Closings

Two Castro Gay Bars Officially Close: The Edge and the Bar on Church

Photo: Bay Area Reporter

We told you a while back that the Bar on Church (198 Church) was changing hands, having been scooped up by the team behind Double Dutch and Bloodhound whose exact plans they still won’t reveal. The BOC has been officially closed for a week or so, and now it seems The Edge, at 18th and Collingwood, has closed too, and the building owner may be looking for a new bar operator tenant.

As the Bay Area Reporter noted a couple of weeks ago, the owner of the Edge, Don McMartin, decided to close the place when his lease ran out on January 16, after negotiations with building owner John Tran had failed to get the rent down below what he was paying, reportedly a rather high $9.15 per square foot.

As for whether another gay bar will take the place of The Edge — a low-key watering hole for a lot of years, with pinball machines and a generally older crowd — that’s a little uncertain. Tran says he’d like to find another LGBT operator, but “I don’t know what’s going to happen yet.” It seems likely to stay a gay establishment given the location, a few doors from the perennially popular Badlands and across the street from Toad Hall. An LGBT operator with means would be silly to pass up such a plum location.

Sidebar: Please see Beth Spotswood’s latest funny Tourist Trapped column, in which she visits Castro bars like Badlands, and the Midnight Sun.

SF Castro Area Edge Bar to Close [BAR]
Earlier: The Bar on Church Changing Hands, Joins the Bloodhound/Double Dutch Empire [Grub Street]

Two Castro Gay Bars Close: The Edge and the Bar on Church