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San Francisco’s oldest surviving gay bar, The Stud, will not be reopening at its current home but is vowing to keep trading. This may be in the form of a virtual club space and (post-lockdown) pop-ups.
The Stud first opened in 1966. It’s been at its current South Market home on 399 Ninth Street for the past 33 years. In 2016, facing closure, its ownership was taken over by an LGBTQ collective of scene performers and promoters, who together breathed new life into the business.
However, then COVID-19 came along. Like all other bars in the city, the venue had to close its doors but its landlord still wants the rent to be paid.
Related: Coronavirus is dealing a death blow to LGBTQ nightspots around the globe
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Yesterday, one of the co-owners, drag performer Honey Mahogany issued a press release announcing a drag funeral for the venue will take place via Zoom on May 21 at 2pm. This led to the Bay Area Reporter running a story about the venue’s closure. Mahogany subsequently sent out a clarifying email, saying a press conference about The Stud’s future will take place today (May 21) at 2pm.
The Stud itself has posted to social media confirming that it will not be reopening at 399 Ninth Street and further details will be announced later today.
Another of The Stud’s co-owners, journalist Marke Bieschke, offered more details on 48Hills. He confirmed that The Stud would not return to its current home.
“As a member of the Stud Collective, a wonderful group of 17 friends that purchased the Stud in 2016, in order to save it after a huge rent hike, I am weeping for that beautiful, scrappy space—its gold and red velvet-and sequined curtains parting for kooky drag shows, its graffiti-laden bathroom stalls, its very naughty green room, its dance floor packed with gorgeous creatures from all walks—that was such a vibrant and essential part of the community.
“Here’s the thing, though: The Stud, the nightlife entity, is not dead. We’re still going to come back when this is over—a different space with the same lovingly outrageous vibe.”
He went on to point out that the venue still had to pay its landlord and utility bills, despite having no income.
“Loans and grants pretty much go directly to landlords and utilities, who are the true government-subsidized businesses here, in an arduous, arcane process that looks more and more like a bizarre money-laundering scheme.”
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He says that even when lockdown ends, the reality of running a bar with social distancing measures in place is not feasible at the current location. The bar’s lease was also up at the end of this year, so the team had been thinking about the future.
In the short term, they will continue to stream performances and exist as a virtual space. Post-lockdown, they may operate as a pop-up initiative or hold one-off parties. Eventually, it might return to new premises. Bieschke suggested that unless The Stud collective acted now, the business risked building up huge debts from which it would be impossible to recover.
“Without any rent breaks/suspension or more direct financial support, small business like ours are faced with a tough choice: Close our doors now, get nimble, and try to move forward? Or keep losing money and hope this blows over before we owe hundreds of thousands of dollars?”
The COVID-19 pandemic is forcing already-struggling LGBTQ venues, or those with their leases due to expire, to consider closure. Earlier this month, it was announced that Washington DC’s two oldest gay venues – DC Eagle and Ziegfelds-Secrets – would not be reopening following the COVID-19 lockdown.
Related: Washington DC loses two of its biggest and longest-running gay venues
The situation is hitting gay bars further afield. Earlier this week, the oldest surviving gay bar in London, England, The Royal Vauxhall Tavern, launched a fundraiser to help it survive. Again, like The Stud, its management said its landlord still wanted rent and says it’s not eligible for UK grants available to some smaller businesses.
The bar is seeking to raise £50,000 ($61,000), and has managed to raise half that amount in just six days.
Sister Bertha Bedderthanyu
Its a damn shame when rents become so high the reality of the matter becomes the business being pimped by its landlord. What other way is there to look at it?
Chrisk
They didn’t say but I’m sure it’s an obscene amount.
I would never, ever, ever consider living there again. I love SF but I’ve it’s also cramped and run down in many parts. The biggest reason would be money though. You really do have be pretty well off to live there anymore.
Sister Bertha Bedderthanyu
I did a Google Earth search of my last address when I lived in Los Angeles (the Silver Lake area) and saw two homeless tents set up across the street from where I used to live. I couldn’t not believe the homeless problem had stretched that far off of skid row but it obviously has. Back in the 1980’s I thought the day would never come when I would make twenty dollars per hour but now that salary is practically a slave wage on the entire west and east coast (once you get to the middle of Virginia and from there all the way up to the Canadian border). God help millions of people once the housing courts open back up and landlords demand back rents that they do not have to pay them with because they had no jobs. The you know what is really going to hit the fan and soon.
Chrisk
I live in N Hollywood and I’m also seeing the homeless encampments. Never have I seen that in my neighborhood before.
The shit is already starting to hit. No one’s been paid any unemployment yet. Plus, as you say the landlords will start immediate evictions after the temporary hold on people owing back rent along with their BS late penalties. It will be thousands. SoCal will be a bunch of tent cities.
All Covid did was expose what a f*cked up society we have.
Brian
I’m in NoHo too, and yes, homeless encampments are everywhere. The mayor just passed some regulation to forbid homeless people to live near freeways. Since every freeway underpass is a tent city now, it’s just going to get worse. My guess is that they’re going to move the tent cities to the parks and ruin those for everyone else.
Sister Bertha Bedderthanyu
Unemployment is the main reason for the push to get people back to work. The promise of an extra six-hundred dollars per week in addition the the paltry three or five hundred dollars per week most people will get (in Massachusetts its eight hundred a week max) was the dead giveaway that the government knows people do not make enough money to support themselves off of a regular salary in every major city in the country. It was intended for them to pay rent but once they sat down and really looked deeper into the problem (not know when it would be safe for people to return to work) behind closed doors it was decided these people have to return to work no matter what. Twelve million people did not pay rent in April and in May it was up to fifteen million and projected to hit twenty million by June. Car notes, credit card payments, insurance premiums and utilities are also going unpaid. Whatever money people are getting going for food and phone (you are dead if you don’t have the internet in todays world). With no one paying income or social security taxes only a fool can not see that we ARE bankrupt as a country and the only thing we are doing now it printing money to keep social upheaval in check. If you have a chance go to 60Minutes.com and check out last Sundays segment where the chairman of the federal reserve admitted thats exactly what they were doing because there is no other choice. Oh, by the way, many people still have not received that stimulus check even though they filed taxes and still live at the same address and have the same bank account. God help you all out there on both coasts, especially those of you in unforgiving-it-ain’t-my-problem-pal NYC.
CityguyUSA
It’s happening all over the country.
yueshi
I live in downtown LA and the lockdown has exacerbated all the bad things about living here.
Sister Bertha Bedderthanyu
@yueshi…….I have read about how bad the streets of downtown Los Angeles have become. It has to be horrific if the streets have to be cleared of homeless people and their tents so they can be sanitized due to the continuous smell of human feces and urine. The sad part is within hours of the scrubbings the homeless come right back to the very spots they were told to vacate. I wish you and everyone else down there good luck in dealing with that.
Jared MacBride
The DC Eagle and Ziegfelds-Secrets closed because the owners of the property where they were located are redeveloping the space. Even without the stifling restrictions imposed by the DC government, which made the “crisis” far worse than it needed to be, these businesses would have been gone. Both may pop up again in a year or so.
jdr11201
I thought The Endup, was the oldest bar, It has been so long ago when I-Beam, Trocadero Transfer & Dreamland then finish sunday’s @ The Endup how I’m still still standing is a mystery. Those days flew by :p
MacAdvisor
The Endup opened in 1973, 7 years after The Stud opened. However, the Endup has remained at its original location the entire time, while The Stud has moved around a bit. Thus, the Endup has the title of the longest continuously operated gay bar in the same location.
winemaker
Sadly San Francisco over the years has become one huge overrated and overpriced CRAP HOLE full of homeless bums and streets reeking like toilets with piss, feces, needles and garbage and the city officials don’t do a damned thing to clean up the place despite San Francisco being the most expensive American city and getting more and more unaffordable to the average wage earner. Oh well, as the old Queen song went ‘another one bites the dust’. San Francisco lost its charm and quality of life many years ago, sad to say and has for the most part become unlivable and yes i’m a native born here and plan on leaving soon as it’s gotten way out of hand
MacAdvisor
Perhaps your monicker should be whinemaker. San Francisco is not the most expensive American city to live in, that honor goes to NYC. (see: ht tps ://w ww. invest opedia.com/articles/personal-finance/080916/top-10-most-expensive-cities-us.asp ). SF is second and the reason it is so expensive to live in is there are so many people who want to live there. If you don’t like it anymore, you are welcome to give up your rent controlled apartment to the delight of your landlord and move to Harlingen, Texas, the cheapest place in America to live.
Miles
The UWS in New York is also experiencing a surge of homeless camps that were uncommon a few years ago along with continuous empty store fronts. I fear this is just the beginning.
winemaker
To Mac Advisor. I’m a winemaker from a winemaking family born and raised in San Francisco. I’m a bit of a expert in life here being a long term resident. As to leaving San Francisco, that’s in the plans for the future. Making a big move isn’t as simple as some people might think it is and for the most part, they’ve not had to do this and be faced with all the logistics. I’ve known many long term residents here in the process of leaving, some have already left and the reasons are pretty clear,: To damned many bums, crime going through the roof, unafforfable costs of living and the idiots running the place that have no concept of running a first class American city with common sense and fiscal prudence other than to run it into the ground. Sadly the recently bestowed moniker the ‘doo doo’ capital of the USA fits. I’ll leave this up to your imagination but in many places this place looks and smells like a third world enclave