I remember not being able to go into the bars in Hillcrest, the gay neighborhood of San Diego, near where I went to high school. Judith Butler is Maxine Elliot Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley. The gay bar changed my ideas of movement, dance, collaborative ecstasy, connection with those I did not know, anonymous solidarity, all of it happening in an aura of a generalized permission to live, to breathe, to desire, to find “your people” for a time. It would not be where I now go to find community, but I certainly once did. It has a retro feel, and maybe even cultivates that as a market niche. There’s still a gay bar around where I currently live: the East Bay. And the realization that alcohol and drugs destroyed some people’s lives and relations gave way to a broader reflection on how communities can and must sustain each other.Īs categories of gender opened up, the sense of community became ever more complex and the tasks of solidarity more challenging. But somewhere in the course of all these changes there was a sense that desires were to be lived and honored in a network of supports. The public refusal to acknowledge HIV’s seriousness, the state refusal to fund its research, gave rise to rageful and pointed action. HIV shot mourning and politics into the scene, and for most of us, divisions between women and men seemed to break down. Over the years, so many people and communities, so many real and potential pleasures, were driven out of those neighborhoods, the ecstasy replaced by dispossession. Another, on West Fourth Street, was great, but today it seems to be a looming bank. If you wanted a bar for women only, you had a few options, but one of them, Sahara, was expensive and I felt awkward in my sweatshirt. We spilled into the street: For brief moments, we seemed to own the neighborhoods. The whole place was warm, if not hot.īy the time I started going to bars in NYC in the late ’70s, there was the feel of a celebration and a political movement. In Albany, however, the different strata reflected different vibes: There was dancing to disco on one floor, slow cruising on another, and I was, well, not so very sure about what was happening in the recesses of the building. Oddly, the same structure characterized the gay bar I went to outside of Albany in the mid-’70s. Men were upstairs, and drag shows became regular events, a kind of pre-Provincetown testing ground for the up-and-coming. In New Haven, in the late 1970s and early ’80s, the bar Partners was known for its upstairs-downstairs configuration. They seemed to be spaces of freedom and excitement, islands in an otherwise unfriendly world. I am not sure about my earliest memory of the gay bar, but I do know that I was in bars very often starting at the age of eighteen, or just before. Photo: New-York Historical Society Museum.
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With entertainment slotted seven nights a week for everything from bands to deejays, as well as various special events like beer tastings and food pairings, San Diegans can now consider their social calendar full of memorable moments.82 Club postcard, late 1950s.
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For martinis, mixing and mingling, this ultra-hip lounge is where it’s at. ginger’s is a sophisticated, yet laid-back lounge where vodka takes center stage. Best of all, though the evening may get started in barleymash, this top-notch eatery also encourages patrons to visit ginger’s, located downstairs. And, rooted in the idea that we are indeed a community, three large communal tables foster a sense of gathering where deliciously innovative food, conversation and drink can be shared amongst friends and neighbors.
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(The bar is also fully stocked to suit any other distinguishing palate.) The garage-door style windows open up the interior space to the Gaslamp’s sunny disposition.
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Set amidst reclaimed wood from the original foundation and a warm modernist design, the restaurant and bar support San Diego’s best micro- and nano-breweries. What results from this pairing is a uniquely American dining experience and aesthetic that remind all patrons of two simple ideas: life is meant to be sipped and savored, and good times should always be shared.īarleymash is the downtown place-to-be for locals and tourists alike. The name, in fact, refers to the typical grain mixture used in the brewing and distillation process of both beer and bourbon. Both the restaurant philosophy and menu offerings draw heavily from two barroom staples: beer and bourbon. LOCATED IN THE HEART OF SAN DIEGO’S GASLAMP DISTRICT, barleymash is the fun, high-energy downtown restaurant and bar that celebrates the richness of American culture through its appetizing and progressive bar fare.