Owner David Morgan says that the scene was never dead, it was just suffering from a lack of venues:
“Gearing up in leather and going
to a bar where you’re the only one dressed is kind of like a woman
going to a bar in a ball gown while everyone else is in T-shirts.”
Suggesting that San Francisco has been in sore need of a strictly leather bar, Morgan hopes to fill that void along with the nearby Hole in the Wall, which plans to reopen after a relocation to Dore Alley soon.
Not wanting to shun business, however, Morgan told the SF Chronicle that he wants Chaps II to be more inclusive than leather bars past, welcoming women, drag queens and men in business suits. This inclusiveness seems to run counter to the idea he states earlier in the article that Chaps II will be sating SF gays alleged hunger for a “strictly leather” bar. Demetri Moshoyannis, Executive Director of Folsom Street Events (which sponsors the annual Folsom Street Fair as well as the Up Your Alley event in Dore Alley–the two times a year when younger SF gays typically pull out their harnesses and leather arm bands these days) suggests that such inclusiveness is the only thing that will keep the bar from being dominated by a bunch of oldsters. “A lot of young people can’t afford $400 leather pants.”
RELATED:
SoMa Back in the Saddle Again (SF Gate)