Some community members believe financial concerns are not the whole story behind the downfall of gay nights. And sometime drag king Dionna Staszak ran a gay night on Tuesdays at Zelo Restaurant until last fall, when it too floundered because she wasn’t bringing in enough money to rent the space. Sandbar Mondays, Sharkeez Tuesdays, and Rocks Thursdays were all popular LGBT destinations for a few months. “Maybe the gay community is part of that.”Īfter Hades closed, there were efforts, led mostly by Mendez and fellow promoter Big Gay Mike, to start gay nights at straight bars. “Skyrocketing prices mean mom-and-pops are the first to go,” said DJ Bill Dup, who has a popular MySpace page detailing Santa Barbara’s gay offerings. When real estate is as profitable as it is in Santa Barbara, the spirit of the town gradually gets shaped by profit, not tradition. Like many Santa Barbara casualties, the most plausible reason for gay bars’ demise is financial. “I don’t know what the deal is,” echoed promoter Robert Mendez, who started Wildcat Sundays. So, where have all the gay bars gone? “It baffles me,” said John “JB” Bowlin, director of volunteer services and community events at Pacific Pride Foundation (PPF). And, though some nostalgically insist on calling Hades’s replacement the Gayborhood, deep down we all know the gayest thing about The Neighborhood is Prince gets played once in a while. The last 15 years have seen the closure of Trackside, The Pub, Gold Coast, Chameleon, Fathom, Revival, and Hades. With such a successful weekly event, it’s surprising full-time gay bars in Santa Barbara have come and gone like tourists. And there was that one girl visiting from Switzerland…. “The one on the right’s the new boyfriend of my other ex-boyfriend.” Still, new faces are not uncommon, as Ventura-ites and UCSB students are Red Room frequenters. “The one on the left’s my ex-boyfriend,” he said. A friend of mine once pointed up to a couple of cage dancers. Granted, romances borne of Wildcat Sunday nights often bear uncomfortably less than six degrees of separation. While I’m knocking over people’s beers with a little move I like to call the Falling Ballerina, she’s usually on the verge of hair flipping herself into a neck brace.īy 1 a.m., we’re clutching our stomachs and praying for one bad song so we don’t go into cardiac arrest-and have a chance to mingle with the sizable LGBT crowd. Fortunately, I have a Wildcat partner-in-crime who is just as enthusiastic a dancer as I am. From “I Will Survive,” “It’s Raining Men,” and Tiffany to “Promiscuous” and old-school Madonna, the dance floor is a sweaty, bouncy mess of dance music bliss for four continuous hours. Think what you may of reality TV-created pop stars, there’s no denying the dance potential of a house version of Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone.” And that’s just the beginning. Not only is the place consistently packed with girls in suspenders and boys with fake tans, but were God himself to make a soundtrack of the best dance songs in existence, it couldn’t rival DJ Gavin Roy’s lineup. Known as the Red Room, Sunday nights at the Wildcat have been the staple in Santa Barbara’s gay community for more than five years. You can kiss anyone no one really cares.” Indeed, soon after moving to Santa Barbara, I was buying my coffee from Reds and my beer from Elsie’s-but not because I expected to see any rainbow belts.Įnter the Wildcat Lounge. “It’s easy to tell people where they’re not going to get hassled,” he said. (And to put the rumor to rest once and for all: The former owners were not a lesbian couple.) Lewis said he frequently gets asked where the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community gathers. Like Roy, Chad’s, and other listings, Muddy Waters is “totally open and tolerant,” according to owner Bill Lewis, but has never been an explicitly gay hangout. I didn’t take me long to realize the bars and restaurants listed on were simply gay friendly. The night ended up involving a $2 bottle of wine and Girls Gone Wild infomercials. And there was a lady in there, in the very literal sense of the word: She was knitting and drinking tea. Well, it’s true Muddy Waters does sell beer.
So when I found Muddy Waters on, I donned my gayest outfit (okay, fine, I just removed my dangly earrings) and headed out to chat up some ladies. Giddy on the mountains, the ocean, sunbathing in October, I let myself believe it was possible that one of those bar fronts hid girls holding hands and boys dancing to Madonna. When I drove westward from Boston in search of a new place to live, I assumed it would be a town with a healthy gay scene from what I’d heard about California, the only people who didn’t frequent gay bars were nuns.Īnd then I found Santa Barbara. Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window).Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window).
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