And while lesbians still make their way here regularly due to the significant lesbian population that took root in this neighborhood, the crowd tends to be fairly mixed and LGBT-friendly these days, with a younger generation of straight folks who call Bernal Heights home hanging out here too. Two broken toilets were among several objects that crashed through the bar’s windows in the early years, as working-class Bernal denizens didn’t take too kindly to a gay bar in their midst in the 1970s. Over the years the place has taken on an easy-going, neighborhood character, and the quirky patio with its toilet bowl planters has a story, too. Named for an obscure early 1960s film that featured Barbara Stanwyck as a lesbian madame, the bar began in the East Bay before relocating first to North Beach in 1968 (Janis Joplin used to hang out there, as did some of the women who danced topless in nearby clubs), and ultimately to this space in Bernal in 1977, where original owners Pat Ramseyer and Nancy White lived upstairs. This charming dive out in the wilds of Bernal Heights is still lesbian-owned, and if it’s not exactly a lesbian bar, it’s still an essential place.
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