swept to her left and wearing a sweetheart-neckline dress, Lady Irina placed a pink bob and fascinator on my head. After pinning them in place, she exclaimed I was ready for dinner.
Looking at my reflection, my nerves disappeared. I felt ready to embrace the unknown for the next four hours. It was time for my worries to step aside. It was time to introduce Ms. Steph Aside.
This is the start of Lady Irina's mystical drag dinner. "The program is hello, let's dress up, let's have food, let's chat, and so on," she explains about her 4.98-rated Airbnb Experience.
Arriving at her 18th-century apartment in Lisbon's Bairro Alto neighborhood, guests are treated to a drag makeover and four-course home-cooked tasting menu. Cocktail-making lessons, crystal ball consultations and tarot card readings take place between each course in her dining room, under a blue and purple glow with candles flickering to set the mood.
On the surface, it's a whimsical dinner party with strangers. But beyond the delicious food, it's a party where identity, emotional growth and confidence are built, and where unexpected bonds are formed.
While some of Irina's guests come for a gastronomical experience, many search for community. "Some people want to find friends or they just want to feel safe," she shares. "I've had different guests with different stories. From countries where being gay is a punishment."
It's a reality that resonates broadly. According to booking.com, 41% of LGBTQ+ travelers have created an alter ego to safely navigate different environments while traveling — a reminder that even in a world of expanding queer visibility, finding genuinely safe spaces on the road remains an ongoing negotiation.
A space to explore, be vulnerable and be one's true self, Lady Irina's home quickly registers as exactly that for queer travelers.
"When it's in an apartment, you can lay down on the sofa and it's safe," she says. When building her dinner party, she wanted something intimate and cozy — a place familiar to people no matter their background, and a place where she also felt safe.
Prior to her dinner parties, Lady Irina hosted food experiences and a popular virtual sangria-making class with her then-husband. When her relationship devolved into unhealthy and unsafe territory, along with drag fatigue, she paused her hospitality venture. She spent the time prioritizing finding safety for herself at home and with her family and friends.
Inviting guests into her haven creates trust, something Canadian traveler Chris and his husband Richard, who asked that we not use their last names, felt immediately. "Hosting us in her home made us not only feel like locals but friends."
The invitation to her boudoir, where she shares her drag process and personally transforms each guest, sets the tone for how open and expressive the evening can be.
"The wigs and accessories give this extra armor so you can pretend that you're someone else," Lady Irina explains. It also removes the sense of social hierarchy people may perceive about each other, evening out the playing field.
"It gave us the permission to embrace being open with each other," Chris adds. "You let your guard down."
That sense of vulnerability carries into the evening's mystical moments. Whether Lady Irina interprets a tarot card pulled from her deck or swirls her manicured hands across the crystal ball and asks probing questions, her tools encourage individuals to find answers within themselves.
"People can share something with other travelers or remind themselves about their own dreams," she explains. "When you verbalize things it's easier to feel them."
And they do. Feelings, emotions and personal stories, both hilarious and heartwarming, are shared around the dinner table without fear. "It was surreal how honest they were about what pained them and their hopes," Richard says about his fellow diners.
"Tarot cards give you quick answers and quick solutions, but everything depends on you," she says.
"We laughed, we cried, we ate, we drank, and we learned about ourselves and others," a Virginia traveler said in a review.
While conversations can get heavy, Lady Irina knows when to bring comfort or laughs, and when to infuse that well-known fun, campy drag shade.
"It's an impressive feat for her to weave moments of education, enlightenment and entertainment while making everyone feel engaged and keeping up the laughs and conversation," says Chris. "It's a masterclass in hosting."
Ending the night with a pastel de nata, guests remove their drag armor and gather their things. "We entered as strangers and left friends," a North Carolina attendee shared in their review. "It was a unique, beautiful experience."
As Irina bids "tchau" to her guests, waiting for their rideshares to arrive and later messaging the group to ensure they've reached their accommodations safely, she hopes each person will be kinder to each other and themselves.
"I don't expect to fix someone. My job is to entertain, but I hope they will pay more attention to each other and try to be more vulnerable," she says. "When you show yourself in moments of vulnerability to the rest of the world, that's how you find your strengths."
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