When did the gay 90s restaurant close
The Haunted Pizza House: Gay Nineties
Natalie Knosp
Gay Nineties workers have tried countless times to wash the BOO off the mirror, yet it has never come off.
Known for its retro, family-friendly atmosphere and homemade pizza, Gay Nineties is located in the heart of Pleasanton. Despite being an unlikely identify for ghost hunters, the 65-year-old restaurant is significant in Pleasanton’s 130-year history. According to local legend, spirits from the past still linger within its walls, sharing space with customers enjoying pizza.
The restaurant’s website and manager, Conner Close, note that Lgbtq+ Nineties occupies one of Pleasanton’s first commercial buildings, predating the city’s incorporation in the late 19th century.
“The building was built in 1864 when Lincoln was president. It’s one of the oldest buildings in Pleasanton, it used to be a Wells Fargo stagecoach stop. It was also a couple of different bars, and at one time it was a brothel. And so upstairs there were 11 rooms, and then downstairs was a bar.” said Close.
As the story goes, the Lady in Blue—the nickname for the restaurant’s ghost—became entangled with the building when she fell in love with a man s
— by Deyana Pangelinan
In 2018, huddled in the dusty dilapidated corner of a slowly deteriorating building on South Tacoma Way lies the recently closed down restaurant of what used to be called, “Ah Badabing Pizzeria” right next to a quaint little Subway sandwich shop. (Figure 2) To an individual who may not know much about this building’s history, the first glance of the outer appearance may feel bleak under the overcast clouds, depressing, lonely, and nearing the end of its time. But it was not always this way. In fact, in this exact building lies what used to be Steve’s Gay ‘90s Block, a popular restaurant and music venue that hosted many great performers. In its prime it had huge neon signs that pointed the way to “South Tacoma’s newest dining hot spot” and could grip around 700 people in the building itself! (Figure 1) So, let us go back and examine how this whimsical establishment called Steve’s Gay ‘90s dazzled the tune scene of South Tacoma Way during the 1900s.
In 1941, a businessman named Stephen O. Pease partnered with a woman named Mrs. John Martinolich, of the shipbuilding family, to open up a business called “Steve’s Tavern” on 5238-40 South Ta
Bill’s Supper Club in midtown Manhattan is re-opened! Established in 1924 as a speakeasy, the 19th-century townhouse restaurant/bar serving modern American fare is once again opening its doors and reclaiming its status as the premier supper club of New York City. For nearly 100 years, Bill’s Gay Nineties has remained a legacy establishment and a quintessential part of the New York restaurant scene. Re-designed with a nod to the belated fifties/early sixties aesthetics of timeless social clubs such as 21, The Stork Club, and Delmonico’s, the renamed Bill’s Supper Club is nothing short of a modern classic.
And here we are again, in the Twenties of a new century - and Bill's Supper Club re-opens. Gone are most of the classic restaurants of New York City, yet Bill's Supper Club remains. New owner Christian Pascal aims to enliven the imaginative spirit of Bill Hardy in the newly designed version of Bill's, which encapsulates the Mad Men/Frank Sinatra/Jackie Gleason era of Modern York. Come listen the piano that the likes of Marilyn Monroe and James Cagney sang along with. Spot the mural walls painted in the 40's. Taste the modern interpretations of classic dishes. Beverage t
The Pride Behind Pride
It’s the year 2020. Pride is cancelled. This is very hard to say out loud. It feels love saying we’re cancelling delight and progress. Of course, the cancelling of Pride—the festival, the parade, the week when tens of thousands of far-flung LGBTQ peeps come streaming home—represents an act of affection to keep people healthy.
But its absence presents us with an opportunity to consider all the profound and significant local LGBTQ landmarks that built Pride—and often disappeared. Living in a capital is complicated. Each of us lives in a different Twin Cities: We share the Foshay Tower and the Mississippi, but we go home to different bars and bedrooms.
LGBTQ cultures hold, historically, needed to cover their bars and bedrooms for fear of eviction, firing, imprisonment, or worse. As Ricardo J. Brown put it in his St. Paul memoir, The Evening Crowd at Kirmser’s—one of the best mid-20th century looks at American gay experience—the LGBTQ being was “a ruse that kept all of us safe,” conducted in “a fort in the midst of a savage and hostile population.”
Hiding in forts was useful, important, necessary. But what was long hidden is easy to
Bill's Gay Nineties closes on Saturday, March 24, possibly forever. The owners are talking about finding a new space, and they may. But regardless, it will never be the same. The bar has been in the similar 1850s townhouse since opening during Prohibition. It's an irreplaceable setting for this diamond.
I'm not certain that New Yorkers realize exactly what they're losing. Yes, a former speakeasy with peerless dark-wood atmosphere and decor and a world-class collection of old theatrical and boxing memorabilia. (The owners are taking all that with them, so the restaurant that moves in will look nothing like Bill's.) We all know that. An unmatchable Old New York atmosphere. That, too. And staff who have been doing the same job at the same place for anywhere from 10 to 60 years. Ditto.
But Bill's has other hidden ethics, which will disappear advance Sunday. Old places prefer this tend to, over the years, end up with pieces from other old places, ones that disappeared long ago. Grab the swinging doors that lead into the basement bar. I've always admired them. But they struck me as being too ornate and fine, even for a class mutual like Bill's. They seemed more 1890s than 1920s.
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