Gay Bars Dying Across Country? Not In San Francisco.
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Written by mike
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Thursday, 01 May 2008 00:50 |
The gays are aflutter over a recent piece on NPR that suggests gay bar culture is going the way of the Paul Lynde and, any moment, will be found passed out on the carpet with its pants around knees and a bottle of poppers in its hand. A rise in internet hook-ups and a decrease in need for gay-only spaces were the cited bogeymen: David Cooley, the owner of West Hollywood's popular Abbey opined "If you would say to me, 'David, let's open up a gay bar.' I wouldn't be investing." Is gay nightlife really dead? According to the the promoters we asked, it depends where you're looking.
(Image by Nikola Tamindzic)
New York promoter Daniel Nardicio told us the piece is right
on and that the gay scene isn't what it used to be, either in New York
or most other places. "It's tragic... The whole East Village has
closed down. There were nights people would go out and bar hop from the
Slide to Opaline to The Cock and hit all these different bars in one
night. Now they're all closed or just barely hanging on... I'd never do
a weekly [party] here."
According to Boston Globe writer David Sullivan, who was quoted in the NPR piece, Boston has lost half of its gay bars
in the past decade, and a recent Orlando Sentinel piece noted a spate
of gay bars closing in that city. "Boston is tragic," said Nardicio,
"New Orleans is tragic, New York is tragic... maybe it's different in
San Francisco."
Evidently so. SF club promoter Gus Bean says business has never been
better it's just changed. "I've never been busier than in the past
three years. What has reached it's eclipse is the giant all night dance
party... The younger crowd doesn't want house music, it doesn't want
drugs-they want alcohol and low cover charges." While he admits
that a certain generation of gay man has "falling victim to the
online sex culture and crystal meth in the last ten years," a new
generation has more than made up for it. Bars in the Castro that were
dead a few years ago, he says, now have lines around the block.
San Francisco nightlife fixture Juanita MORE! of Booty Call concurs. "It's not harder
to get people to come out, it's just a matter of knowing what they
want. I think they want something unique and innovative."
San Francisco also may provide even Nardicio with hope. He's coming here next month to throw a party for Playgirl magazine, first
at The EndUp in partnership with their Friday weekly, Ghetto Disco,
and later at the Stud for Hot Mess, a successful weekly thrown by-perhaps it's no coincidence-Gus Bean.
RELATED:
Times Mag Profiles Soon-to-Be Young Gay Divorcés
Beyond the Castro: The Sword Guide to San Francisco's Polk Gulch
Gay Bars Adjusting to New Reality (Marketplace)
Gus Presents Event Homepage (GusPresents.com)
House of MORE! (JuanitaMore.com)
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Comments
Bad music and constant request for top 40 tunes will not save bar culture!