The Switchboard is an institution in the Frankfurt gay scene. It is part of AIDS-Hilfe, a charity…read moreworking in AIDS-prevention projects and assisting people with HIV.
You can meet there a lot of so called Stammgäste (habitué), the average age is not very young, expecially when it's happy hour (on Tuesday and on Sunday evening). There are actually many different groups meeting at the Switchboard, so with a bit of luck and perseverance you can experience different kind of people.
It relies on the help of many voluntaries in rotation, some of the folks working there are very friendly, other unfortunately not.
If you are an international traveler, maybe a tourist, it is a place not to miss, but beware especially on Tuesday you might encounter a guy volunteering who is unbearable to any averagely educated person from outside of Germany, sometimes also for the locals who know him well and darunter leiden.
I dont go very often to AG36, now I remember why don't come up with the idea of asking if you can add a little table to the table of your guests: you will not get a nice anwer. Best case scenario a bitchy ungern. Don't ask how the food there is prepared (because of allergies), you will looked at as if you were cursing. Be prepared to wait for 20 minutes before anybody acknowledge you exist (Hilfe, Kundschaft.). Dont ask to play a song which goes beyond the standard Slager, maybe something more sophisticated than the usual selection: you might be considered a Martian :-)
Honestly, the problem is not the place, and not even the cultural differences which are many between us used to an Anglosaxon approach to service and the Prussian style avarage Frankfurter. The problem has a name and surname and a grumpy face, and people going there on Tue know what I am talking about and no, it is not the older guy, who is very very nice. It's the younger Ziegenbock who should be sent pasturing elsewhere.