Palm Springs gay/leather bar closes after 30 years

[quote]too much public lewdness and fucking.

That's unpossible!

Some really shady behind the scenes stuff. The bar owners were claiming it was an occupancy issue but apparently they'd been cited for other stuff. They suddenly decided to close the bar and move to Arizona - not a place known for being a gay mecca.....but go ahead?

There is of course a GFM for the workers.

Black and red tank tops look sexy.

Have they called in a sandblasting firm to remove the nacreous layer of permacum?

The place closed because it hasn't been popular in at least 10 years. Bad neighborhood, bad staff.

I'd question the claim in the article that the bar's license has been "revoked."

That's not the terminology used for the place at California's Alcohol Beverage Control. The listing there says, "Not Renewed." If it were "Revoked" the code would indicate that. The listing there also indicates that there were no operating restrictions or disciplinary actions.

R7. 100%. If it was Revoked, the staff would have gad much more notice knowing that unhealthy shut was going down. No, the owners just wanted/needed to close it...period

^^ and I apologize for the misspellings. Nancy Lee Grahn is going to have my ass for those!^^

Phoenix? Are they insane?

Does Arizona still have male stripper bars with full nudity (which is illegal in California)?

R9 They probably want to leave the retirement village of Cathedral City and go for a younger crowd in Phoenix.

Someone posted this at the bar's Facebook page when they announced their final beer bust yesterday:

[quote] Just to let everyone know the real reason Scott abruptly closed the Barracks...I was told by an inside source to the Barracks, is that Scott, the current and soon be be last business owner of Barracks, sold out the historical location of the Barracks and all the loyal patrons of the bar to a cannabis producing company. So very soon, Barracks will be transformed into a pot growing and producing location. As if Cathedral City needs another one! His excuse that the city revoked his liquor license and forced him to close is a complete lie! Shame on Scott for selling out a historic location for the gay community in Cathedral City, as he made no attempt to find another owner that was wiling to continue the legacy of the Barracks bar location. Scott found a better business deal in Arizona and has left the gay leather bar community without an iconic location, to sacrifice for his greed driven ambitions. I would boycott Scott's shameless last day opening at the Barracks and not purchase his t-shirts he is shamelessly selling, knowing he is screwing over the very people that are buying those Barracks t-shirts! Scott won't even have the A/C on inside the bar or even have the misters on along the outside patio, during the very hot times today to help keep customer cool! What a very sad and tragic ending to an iconic leather bar in the valley. --- Posted by: Leo Artistico

This narrative supports the information at the California Alcohol Beverage Control website that the license simply wasn't renewed, and that the sob story about it being revoked is a big lie.

Really sucks that with free sex comes drugs, greed, and a lot of fucking drama. Not a high-functioning crowd in my experience, bar some huge exceptions.

I blame cat ladies.

r14 try harder to offend us. 🙃😺😼🐾

Also are there completely nude female strip joints in AZ? Asking for a friend...

The few times I ever went in this place it was always dead. I think maybe their beer busts were popular. Everyone would rather be at the tool shed anyways

Uh OK R14.

You have fleas.

Again.

Try wearing your collar more often, and get yourself a flea bath... please.

^ Meant for R15. Duh.

[quote]Scott found a better business deal in Arizona and has left the gay leather bar community without an iconic location, to sacrifice for his greed driven ambitions.

Not really his responsibility to maintain a venue for you. If you don’t like it, open your own bar?

I'm sad The Barracks is closing as I've always had a good time there. The Sunday beer busts were a blast.

That's one unattractive 'team' running The Barracks in the OP photo.

From what I've heard, there were issues with ABC and while the license was listed as "not renewed" there was/were reasons why it wasn't renewed and not that the owner simply didn't want to renew it. For starters, it's not easy to obtain a license, and the bar would have been much easier to sell with an up-to-date liquor license, so there were incentives for the owner to retain the license whether he intended to stay or sell. There were also issues with the city, but the city manager (a gay man) was working with the owner to resolve them, including capacity issues (they were cited for overcrowding on several occasions, yet the city issued them special use permits around various functions — pride, leather weekends, etc. — upping the capacity both inside and out) and fire code violations. One of the issues was that patrons tended to treat the bar as a sex club, and in California, bars and sex clubs do not mix. Employees complained that they had to be the penis patrol and tell patrons to break it up or leave, making no one happy. Finally, one post I read quoted the owner complaining about having to spend $100k on improvements in order to remain in business, from installing new interior lighting to adding fire exits (and the landlord would not contribute to any of these expenses).

The juiciest rumor — and it is only a rumor so don't hold me to it — was that there was a former employee who the owner pissed off so badly that the employee surreptitiously recorded a bunch of violations over a several-month period and sent the recordings to city and state agencies in the ultimate fuck-you to the owner, knowing what it would do. I hope this is inaccurate because it's as awful that someone would resort to this behavior as it is that the owner let this stuff go on and expected to remain in business.

I also read that the owner was offered grants and incentives from the city of Phoenix (or wherever in AZ he's moving) to open a location there, so from his perspective I can understand why he'd leave Cathedral City: the former is paying him to open, the latter wanted him to spend significantly to remain open.

As to turning it into a cannabis grow house and/or pot club: 1) Cannabis City has enough pot clubs; 2) the other businesses in the area, specifically the car dealerships, really hate the aromas wafting into their showrooms; 3) there are plenty of buildings nearby that would be better suited for such a facility. Not that any of this is relevant to either the previous owner, the landlord, or the city (that only cares about tax revenues, tbh).

What is it with the bar drama in Palm springs? There was some methy owner drama around what at Oscar"s years ago.