Tag Archives: gay bars

Seattle Police Department tries to answer liquor board ‘lewd conduct’ enforcement questions at LGBTQ Advisory Council

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Police officials got an earful and expressed uncertainty about the future of the department’s involvement in liquor board enforcement at last week’s meeting of the Seattle Police Department’s LGBTQ Advisory Council.

The session held in a conference room of the 12th Ave Arts community and apartment building was the first meeting of the council since the Washington Liquor Control Board and SPD backed down from lewd conduct enforcement at Capitol Hill area gay bars after protest from owners and patrons.

Dorian Korieo, an assistant sergeant and LGBTQ+ liaison for the department, said last week the Joint Enforcement Team that SPD participates in with the liquor board will not evaporate but the department is looking for best ways to utilize it.

The liquor board said no citations would be issued in the lewd conduct enforcement cases and that enforcement would be suspended while board members work out new rules to address concerns around targeting and bias. Continue reading →

R Place’s gay bar legacy appears to have come to an end with The Comeback closure

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(Image: The Comeback)

Any hope the spirit of Capitol Hill gay club R Place would live on in SoDo has been dashed. The Comeback has closed.

Seattle Gay Scene reported details of the “long, drawn out, painful demise” here. The Stranger says The Comeback “abruptly closed its doors Sunday with a last dance and a blowout liquor sale.”

CHS reported on the rise of The Comeback off the Hill after R Place lost its E Pine lease in 2021. Continue reading →

The Cuff turns 30 with a party celebrating ‘Life, Lust and Debauchery on Capitol Hill’

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(Image: The Cuff Complex)

(Image: The Cuff Complex)

By Kali Herbst Minino

The Cuff Complex is celebrating 30 years of what it calls “Life, Lust and Debauchery on Capitol Hill” with an all-day party running from 3 PM to 3 AM this Saturday.

In 1993, The Cuff started as a concept from Scott Rodriguez and Tim F. for a “a positive social outlet for people who were into Leather, Levi’s and Uniforms.”

The surprisingly massive space has continued  with a mission to provide the “the best queer experience in the city.”

Since its creation, the club has changed ownership multiple times. Randy Fields purchased the club in 2004. Following Fields, a group of investors took over the business in 2013. Then, in late 2019, right around New Years 2020, Joey Burgess, who also owns Queer/Bar, took ownership of the club and his Burgess/Hall company that includes a collection of neighborhood businesses remains the owner today.

When Burgess purchased the club, he said preserving The Cuff as a neighborhood institution and putting it in queer ownership was at the core of adding the leather bar to his business family.

Surviving through the COVID-19 pandemic, The Cuff has remained the neighborhood institution it set out to be. According to Kitty Glitter, a host for the club’s 30th anniversary party and involved with social media management for the club, The Cuff remained a community core throughout the pandemic because of its outdoor patio. Being a safer place to gather, it also garnered a more diverse audience. Continue reading →

Investor behind Badlands, Splash clubs set to buy iconic Capitol Hill gay dance bar Neighbours

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(Image: Neighbours)

Image from the 2019 real estate listing for the property at 1509 Broadway

Capitol Hill gay dance club legend Neighbours has a buyer. And TJ Bruce seems like the kind of man who will love the revered but dog-eared disco — or, at least, restore it back to a thriving Broadway business.

CHS has confirmed Bruce, an investor and backer of gay clubs stretching from Fresno to San Jose to San Francisco to Portland and, now, Seattle, is closing on a deal for the club and the 1911-built, 14,000-square-foot Broadway building it has called home for 40 years. CHS reported on the property hitting the market for $6.9. million in January 2019. We don’t know yet terms of Bruce’s deal for the club and valuable Broadway property. It was relisted in late 2020 for $5.75 million.

The prospective buyer has been a prolific investor in West Coast gay nightlife with recent acquisitions and openings including an expansion of his Splash family of video dance clubs in Fresno, and an expansion of the Badlands clubs he is part of with a new location in the works in Portland. Continue reading →

Gay bar Union now open in new home after classic Capitol Hill four-block move

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(Image: Union)

Gay bar Union has completed a classic Capitol HIll move and reopened just four blocks from its first home in the neighborhood.

“I hope that the community that we service and that has adopted us as a second home joins in the excitement of our ability to relocate and reopen,” Union partner Greg Scheaffer told CHS about the planned move back in September.

Born in the summer of 2018 at 14th and Union, the bar has reopened closer to the Pike/Pine core after an overhaul to the space most recently home to Portland export Sizzle Pie and its heavy metal-hued Dark Bar.

The new tenant has swapped out the rock and the darkness for patio wood and Pride rainbows.

Meanwhile, Union has new food and drink neighbors including Optimism Brewing, Metier, Soi, Gokan, Frankie and Jo’s, and the Renee Erickson trio of General Porpoise Doughnuts, Bar Melusine, and Bateau. Continue reading →

Pony’s patio getting slimmed down makeover to make room for E Madison RapidRide bus project

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Relax. When this is all over, Pony and its E Madison patio — slimmed down just a little — will still be there.

Owner Mark Stoner confirms that the work underway on the famous street sign wall of Pony’s patio is part of changes being made to make way for E Madison’s coming “bus rapid transit” line.

“We will reopen,” Stoner says, “but with a slightly shrunken patio.” Continue reading →

Capitol Hill gay bar Union making four-block move

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(Image: Union)

Capitol Hill gay bar Union has found a new home in the neighborhood and it won’t even have to change its name.

“I hope that the community that we service and that has adopted us as a second home joins in the excitement of our ability to relocate and reopen,” Union partner Greg Scheaffer tells CHS about the planned move. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill gay bar expat Purr calls it quits in Montlake

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RIP, Purr. Congrats, Union.

A year after high rents pushed it off Capitol Hill down to Montlake, Purr Cocktail Lounge abruptly closed its doors over the weekend. Meanwhile, new Capitol Hill gay bar Union made its debut.

Seattle Gay Scene had the news from Purr owner Barbie Roberts of Sunday’s last chance to say goodbye. Roberts did not cite a specific reason for the closure. Last summer, she said her move to Montlake was an economic decision with the more-than-a-decade-old lounge escaping soaring Pike/Pine rents. Queer/Bar opened in Purr’s former 11th Ave home three months later. Continue reading →

Union ready to debut in ‘a perfect gayborhood location’ on Capitol Hill — UPDATE

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Nathan, Mark, and Steve (left to right)

Capitol Hill gay bar veterans Steve Nyman, Nathan Benedict, and Mark Engelmann have joined to open a brand new cocktail bar on 14th and Union in the space formerly occupied by Zoe. Wednesday, the new owners were on the new patio of the updated venue ready for a new era.

Union Bar will begin its regular 2pm to 2am service on Thursday the 26th as part of a soft opening, before a “fabulous” opening party on Sunday with an all-day happy hour which includes $4.75 wells. UPDATE: Delayed! No Thursday opening but stay tuned!

“It checks all our boxes. It’s a perfect gayborhood location — it has a patio, fireplace lounge for the wintertime, and an area where you can circulate,” Benedict said.

Continue reading →

Queer/Bar tries to preserve what’s left of LGBTQIA+ Capitol Hill nightlife

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Proud Joey Burgess in front of his newly opened Queer/Bar (Images: Alex Garland)

Plastered in a white, clear, modern font on Pike/Pine glows the generationally controversial word “Queer,” accompanied by “Bar.” It’s intentional. This sleek new space is reserved for the Capitol Hill creators, the spectrum of anything out of the gender dichotomy, the queer. No straights allowed if they’re not allies — despite the clear sign, one only hopes they drunkenly take the hint.

Disclaimer: I am a straight, cisgendered, white female. But I also know how to respect spaces that aren’t meant for me without frustration. The Hill has far more bars I could choose from than the few I shouldn’t.

Roaming in the middle of Queer/Bar with a smile on his face is Joey Burgess.  He runs the place.

“There’s great energy in this place,” Burgess said. “It’s paramount to keep this street queer. For me, for my family, for my friends it’s necessary.”

Dave Meinert, who also is partners with Burgess in a separate company behind Lost Lake, the Comet, and Big Mario’s, said he’s “really just investing in Joey,” who he called awesome, and a great partner with a big vision. Continue reading →