Clockwise from top left: bar ad for the Lion Pub; Alta Plaza Park; site of the old Alta Plaza bar, site of the old JJ’s Piano Bar.
In this week’s Bay Area Reporter, Michael Flanagan (often cited here for his work in preserving the memory of San Francisco’s gay nightlife) takes a nostalgic walk through Pacific Heights and Alamo Square to look at some gay bars in those neighborhoods that have either closed long ago or simply stopped being “gay.”
From the 1970s through the middle of last decade, there were three watering holes and one hotel with a saloon that were specifically geared toward gay patrons. The rise and fall of those establishments relates to much of San Francisco history –- some familiar and some not. The three bars in Pacific Heights were the Lion Pub (2062 Divisidero), the Alta Plaza (2301 Fillmore) and J.J.’s Piano Bar (2225 Fillmore).
— Michael Flanagan, Bay Area Reporter
All three of these bars had a place in my heart. The Lion Pub was closest to my home for over a decade, and a friend of mine and I often went there for a quiet cocktail next to a roaring fire. Whenever we bought new dress-up clothes for work, we would try them out first at the Alta Plaza. And back in the late ’80s, I shared a kiss with a guy at JJ’s Piano Bar (while stalking the cast of Les Misérables) whom I would end up dating for four months.
Gay historian Gerard Koskovich claims that from the late 1950s to the 1990s, Alamo Square was home to an enclave of gays.
The Painted Ladies provide a clue to the history of the neighborhood. Gay historian Gerard Koskovich related that in his research he discovered “there was a gay residential enclave from the late 1950s into the mid-1990s in the Alamo Square area.” He pointed me to Will Fellows book A Passion to Preserve: Gay Men as Keepers of Culture. In an interview in that book, Richard Reutlinger confirms Gerard’s observation: “A lot of gay people down this way and all around Alamo Square had established the Alamo Square Neighborhood Association in the early 1960s.”
— Michael Flanagan, Bay Area Reporter
Lion Pub staffers were deeply involved in opening the Elephant Walk (now Harvey’s) in the Castro, which was becoming a much bigger destination for gay nightlife. Gays in the Pac Heights and Alamo Square neighborhoods might stay local on weeknights, but their bars could never quite compete with the Castro and SOMA on weekends. Most of the bars in Flanagan’s article are now long gone, with the Alta Plaza closing in 1999 without even a mention in the gay press. The Lion Pub remains open, but stopped advertising in Damron’s gay travel guides in 2005 and doesn’t have much of a gay clientele anymore.
Check out Flanagan’s article for more historical tidbits about these bars and more, including Hotel Casa Loma, Club Dori, and more.
I was a bartender/singer at JJ’S Piano Bar from 1989-1990. I sang with Al. St. Claire a wonderful pianist there.
I have fond memories of JJ’s — back in the ’80s, hung out there with a group of friends one night and ended up with one of my first boyfriends!
Hi Ava,
I was a bartender and waiter there as well in 1989. My name is Tom….i worked there while studying at the conservatory of music…..do you remember me?
I lived in San Francisco from 1993-’98 and fondly remember many bars including The Pendulum, The Midnight Sun.
The Lion Pub had the distinction of a gentlemans atmosphere with friendly staff, excellent cocktails, and that hypnotizing hearth. A date introduced me to that spot. I fondly remember ordering martinis, slipping out or our dress loafers and playing tuxedo sock footsie with him while jazz played softly in the background as we watched the fire.
Although I’m sad it’s no longer considered a gay bar, I’m happy it survived.
My uncle, David Vivaudou was the owner of Alta Plaza and much more. I went through all of the terrible legal garbage, as a kid, when he passed with his boyfriend and legal counsel. I used to lay under his bed and watch The Hulk with him when he was towards the end. I still have his picture in my living room.
He was a good man to me and I still love him. He was a mover and shaker in an area of San Francisco when it needed one. He deserves more recognition for his work in that area, in that era.
I remember David very well. We and my partner sponsored a shopping trip to Hong Kong. We had many a good time at the Alta Plaza. He was also a real estate agent and tried to get my husband and I to buy up in Buena Vista Hts. David was one of the first people to contact AIDS (before it was known). I remember visiting him in the hospital right after the Hong Kong trip. Little did we know it was AIDS related. Miss him terribly.
I was there. I was a kid. His death certificate said he died of Consumption.
I would lay under his giant bed while he was wasting away and we’d watch The Incredible Hulk and we’d laugh and laugh.
I miss him. I still have his urn. I remember all the litigations that happened after he passed because his will was made incorrectly and my mother and grandmother lost almost everything, except for Alta Plaza.
And then the fire happened…
I’m just beginning to write a screenplay about my family on the Vivaudou side. I think his story is important and holds real relevancy even more-so now. I would love to have a conversation with you, if you wouldn’t mind, about him. I have stories from my mother about their childhood and I know what I remember before he passed, but I was a child and would adore talking to someone that personally knew him. No problem, if you don’t want to. I appreciate your consideration.
Oh yes: his death, while from AIDS, was blamed from : “Consumption”.
Nobody had even heard of “AIDS”, or “HIV” before then so they gave it their best shot and ran. This was 85-86… I was 10-11 at the time.
The year was 1983. There I am sitting across a chic little table in Alta Plaza trying to act impossibly cool to the guy who I had broken up with the past December but who I was still madly infatuated with. What a foolish, foolish gay little man I was.
The year was 1986. There I am wearing a sweater (!) in The Lion Pub, hoping the guy I’m with doesn’t put his arm around my waste. Having freaked out about turning 30 the year before, I had started drinking some concoction to supercharge my gym workouts. All it did was put a miniscule layer of fat around my waste for the first time in my life. Miniscule to me may as well have been 50 pounds. What a foolish, foolish gay little man I was.
I used to love going to the Alta Plaza bar, plus the cool little restaurant that was attached to it, whenever I was in San Francisco from about 1995-1999. I was first introduced to Alta Plaza by a nice guy I was dating for awhile around 98-99, named Bill Denton. Bill not only introduced me to Alta Plaza, but much more, like the fabulous Maxx Men’s group, Postrio, Hawthorne Lane, many other great restaurants, bars, clubs, and loads of his fascinating and fun friends. Those were the days! Great memories!
I moved to San Francisco in 1986, when I was 24. Being a privileged little white boy with a broken heart, I used to frequent all three places religiously in the hope that I would find a wealthy white boy to fall in love with. Such good memories, especially JJ’s and the Lion. The Alta Plaza was glamorous in its way, but ultimately not productive to meet people. And yes, I always wore a sweater. Ah, youth.
I found my wealthy Asian boy at the Water Garden in San Jose. It helped that I could show him my “talent” right then and there. Now I’m old and retired, but with 15 million bucks…
Was JJ’s, by any chance the name of the bar that took a gay bar called, “Number’s”? The bar was on the corner, of Fillmore and California or Sacramento, I think. Above the door was a little neon sign, with only “#’s” on it. Does anyone remember? I’m sure it was there in 1980/81. I didn’t frequent it often, but one night I met a man there who very quickly changed the entire direction of my life. I was 23, he was 43 … and, though we now live on different coasts, we remain friends. I’m now 64! Time flies.
I lived in San Francisco from 1986-1996. One night I was in a taxi with my late friend Billie Guidry sitting in the back seat of a taxi with my parents visiting from Louisiana. My mother was a musician and she wanted to go to Harry’s (I seem to remember it being close to Stars restaurant, but who knows) for the piano, but there was a line a block long for some reason that night. Billie suggested we go to JJ’s. So, I turned around and said to my parents “It’s a gay bar.” to which my mother replied “When in Rome!” Michael Crawford of Broadway fame happened to be there and he and my mom struck up a conversation. She was thrilled to pieces. The next morning, my day said ” Them gay fellas were real nice last night!” This memory stands out, as you can imagine; but I have many fond memories of all these places.
If 1986, there was a stylish bar/restaurant with half window red velvet curtains at McAllister & Van Ness with the formal entrance on Van Ness called Harry’s near Redwood Alley where Stars was located.
Yes ~ I knew David V. ~ very well ~ in the 1970s~ at the height of the popularity of his Alta Plaza ore Street. He was an ~ unique fella.
The Lion Pub was a neighborhood gay bar that had opened in 1968, located at 2062 Divisadero @ Sacramento St. owned by an older man named Kelly Ellis. He created an upscale highly stylish and well decorated trendy nightspot. The Lion was kind of off the beaten track for a lot of guys, but I went there for the diverse guys. The guys there tended to be a mix of artists, models, young college longhairs, and upscale preppy guys. Some people called it a “sweater bar” because it was located in an upscale neighborhood’ of San Francisco called Pacific Heights. The Lion was a place to mingle or dance, and the bartenders were buffed and hot and the cocktails were strong. I’d say the crowd on Thursday through Saturday evenings was packed six deep at the long bar and primarily white boys. It had a tiny dance floor, closet size DJ booth, with a wall that had raked bench seating. The fireplace often made the crowded small pub a bit warm. Although ‘The Lion’ was considered the oldest continuously operating gay bar in San Francisco I remember my times there were memorable. It was one of those places where everybody felt at home and comfortable in a neighborhood gay bar that seemed out of place in Pacific Heights. It had a great run of 48 years finally closing in 2016 due to the changing demographics and the death of Mr. Ellis.
I understand that Warren Beatty made an appearance at Alta Plaza somewhere between 1976 and ’78; does anyone else know of this?
Yes, I have heard that story before as well. The facts could be true as he was shooting his movie ‘Heaven Can Wait’ ‘ in 1976 down the Peninsula at Filoi.
i lived in san francisco in the very early 80’s. one of my dearest friends, marc botelho, bartended at the alta plaza and i just thought it was the height of chic being served a pimm’s cup from him. another beautiful man gone way too soon. i’m not sure how i drifted across this post, but it’s bringing back some nice memories.
I remember going to San Francisco in the late eighties to early nineties for vacations, and being invited to those private sex house parties happening all over after the bath houses closed by city officials in 1986. It was a crazy
and wild time back then with really uninhibited people living each day as it being their last day.
I remember well the Lions Pub, along with the Alta Plaza, etc. I moved to SF back in 1982, and living in the city was wonderful. I used to know the Pianist who played at The White Swallow on Polk, and I also believe that he ( Bob ? ) played at The Galleon Restaurant as well. I lived in SF until about 2003, and things were really starting to change and in my opinion not for the better. And even though I moved away a long time ago, I still have many fond memories of those wonderful days so long ago….