Crusade for Cafe Flore

The latest victim/cause celebre of the city’s aging Castro District population, the inimitable Cafe Flore is scheduled before the Planning Commission this Thursday to argue for permits to have DJs, 24-hour food-service and to serve alcohol until 2 a.m.

The famous cafe, with its large, glass-enclosed patio and wood-heavy decor, has been a neighborhood landmark for about 35 years. Long a well-known cruising/flirting spot in the gay scene, SFist hangs some of the blame for the cafe’s declining revenues on the Internet and its myriad pick-up opportunities that don’t require users to change out of pajamas:


Homosexual men in the Castro went out to nightclubs and bars to get laid; community-building, hanging out with buddies, doing bumps in the bathroom, and hurling cruel but clever bon mots always came in at a distant second. If Cafe Flore wants to remain open, flourishing in the fertile SF nightlife scene, they should work around that… somehow. The powerful convenience of online sex is the reality nowadays.

The latest victim/cause celebre of the city’s aging Castro District population, the inimitable Cafe Flore is scheduled before the Planning Commission this Thursday to argue for permits to have DJs, 24-hour food-service and to serve alcohol until 2 a.m.

The famous cafe, with its large, glass-enclosed patio and wood-heavy decor, has been a neighborhood landmark for about 35 years. Long a well-known cruising/flirting spot in the gay scene, SFist hangs some of the blame for the cafe’s declining revenues on the Internet and its myriad pick-up opportunities that don’t require users to change out of pajamas:

Crusade for Cafe Flore