Gay Bar in Palo Alto?
Steve Cogorno
>Hey all, I'm just curious why there isn't a gay bar in Palo Alto. Or am I
>just not IN enough to know? Palo Alto just seems like a logical place to
It looks like you aren't :-). Palo Alto doesn't have *any* bars
(except for those in restaurants). It's a dry city.
--
Steve
cog...@netcom.com
Colin Wright
> I wrote:
>>Hey all, I'm just curious why there isn't a gay bar in Palo Alto. Or am I
>>just not IN enough to know? Palo Alto just seems like a logical place to
>It looks like you aren't :-). Palo Alto doesn't have *any* bars
>(except for those in restaurants). It's a dry city.
That place has an AWFUL lot of nightlife for a "dry city" Now I wonder if
Fanny & Alexanders and the Blue Chalk are indeed bars, and if the Edge is
indeed a Night Club (a young one, granted) Regardless of what you wanna
call it, the place has more nightlife than any other peninsula city, yet
there is no apparent gay establishment. Just seems so unusual for a city
that just passed DP benefits (I think) and that has a somewhat liberal
university right next door.
Colin
--
________________________________
Colin S. Wright
Mountain View, California, USA
cswr...@netcom.com
Rod Williams
>>cswr...@netcom.com (Colin Wright) writes:
>>Hey all, I'm just curious why there isn't a gay bar in Palo Alto. Or am I
>>just not IN enough to know? Palo Alto just seems like a logical place to
>
>It looks like you aren't :-). Palo Alto doesn't have *any* bars
>(except for those in restaurants). It's a dry city.
There used to be two gay bars *and* a bath-house (Bachelors'
Quarters (BQ)) in that one-block strip of University Avenue
just west of 101 -- but that was a long time ago. Let's see,
there was The Garden on one side, and Whiskey Gulch on the
other...
Rod (suddenly feeling rather ancient)
--
+----------------+----------------+-----------------+-----------------------+
| rod williams | pacific bell | san francisco | rjw...@pacbell.com |
+----------------+----------------+-----------------+-----------------------+
David A. Kaye
" There used to be two gay bars *and* a bath-house (Bachelors'
" Quarters (BQ)) in that one-block strip of University Avenue
" just west of 101 -- but that was a long time ago. Let's see,
" there was The Garden on one side, and Whiskey Gulch on the
" other...
Ahhhh...the memories. I've been to BQ many times. Today the building
is some sort of social services agency, so I guess the use hasn't changed
all that much. Anyhow, The Garden also brings back memories, too. The
one time I went to Whiskey Gulch some madman chased people around the bar
with a drawn knife. I figured that much excitement I didn't need.
--
(c) 1995 Visit Sonoma County's Petrified Forest --
David Kaye trees that feel like stone (707) 942-6667
Jeff S. Williams
>That place has an AWFUL lot of nightlife for a "dry city" Now I wonder if
>Fanny & Alexanders and the Blue Chalk are indeed bars, and if the Edge is
>indeed a Night Club (a young one, granted) Regardless of what you wanna
>call it, the place has more nightlife than any other peninsula city, yet
>there is no apparent gay establishment. Just seems so unusual for a city
>that just passed DP benefits (I think) and that has a somewhat liberal
>university right next door.
There used to be a gay cafe called "Emerald City Cafe". It was located in one
of the commercial (street) level units of a condo building. It went under. Not
surprising considering that the rent was something like $2500.00 per month. It is very difficult for any business to afford to reside in Palo Alto, just the same
as it is for most people to live there. Businesses there must charge high prices
and/or do high volume turn over in order to make it. The Emerald City was busy
in the evenings, but languished during the day.
A lot of people liked the idea of having a gay place to meet that wasn't a bar. "The
cafe" (we called it) was well lit, warm and you could eat dinner there as well as
meet new people and see friends. If any place had a chance to make it as a gay
meeting place in Palo Alto, it did. I think basically there just would not be enough
subscription to such a place to make it fly on such expensive real estate.
Another problem experienced by the Cafe, by the way, was its lack of acceptance by
many of the residents of the building. The owner (a personal friend of mine) spent
a fair amount of energy dealing with the complaints of tenants who, in our opinion,
just hated the idea of a gay establishment in the building. The Cafe was often
blamed for the noise of anyone talking loudly on the sidewalk after 10pm; though most
of that noise came from the drunken frat boys returning to Stanford from Gordon
Biersch, located just around the corner. The point I'm trying to get at is that
while Palo Alto may maintain a liberal veneer, that veneer is still rather thin. The
Emerald City cafe tried to be too overtly gay for many Palo Altans' stomachs.
It's OK for me to say this, because I am a long time resident of Palo Alto. Have you
ever heard it referred to as "Shallow Alto"?
Now for a little bit of history. Years ago, there was a gay bar and a gay
bath house near each other in the Whiskey Gulch section of East Palo Alto (that's
the section you go through if you get off 101 at University Ave going toward
Stanford). The bar was called "The Whiskey Gulch Saloon" and the bath house was
called "Bachelor's Quarters" also known as "The BQ" to the regulars. The BQ
disappeared in the mid-80's along with the Baths in SF. The Whiskey Gulch saloon
made it into the late 80's but from what I hear is now a straight bar.
Jeff
Patrick Nolan
> Quarters (BQ)) in that one-block strip of University Avenue
> just west of 101 -- but that was a long time ago. Let's see,
> there was The Garden on one side, and Whiskey Gulch on the
> other...
A few years ago, there was a Gay Coffee House on University Ave. @ Alma
Street (near Stanford). I think it died off from lack of support. Too
close to the City I guess. Even the Redwood City bar draws mostly locals.
Stewart Kramer
Patrick Nolan <pjnolan@leland> wrote:
>A few years ago, there was a Gay Coffee House on University Ave. @ Alma
>Street (near Stanford). I think it died off from lack of support. Too
>close to the City I guess. Even the Redwood City bar draws mostly locals.
Cafe Montmart? It seemed more gay-friendly than gay, and the service was
slow whenever I was there.
Emerald City Cafe was more distinctly gay, but it was a few blocks away at
High and Forest. I heard that the neighbors complained about noise, and
many people I knew said the food was mediocre or spotty.
Currently, we'll have to make do with Printer's Inc.
---
Stewart Kramer
Jack Hamilton
Rod Williams <rjw...@pacbell.com> wrote:
>There used to be two gay bars *and* a bath-house (Bachelors'
>Quarters (BQ)) in that one-block strip of University Avenue
>just west of 101 -- but that was a long time ago. Let's see,
>there was The Garden on one side, and Whiskey Gulch on the
>other...
As Jeff Williams pointed out, these were in East Palo Alto, not
Palo Alto. Different city, different county.
I didn't like the Whiskey Gulch bars much - I used to go to
The Answer in Redwood City.
---------------------------
Jack Hamilton j...@acm.org
Joe Reda
will...@minerva.robadome.com <will...@minerva.robadome.com> wrote:
>
> There used to be a gay cafe called "Emerald City Cafe". It was located in one
> of the commercial (street) level units of a condo building. It went under. Not
> surprising considering that the rent was something like $2500.00 per month. It is very difficult for any business to afford to reside in Palo Alto, just the same
> as it is for most people to live there. Businesses there must charge high prices
> and/or do high volume turn over in order to make it. The Emerald City was busy
> in the evenings, but languished during the day.
>
<snip>
I think too it must have something to do with the fact that there seems to be
little support for bars in Santa Clara County in general. Most of those I
stop by (Greg's, TD's, the Stockade) are fairly empty weekend after weekend.
And, I remember when I used to work in the bars, we were always given to know
that the bars here were not and would never be as "hot" as the bars in San
Francisco. We're just too close to The City. Too bad, really . .
Paul J. Lucas
>I think too it must have something to do with the fact that there seems to be
>little support for bars in Santa Clara County in general. Most of those I
>stop by (Greg's, TD's, the Stockade) are fairly empty weekend after weekend.
Really? TD's is packed on Friday nights and Greg's is packed on
Saturday's. Hamburger Mary's also had a good-sized crowd on the
weekends.
At least such has been my experience (which is as recent as this
past weekend).
>And, I remember when I used to work in the bars, we were always given to know
>that the bars here were not and would never be as "hot" as the bars in San
>Francisco. We're just too close to The City. Too bad, really . .
Personally, I consider driving back from SF during the wee hours
of the morning to be very, very annoying. Besides, anybody you
might meet most likely lives up there, so you'd always have to
go up there to see them.
- Paul
David A. Kaye
" Personally, I consider driving back from SF during the wee hours
" of the morning to be very, very annoying. Besides, anybody you
" might meet most likely lives up there, so you'd always have to
" go up there to see them.
Most of the time people I met at the Watergarden were from SF just like
me, including a guy I'd never met who lived one block away from me. So, I
drove 50 miles to meet someone in the next block. As for the bars, I
think there indeed is the SF "mystique" value. Plus there's also the
cultural difference: a lot of people in SJ don't want people to know
they're going to gay bars, in case someone from work sees them. So, they
go to SF instead.
--
(c) 1995 1/2 of all traffic deaths are caused
David Kaye by drinking while driving.
Paul J. Lucas
>Paul J. Lucas wrote the quoted material below:
>" Personally, I consider driving back from SF during the wee hours
>" of the morning to be very, very annoying. Besides, anybody you
>" might meet most likely lives up there, so you'd always have to
>" go up there to see them.
>Most of the time people I met at the Watergarden were from SF just like
>me, including a guy I'd never met who lived one block away from me. So, I
>drove 50 miles to meet someone in the next block. As for the bars, I
>think there indeed is the SF "mystique" value. Plus there's also the
>cultural difference: a lot of people in SJ don't want people to know
>they're going to gay bars, in case someone from work sees them. So, they
>go to SF instead.
Funny you should mention that. I was out Saturday night at
Renegades and I ran into my boss who was dressed in leather!
Small world. (Of course I shouldn't have been too surprised
given that he has a leather pride flag on the back of his car.)
As for him seeing me there -- what difference did it make?
*He* was there too.
I might go up to SF if I had a friend's place I could crash at
and then drive home the next morning. Given that I don't go up
there, I'm not holding my breath for this to happen. (Catch
22.)
- Paul
Paul J. Lucas
>jo...@reda.com (Joe Reda) writes:
>>And, I remember when I used to work in the bars, we were always given to know
>>that the bars here were not and would never be as "hot" as the bars in San
>>Francisco. We're just too close to The City. Too bad, really . .
>Or, maybe possibly perhaps, gay folk in the South Bay and Peninsula have
>more do to in their lives then go get sloshed at the bar weekend after
>weekend, locked into that never-ending alcohol-fogged quest for Mr. or
>Ms. Perfect.
That could be. I don't realy like going to bars, but, for
nights with nothing else to do, I'm not going to meet anybody
sitting at home. Last year, when I lived outside Chicago, I
had the best New Year's Eve at a night club dancing my ass off
with friends (whom I had met several months prior at the same
bar).
I do other things to socialize; bars are *not* my primary (or
secondary, or tertiary...) way of meeting men. I go to the
M'View gatherings, to the High Tech Gay meetings, hike with the
Gay & Lesbian Sierrans, and soon, have meetings with the Bare
Bottom Boys (nudist group).
FYI: I don't smoke and I don't drink. I do prefer places with
dance floors; I do like to dance...but only if I have a
partner.
- Paul
Chris Thomas
>And, I remember when I used to work in the bars, we were always given to know
>that the bars here were not and would never be as "hot" as the bars in San
>Francisco. We're just too close to The City. Too bad, really . .
Or, maybe possibly perhaps, gay folk in the South Bay and Peninsula have
more do to in their lives then go get sloshed at the bar weekend after
weekend, locked into that never-ending alcohol-fogged quest for Mr. or
Ms. Perfect.
Just a thought, of course.
- chris
Steve Cogorno
>cogorno> It looks like you aren't :-). Palo Alto doesn't have *any*
>cogorno> bars (except for those in restaurants). It's a dry city.
>
>So, what's Antonio's? (Other than a smoke-filled pool hall for local
>ne'er-do-wells?)
I don't know; I've never been there. I work for Stanford University,
and for last 3 years or so I have been in our San Jose office. The
laws may have changed since I worked on campus, but I was under the
impression that they hadn't.
--
Steve
cog...@netcom.com
Rick Ottolini
within a couple miles of Stanford University, including much of Palo Alto
and Menlo Park.
Paul J. Lucas
>Paul J. Lucas wrote the quoted material below:
>" That could be. I don't realy like going to bars, but, for
>" nights with nothing else to do, I'm not going to meet anybody
>" sitting at home.
>I'm more the coffeehouse kinda guy. I honestly can't say anyone I've met
>in a bar has wound up as a longterm friend. They've pretty much flaked
>away over the years. The other day I was looking back on people I have
>known over the years; one (15 years) was from a weekly discussion group I
>used to be involved with; another was from another discussion group (9
>years). Today, generally I meet people either via the Internet or the
>game night I started some months back, and occasionally at coffeehouses.
Which coffeehouses? Unless they're "gay" coffeehouses, one
obvious problem is that you can't always tell if somebody is gay
or not.
- Paul
David A. Kaye
" That could be. I don't realy like going to bars, but, for
" nights with nothing else to do, I'm not going to meet anybody
" sitting at home.
I'm more the coffeehouse kinda guy. I honestly can't say anyone I've met
in a bar has wound up as a longterm friend. They've pretty much flaked
away over the years. The other day I was looking back on people I have
known over the years; one (15 years) was from a weekly discussion group I
used to be involved with; another was from another discussion group (9
years). Today, generally I meet people either via the Internet or the
game night I started some months back, and occasionally at coffeehouses.
--
(c) 1995 Japan invests as much money
David Kaye in Latin America as in Asia.
Paul J. Lucas
>Paul J. Lucas wrote the quoted material below:
>" Which coffeehouses? Unless they're "gay" coffeehouses, one
>" obvious problem is that you can't always tell if somebody is gay
>" or not.
>I have no problem cruising and/or meeting people in places not
>specifically gay-identified, but for the record here are the gay and/or
>lesbian owned coffeehouses in SF which I can remember offhand:
[ list elided ]
I thought we were talking about Palo Alto. I meant coffee
houses you freqeuent in the south bay, if any. Finding a gay
coffeehouse in SF is not difficult, especially in the Castro.
- Paul
David A. Kaye
" Which coffeehouses? Unless they're "gay" coffeehouses, one
" obvious problem is that you can't always tell if somebody is gay
" or not.
I have no problem cruising and/or meeting people in places not
specifically gay-identified, but for the record here are the gay and/or
lesbian owned coffeehouses in SF which I can remember offhand:
(1) Stimulus on Mission across from Safeway near 30th
(2) Cup-A-Joe on 17th/Sanchez
(3) Sweet Inspiration on Market/Sanchez
(4) Cafe Commons on Mission across from El Rio (just south of Chavez)
(5) Red Dora's Bearded Lady, on either 14th or Duboce near Mission
(6) Castro Country Club, 18th near Hartford
But, personally, there is so much gay energy in SF (and Santa Cruz for
that matter) that I find it very easy to meet people. It also helps that
I'm not desperate -- desperation turns off people faster than telling
them you're a Scientologist.
--
(c) 1995
David Kaye
John Lindner
Lucas) wrote:
> I thought we were talking about Palo Alto. I meant coffee
> houses you freqeuent in the south bay, if any. Finding a gay
> coffeehouse in SF is not difficult, especially in the Castro.
In San Jose, you might try Cafe Leviticus on The Alameda, next to the
Towne Theatre, near Julian Street.
Another cofffeehouse is Lavendar Liquids. They're always open when the
Billy DeFrank Center (175 Stockton between Julian and The Alameda) is open
(weekdays 3 - 9 p.m., Saturdays 12-9, Sundays 9-6).
Take care,
John
--
John Lindner
jo...@garlic.com
http://www.garlic.com/~johng/gateway.html
|Never be bullied into silence. Never allow |
|yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's |____
|definition of your life, but define yourself. |\ /
| HARVEY FIERSTEIN - Bennington 1992 Commencement| \/
ne...@news.corp.hp.com
>>It looks like you aren't :-). Palo Alto doesn't have *any* bars
>>(except for those in restaurants). It's a dry city.
>
>Quarters (BQ)) in that one-block strip of University Avenue
>just west of 101 -- but that was a long time ago. Let's see,
>there was The Garden on one side, and Whiskey Gulch on the
>other...
>
>--
>+----------------+----------------+-----------------+-----------------------+
>| rod williams | pacific bell | san francisco | rjw...@pacbell.com |
>+----------------+----------------+-----------------+-----------------------+
>
That one-block strip of University Ave is not in Palo Alto - it
is actually in E. Palo Alto which is in San Mateo County. I used
to live a couple of blocks from there (in EPA) and discovered that
E. Palo Alto is on both sides of the freeway. Many bars were
clustered there for years due to Palo Alto being a "dry" city.
David Stevenson
>>that the bars here were not and would never be as "hot" as the bars in San
>>Francisco. We're just too close to The City. Too bad, really . .
>
> of the morning to be very, very annoying. Besides, anybody you
> might meet most likely lives up there, so you'd always have to
> go up there to see them.
>
that agony.
Paul J. Lucas
That's not the point.
- Paul