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Alas, the new location didn't meet with success and it closed after only a few years. South in a space that used to be Actors Playhouse, a cozy space for off-off-Broadway shows (and where Naked Boys Singing had a long run). However, this closing didn't mean the end for B&S, as it was reincarnated a block south on 7th Ave. Although I went inside just once, taking a 15-second look-see, I feel like I've been to it often since I walked by it thousands of times.
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It had a piano in the front of the bar.Īfter "gracing" the corner near the famed Village Cigar in Sheridan Square for 41 years, Boots & Saddle (lovingly referred to by some as Bras & Girdles) closed in the spring of 2015. Its distinguishing characteristic was that it was within spitting distance of the Queensboro Bridge. (On April 26 I went there for its 2nd anniversary celebration and had champagne.)īOGART'S (E. This establishment is unique because I don't remember it, but apparently I was there because I wrote an entry about it in my journal from 1986. A lasting memory is when my boyfriend bought a one-month pass to the Chelsea Gym (also long gone) from an elderly patron who won it in a raffle there, and then gave it to me. Now closed for more than 20 years, I went there a few times in the first half of the 1980s when I lived on W. Taking its name from old San Francisco's red-light district, this cozy bar had a vaulted ceiling from when it was a bank lobby. It closed after two people were fatally shot there by a crazed man in the winter of 1981. It had one of the most memorable bar logos, a wolf howling at the moon. Of course, they represent just a fraction of those that have closed (e.g., I didn't hang out much in the East Village), but here are three dozen I remember (in alphabetical order):īADLANDS (Christopher & West Side Highway) These closings had me reminiscing about all the bars I've frequented, and outlived, since moving to New York in 1979 (cue up "I'm Still Here" from Follies).
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Then three years later two other Chelsea mainstays, XES and g Lounge, were shuttered. closed after 34 years, while Splash, with all of its muscle-tee hotties, closed its doors in August after 21 years. In March, leather-and-Levis Rawhide on 8th Ave. The year 2013 saw the closing of two bars, both in Chelsea, that served and entertained a generation of gay customers from opposite ends of the "attitude" spectrum.