Remembering Splash Bar

Aw, Splash. I used to go there every Saturday night for quite a while after I moved to the east coast from Texas. Fun memories.

The owner Brian is a first class sociopath. I'm glad he ended up looking like a burn victim!

His stupid boyfriend Harry OD'd on GHB. Nice people, huh?

I’m not basic. I’ve never been.

It seemed as if it was constantly being renovated

We can only hope there will never be another but I'm sure there will be.

R2

Harry Bartel was anything but stupid. The man was smart, but also kind and generous to a fault. All this besides being very good looking with a rocking body. No, suppose doing any sort of recreational drugs isn't the smartest thing to do, but then again so is smoking, drinking, and a whole lot of other things.

The guy was loved and still very much missed.

R4

Splash keep renovating to keep ahead of the mark. Owners expanded the place a few times as business grew, added floor space and even opened up the basement space which wasn't part of original bar.

Instead of picking up and moving to accommodate need for larger space, owners of Splash were fortunate they were able to grow where they were, and didn't get hassled much.

R6 copy and paste here, paywall

Anyone remember that bartender Mike? He’s now at Atlas Social Club.

I used to go there many Saturday nights circa 2003 to 2011. I had the biggest crush on the tall blond bartender/doorman Adam, who appears in at least one of the photos. I remember being bummed to learn he was straight and married to a woman! My friend was really into Jeff, who appears in several of the pics. I remember having a good time chatting with the very animated Victor, who worked the downstairs bar.

R10. I know Adam well still talk with him from time to time. Dumb as a brick but sweet and hot as hell. He’s no longer w the wife. He had a tough time after the owner screwed him over. He is a good soul. R9 here

Does anyone remember Larry Bullock?

I had the worst drunk night of my life at Splash when I moved to NYC in 2011, I threw up in the streets in a trash can, LOL! It was such a nice bar, one of the bests IMO, sad when it closed, but XES became my spot 2012-onwards until it closed.

R4 as soon as I saw the topic that's the first thing that came to mind: it was constantly being renovated Over a 10-12 year period I'd swear I saw 4 total reconfigurations of the entire space upstairs and down.

The hottest guys danced and bartended there. I knew an actor who worked there part time with the best body I've ever seen. He'd go into one of the bathroom stalls on his break and let guys come on him for $20 a pop. He made about $200 in the stall alone. He's now on Broadway and does TV.

It was an era of its own. It was post Mega club phase and ride the bespoke bar/smaller club phase of the nyc nightlife arc.

*rode

I forgot the most hilarious thing--he was straight AND a Christian. He's still a Christian and married with kids. And I stand corrected, not Broadway, but TV and commercials. He's on some Budweiser beer commercial now. LMFAO.

I feel like the basement setup was added later, or it took me a couple of years to discover it was down there?

Busch beer commercials. He was there for about 2 weeks in the 90s.

Jerry.

Jerry advertised as an escort in the back of whatever free gay weekly was in ever barber shop in the late 90s, then moved to LA.

We called him Jerry Dawn--like Billie Dawn in Born Yesterday. Very sweet, very dumb, and very sexaully confused. He was such a sweetheart.

I used to often start the night at Splash and then finish it a few blocks away at G. Seems like a million fucking years ago now.

Jerry Downey did some gay play in his underwear. The entire evening was papered with Splash patrons!

R19 at one time they had a GayMart downstairs

I know Jerry from the acting world but never knew he worked at Splash. He's a super sweet guy.

Didn’t they have showers on the bar or something like that or am I making that up?

YES to XES! And to G. I never enjoyed Solah that much it seemed a bit gimmicky. May i didn't go with the right people. But Limelight was my fav.

Loved Splash. I think when it opened I was already nearing 30, so aging out and never really part of any club scene anyway.

But try to keep me away from Musical Mondays up until Splash closed in 2016 and I would have cut you. So much fun!

One of the bartenders, real sweet but forget his name now, always remembered my drink even when I had skipped a few weeks and THAT made me feel great. Plus Victor downstairs was always welcoming (even if it was an act) and I appreciated that too.

Yeah, R28, they did.

[quote]Didn’t they have showers on the bar or something like that or am I making that up?

Why the hell do you think it was called Splash?

Does our job get a tax break by employing you?

Really R15? Did you come on him?

I've known Jerry Downey since right after he moved to NYC, and I worked with him and socialized with him for years and years. Your story about him going into one of the bathroom stalls to let guys come on him is absurd and certainly untrue. I do remember he worked there and I seem to remember him doing the play in his underwear. However, Jerry, while very handsome and in great shape never had a gay gym boy body or had washboard abs. So I don't know about him having 'the best body you've ever seen'. If that means a more common body type, then, sure. Also the bartenders who worked at Splash made great money for bartending. Going into a stall for a $20 cum splash wouldn't have been enough money for the trouble. You're saying that ten different men shot their load on him in one night? Really? He certainly would have had to spend a lot of time being away from the bar. Oh, maybe you meant it was ten guys all at one time...

I have known Jerry to get a little plastered, so it's certainly conceivable that he let a guy blow him sometime, but at work? No, I highly, highly doubt it. And the thought of him setting up a business to hustle by putting an ad in a gay bar rag is ridiculous and surely false. I worked in events with him for years, and if he was such a great hustler, why would he have bothered to show up to work with me? I'm not saying this kind of activity didn't happen at Splash, perhaps involving one or some of the other bartenders there, but it's highly unlikely that Jerry Downey engaged in this kind of thing. Perhaps I'll call him and ask.

Hi, R33, Jerry did work there and he did dance under the showers and he did do a play in his underwear and to be clear my info comes from a private birthday at Splash he was bartending at, where he went into a stall with the birthday boy and a few other guys, and yeah, he and they were plastered. And yeah, now that you mention it, he did also let guys blow him, so everything you say about him is accurate. His behavior might have been totally because of booze, because he was drunk a lot. But he was really cute and really sweet.

By the way, R33, I wish Jerry nothing but the best, and hope he's a lot betternow with the booze, but it's fair to say that, then, he was hot, he was drunk, and when he was drunk, he didn't care.

Did you call and ask him R33?

Yes, feel free to call him , R33. Mike Doyle was also part of the Splash cabal of patrons when Jerry was dancing/bartending, and Mike was partying then and hung out all the time, and they were friends. Anyone who worked there couldn't possibly forget Mike's ubiquitous presence.

Meaning Mike was part of that drunken birthday orgy at Splash.

I lived in CT, and we used to hit up Splash every time we were in the city.....Like 93-95.....

That was a question.

And then it became SBNY—the beginning of the end

I started going to the bars just as that culture was ending. I really did enjoy the times I went to Splash. The guys were from all over and pretty nice (as opposed to G—-which never made sense to me)

They had so many sexy actors doing occasional bartending gigs/showers at Splash. Was Mike Doyle one of them, I assume?

Why wasn’t there a Gay bar called Spoolge?

I also recall how popular Big Cup was. Was very surprised when it closed.

The cool thing about those days it that there were so many different clubs and parties that you could make a complete fool of yourself in one neighborhood/scene and then lie low across town in a different scene for a while to save face.

Everything was more segmented then by areas and they didn’t seem to mix much.

R46- I would go to The Works on Columbus Avenue at 81 street in the mid to late 1990's- the crowd at that time was preppy and or yuppie- and good looking too.

I liked Splash as well. At both bars on a week night a significant number of guys would be wearing their suits and ties in the bar. You NEVER see that anymore. A lot of people still work from home and the ones who go into the office don't don suits and ties anymore.

Some of the guys at The Works and Splash looked pretty handsome in their suits and ties back then.

The best thing about Splash is seeing out-of-work actors bartending and taking showers in their tighty-whities.

"The best thing about Splash was seeing out-of-work actors

Thanks for remembering me! I've always been straight!

I loved Splash and Big Cup. The last time I was at Splash, Perez Hilton was there (ugh).

Sad that they're both gone now. When I visited NYC, they were worth visiting.

Call me, R33! But call my cell number. Thanks!

Is Perez Hilton no longer with us, R51?

If only ^^^^

What a harrowing sight that would be.

Perez Hilton dead? How so, R55?

You don't mean a cum-covered Jerry, surely, R55? Seems logical and appropriate to me.

She's ancient!

No, him alive. R56.

I feel so sorry for the person who had to see that in the flesh. I hope you got some help with the ptsd. But you’re lucky that you didn’t turn to stone.

Agreed, R59. I'm amazed that old harridan is still with us.

Booze will do that, R58. Paunchy.

Wow. Seriously, you can see the years of drinking. Now, I'm depressed.

I'd still cum on it, though.

He's a spokesman for a beer commercial for middle-aged paunchy alcoholic middle America. He looks great for them.

There are just something’s people should not have to suffer through in life and seeing Perez’s face is one of them.

I condole you.

*some things

Getting back to Splash, it was pretty great that the manager hired out-of-work actors of the time to bartend and shower. And it was smart. I went often just to see the latest--Shane, Haskell, Matthew, Mike...

R66- Splash's heyday was the was the mid to late 1990's which happened to coincide with my heyday. I don't reminisce about the bartenders at Splash ca. 1995 I reminisce about all of the hot/good looking guys who cruised back then- they were lots.

Now if I stood in a bar I would be invisible.

The first time I ever went to Splash, the gogo boys actually still took showers on stage while dancing.

Gimmicky, but oh-so-enertaining.

They had some gorgeous gogo boys working there.

R68- If you think that a guy who resembles a side of BEEF is gorgeous then he's gorgeous.

[quote] Anyone remember that bartender Mike? He’s now at Atlas Social Club.

Is Mike M. still at Atlas?

Sadly I only discovered Big Cup just before it closed.

It seemed like such a great place to hangout

I was once near Splash just after work so decided to step in. The afterwork atmosphere was nice and playful!

Well, R33 / R34, the story you relate there is far more believable than the other story about him routinely popping into a stall to let one and all shoot their wad on him and then turning that into a hustling business. Yes, Jerry (or I actually think he may spell it Gerry, since his full name is Gerald), was a big drinker. I'm not sure if that became a real issue or not, since I haven't really seen him since he left NYC. But, he's got to literally be one of the nicest guys I have ever met. He's got kind, warm energy, humble self-confidence, and is ever so handsome.

Jerry was indeed both a bartender and a big imbiber, and one of the warmest, friendliest guys you could ever meet. Everyone loved him. He was a total sweetheart, and probably the best looking guy to ever dance at Splash. No doubt he was propositioned and made money on the side, especially when drunk.

Guys would buy him drinks just to lure him into the stalls.

Any pictures of Harry Bartel?

I miss him too

Not to mention the Whirlaway Lounge.