Defining “Castro” and “Gay Bars”
Before we can explore the history of gay bars in the Castro, we have to determine whether they are bars, whether they are gay, and whether they’re in the Castro.
Defining the Castro
The City doesn’t formally define the boundaries of most of its neighborhoods, and travel guides vary. The main strip of the Castro extends for two blocks from 17th Street to 19th Street, radiating a few blocks east and west from the intersection of 18th and Castro. But as a neighborhood, the Castro also extends farther down Market Street — but how far down is subject to debate. Some cut it off around 16th and Market, where the LookOut is, but most extend it all the way down to Church & Market, including places like the Pilsner and Blackbird in the Castro. And some extend it even farther, almost down to Van Ness, in order to include places like the Mint and Martuni’s.
For our purposes, we’ve decided to include Martuni’s, stretching the Castro’s northern boundary down to nearly Van Ness, and set the Castro’s southern border at the crest of the hill that separates Eureka Valley from Noe Valley around 22nd Street. We’ve set Dolores Park as the eastern cutoff (which places bars like the Lexington Club and the now-closed Esta Noche in the Mission rather than the Castro), and we’ve set Duboce Park as the western cutoff.
Defining a Gay Bar
In trying to determine which establishments to include in our list of gay bars, we run into two definitional hurdles: does it count as a bar, and what makes it gay?
Most establishments in San Francisco today are mixed to varying degrees. Straight people often come in to gay bars, and not just bachelorette parties or solo girls with their gay best friends, either. And most gay people now feel fairly comfortable almost anywhere in the City. For the most part, we’ve tried to let the businesses define themselves. How do they list themselves on Yelp, travel guides, and gay directories? Do they advertise in gay publications or promote themselves as a gay bar? What kind of events do they have — drag shows, go-go boys (or women’s parties with go-go girls), wet underwear contests with male contestants, and the like? The orientation of the owners is generally not a factor; historically, most gay bars were owned by straight people because openly gay owners weren’t allowed to get a liquor license.
In some cases, our decisions may be arbitrary, but we’ve chosen to define mixed places like Blackbird as leaning more gay and others like Churchill and Lucky 13 as more straight.
Defining it as a bar is also tricky. Of course, places that only serve alcohol are easy. But what about places that serve food as well? Many local places like the LookOut and Hi Tops present themselves as a bar, but their liquor license requires that a certain percentage of their revenue come from food. Others like Catch and the Sausage Factor have full liquor licenses and even a designated bar area, but the service of alcohol there seems intended to supplement the dining experience rather than having food to enhance the bar experience. What about cafes with a full liquor license, like Cafe Flore? Blush used to serve food, but now they’re mostly a wine bar. Swirl has tastings and happy hour, but still seems to be more of a liquor store. We’re counting Blush as a bar but we’re not so sure how to define Swirl.
In the end, people of good intent may quibble on which ones should or should not be included, but we had to draw the line somewhere.