Owners of West Hollywood’s popular western-themed drag & dance bar Flaming Saddles have made a sad announcement: the bar will not reopen following the coronavirus pandemic.
Like so many venues around the country, Flaming Saddles shut down due to the COVID-19 lockdown. Five months in, the owners have announced the bar will not reopen its West Hollywood location.
Owners Jacqui Squatriglia and Chris Barnes took to Facebook over the weekend to announce the closure. “With the heaviest of hearts, We are sad to say that Flaming Saddles WeHo will not be reopening at 8811 Santa Monica Blvd,” the couple wrote.
Related: Hundreds of gay bars are closed. What does that actually mean for us?
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
“Covid-19 has reeked [sic] havoc globally,” Barnes and Squatriglia continued, “and with a better national strategy here in the U.S. perhaps things would of been different. With the rules as they stand today there is no way we could of fulfilled our fiscal obligations that were presented to us at this location.”
Eater Los Angeles further reports that the couple opted to close Flaming Saddles after ongoing arguments with their landlord over rent. An email from Barnes and Squatriglia posted to Twitter reads in part, “I had spoken to landlords, thought I worked out deals, and we were watching the science carefully as well as city and state regulations. Well, as we were drawing close to opening Flaming Saddles Weho, it was revealed to us that we did not have a secure deal. That was certainly a surprise, but we went immediately into renegotiating.”
Flaming Saddles West Hollywood is Closing! The 2nd Gay Bar in WeHo to Permanantly Close. pic.twitter.com/MqsOBi0yEw
— GayWeHo Gay Los Angeles West Hollywood (@Gay_LosAngeles) August 16, 2020
The email goes on to say that despite repeated attempts, Barnes and Squatriglia could not come to terms with their landlord. As such, they could not meet their financial obligations, and opted to close the bar for good.
The closure of Flaming Saddles epitomizes an ongoing business crisis set off by the COVID-19 pandemic. In Los Angeles and particularly West Hollywood, scores of businesses have shut down permanently due to disputes with landlords over rent.
Josh447
Dang, that place was always hoppin. Can’t imagine the landlord is going to make a dime with it sitting empty. I’d cut rent in half for the bar owners until this pandemic is over.
Chrisk
Yeah, hard to believe they couldn’t’ get the greedy landlord to negotiate. You’ll be hard pressed to find another business bringing in that many customers.
SFMike
You’re forgetting these multimillionaire landlords can sit back with an empty property and write the rent loss off their taxes so it’s a win win and there is that predatory capitalist dream that the next sucker they rent to will pay even higher escalating rent. They are financially secure in the real estate racket no matter what happens. Profit over people….that’s America’s true motto.
masterwill7
So true, I truly don’t get this? Is the greed of the landlord clouding his judgement? Now he will definitely make 0 $ on the place until Covid19 is totally gone, that’s a shitty deal for him too???