The Cafe San Francis | The Castro's Largt Gay Bar & Nightclub

Contents:

• THE BT GAY BARS SAN FRANCIS
• SF GAY HISTORY
• SF GAY HISTORY
• SF GAY HISTORY
• THE CASTRO, SAN FRANCIS GAY DISTRICT
• TOP 5 GAY CLUBS & BARS THE CASTRO (SAN FRANCIS)GAY CLUBS & BARS THE CASTRO
• CASTRO DISTRICT, SAN FRANCIS GUI AND VOICE OF THE GAY AND LBIAN MUNY!
• THE 10 BEST PARIS GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS PARIS
• A GAY GUI TO THE CASTRO

THE BT GAY BARS SAN FRANCIS

But that tty-soundg nickname— was the first gay bar San Francis to have plate-glass wdows that let passersby see who’s si, and the patrons skew silver—is one the regulars willgly share. ) Whether ’s Cole Porter standards, a jazz night, or a te sg-along, this curtaed, Art De-accented bar is where tried-and-te Friends of Dorothy n be spac have been vanishg for a long time, but few subspeci are rarer than the neighborhood gay bar.

A gay sports bar was practilly a ntradictn terms when Hi Tops opened the Castro nearly a ago, but no one should doubt the near-universal appeal of rn dogs and a pork-chop-on-a-stick. If you’ve hung out the Castro long enough, your jar has probably accumulated more than a few drk tokens om here, a gay bar?

Well, ’s neher and both: a majory Irish-owned, majory LGBTQ-owned venue named for a gay Irish humanarian.

SF GAY HISTORY

Sectn at a mic ftival, and a queer-iendly ambiance all nspire to make this Missn spot among the most hospable bars the Street has all but been annexed to the Mara, but once upon a time, there was a htler-filled gayborhood lled Polk Gulch—of which the Cch is the sole survivor. A rpeted dive narrow enough that you n touch the bar wh one hand and the oppose wall wh the other, ’s home to the Hot Boxxx Girls, a troupe of olr drag performers who, as well as the Tubteak Connectn, DJ B Statn John’s re-created dis and SF’s longt-nng gay party. Uncle Donald served the gay muny on Castro Street by curatg lists of events, bars, and even .

The olst gay bar the Castro, the MISSOURI MULE (now JET) on Market, dat back to 1963. This data was culled om var sourc cludg ads lol gay magaz and newspapers and the archiv of the GAY AND LESBIAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY. San Francis’s Castro District is currently home to 20 gay bars – more or ls, pendg how you fe the parameters of the Castro, or even how you fe “bar, ” much ls “gay bar.

SF GAY HISTORY

But at the peak of the Castro’s glory gay days, there were even more. Here are ten lotns the Castro (om Castro Street down Market to Church Street) that ed to be gay bars but aren’t even bars any longer. The spot briefly beme a gay bar lled Cy Dump 1973 before aga beg the Midnight Sun om 1974 to 1981.

In 1981, the same year that MTV premiered, they took over an old plumbg warehoe around the rner at 4067 18th Street, where beme the cy’s (and perhaps the natn’s) first gay vio bar. In 1971, a street-level bar at 482 Castro beme Toad Hall, a bar for gay hippi that played mic wh refully prepared mixed tap at a time when most bars still ed jebox.

The owners origally wanted to ll the Iron Nun, but the landlord, though willg to rent to gays, was a vout Catholic who didn’t want a blasphemo name.

SF GAY HISTORY

In the 1950s, a straight bar at 469 Castro Street — Club Unique — proudly lled self “the gayt spot town!

” Years later, fally did bee a gay bar when beme the aptly-named Nothg Special 1972. That changed to the Special 1985, and then the ary-themed gay bar Headquarters 1991.

THE CASTRO, SAN FRANCIS GAY DISTRICT

In the mid-1990s, a bar on the rner of Sanchez and 16th named Dicks – a straight bar, believe or not – went gay and changed their name to the Jackhammer.

Some might argue shouldn’t be clud as a gay “bar” sce they didn’t serve alhol, but most guibooks then and now listed as such. When the Shed moved to 3520 16th Street, the lotn served as the “No on 6” mpaign headquarters to fight the Brigg’s Iniative that would have mandated firg gay teachers. It’s been a rtrant for s, but om 1972 to 1977, 2223 Market Street was a gay piano bar lled the Purple Pickle.

TOP 5 GAY CLUBS & BARS THE CASTRO (SAN FRANCIS)GAY CLUBS & BARS THE CASTRO

It then beme the Balny om 1977 to 1983, a rtrant that quickly beme a gay leather bar, and then the Amy om 1983 to 1988, a safe-sex men’s sex club.

Stt’s P, named after the owner, a lbian named Stty, was another improbable lotn for a gay bar the basement of a Victorian buildg. Stty eventually sold to a gay man who shortened the name to Stt’s.

2100 Market Street has always been a rtrant, but two of s rnatns also clud small gay bars.

CASTRO DISTRICT, SAN FRANCIS GUI AND VOICE OF THE GAY AND LBIAN MUNY!

From 1974 to 1976, the rtrant Tck Stop has a gay bar lled the Rear End Bar. Afterwards, beme a seri of rtrants whout gay bars, cludg Boston Market, JohnFrank, and Home. There are four more former gay bars along that stretch of Market Street.

The doomed rtrant Shanghai at 2029 Market Street was Mec (1996-2009) and Ggeru (2011), rtrants wh large bar areas and popular gay events. From the last 60s to the early 80s, 1884 Market Street was a seri of gay bars: Libra (1967-1972); Tree Hoe (1972-1973); JB’s Hoe (1973-1974); and Eagle Creek (1975 until some time the 1980s). 1760/1770 Market is now a private events venue, but s rnatns as a gay bar have clud Octavia Lounge (closed 2008), Triple Crown (2009-2010), and Rebel (2011-2012).

The Castro has had a number of straight bars go gay, but there are currently only two straight bars open today that ed to be LGBT waterg hol.

THE 10 BEST PARIS GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS PARIS

History of existg gay bars the Castro. The origal Toad Hall, a Castro neighborhood gay bar the 1970s. Toad Hall opened on May 28, 1971, Memorial Day weekend, by four gay men and a woman – Ron Est and David Monroe of the Ln’s Pub, a gay “sweater” bar at Sacramento and Divisaro that opened 1969, wh Tom Sanford and Sam Hall, along wh the fancial support of Marjorie Deremer, a well-off senr cizen who passed away 2000.

It was one of four gay bars that year to jo the three other gay bars that already existed the Castro. (The Ln’s Pub still exists, but gradually stopped beg a gay bar sometime the early 2000s. Tom Sanford had a metal statue of a nun and had hoped to ll the bar The Iron Nun, but one of the landlords, a pharmacist at Star Pharmacy next door (where the first notic of a “gay ncer” htg the Castro would be posted 1981) named Eugene Longotti, who was a vout member of Most Holy Reemer Parish, was willg to accept a gay bar for a tenant but not one whose name sound so blasphemo.

A GAY GUI TO THE CASTRO

The bar was stead named Toad Hall after the home of one of the characters om Kenh Grahame’s 1908 children’s book The Wd the Willows, an awkward character who never felt at ease wh the other characters – a nod to the homosexual unrton some believe the book to have, and, bee of the toadstool on the bar’s shgle, perhaps also to psilocyb mhrooms. It was the first gay bar the neighborhood to allow dancg – at least for a time until the police noticed they didn’t have a dance perm. San Stryker’s Gay by the Bay suggts that Toad Hall was one of several gay bs affected by arson (“Gay bs were equent targets of bombgs and arson.

One gay bar, Toad Hall, was burned out three tim three months durg 1973, ” p. Not long after he was done, jt two weeks before Gay Pri of 1974, the bar was pletely gutted by another fire.

In January of 2008, G Van Sant me to the Castro to beg filmg his feature film Milk, a bgraphic film about Harvey Milk starrg Sean Penn as the assassated gay rights lear and Jam Fran as his lover, Stt Smh. “The rebirth of Toad Hall, ” Big Gay Frat Hoe Blog, Febary 26, 2009. Stryker, San and Jim Van Bkirk, Gay by the Bay, Chronicle Books, 1977, 978-0811811873.