2140 Market Street
San Francisco, Califonia 94114
(415) 487-1313
Facebook.com/Lucky13SF
Status: Straight/Mixed Bar
Previously: High Chaparral; Industrial Dance Company; 2140 Market; Prism; Alfie’s; Mind Shaft
In Their Own Words: Where the pros come to drink. The longest daily happy hour in town. S.F.’s premier dive bar. 26 beers on tap. Hella bottles of fine imports, some fine German and Belgian brews too, as well as your usual domestic hipster-swill. Outdoor beer garden/smoking patio. Free BBQ on Saturdays 4p-7p (summer only). Rookie drunks and underage chumps NOT welcome – ever.
History
Summary
| Name | Dates of Operation |
| Lucky 13 | 1988? – present |
| High Chaparral | 1988 |
| Industrial Dance Company | 1985 – 1986 |
| 2140 Market | 1985 |
| Prism | 1984 – 1985 |
| Alfie’s | 1977 – 1983 |
| Mind Shaft | 1973 – 1977 |
Details
The popular bar The Mindshaft (1973-1977) was later replaced by the hugely popular Alfie’s (1977-1983), the Castro’s first disco bar. At the time, some of the other gay discotheques in the city included Oil Can Harry’s in the Tenderloin, the I-Beam in the Haight-Ashbury, Studio West near the Embarcadero, Trocodero Transfer in SoMa, and Different Strokes near Polk Street.
The name Alfie’s was apparently derived from the 1966 Michael Caine film Alfie about a British womanizer who becomes disillusioned with his hedonism. An ad for the bar in Bob Damron’s Address Book ’78 used a caption, “what it’s all about,” a play on the line “what’s it all about,” which was a tagline, song lyric, subtitle, and line of dialog from the film.
When Harvey Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in November, 1977, his victory party was held at Alfie’s.
In 1984, it became the Prism, which gave way to 2140 Market in 1985, then the Industrial Dance Company later that same year, and then High Chaparral in 1988.
The bar is now Lucky 13, owned by Brian Spiers, a builder and a San Francisco native who is straight but has a gay brother. Lucky 13 is essentially a straight dive bar. Gay travel guides don’t mention them, other directories like Yelp don’t mention anything gay about them, and Lucky 13 doesn’t present itself as a gay bar on their Facebook page. That said, anything in the Castro – and San Francisco, for that matter – will draw a mixed crowd, and Lucky 13 has always been welcoming of everyone.
In 2006, Shamrock Realty presented plans to tear down Lucky 13 and the building across the parking lot from it to build a 28-unit building with ground-level retail. The permits were cancelled in 2009.
In March of 2015, Multi Ventures LLC, the building’s owners, filed a preliminary project assessment with the San Francisco Planning Department in which they proposed plans to raze Lucky 13 and build a five-story building with 31 condos above a 1,200 square foot retail space. The owners will be required to commission a $5,000 assessment study before permits can be filed, which can take three to six months. Because 2140 Market Street is labeled a historic building, any development plans that involve altering the building’s external facade would also need approval from the Historic Preservation Commission, which reviews and approves applications for Certificates of Appropriateness for alterations, site improvements and new construction affecting San Francisco’s designated landmarks, buildings, and sites within historic districts.
Sources
Bajko, Matthew S., “Castro set for building boom,” Bay Area Reporter, March 23, 2006.
Bajko, Matthew S., “Developers wait for Castro plans,” Bay Area Reporter, October 25, 2007.
Damron Men’s Travel Guide, 2007.
Historic Preservation Commission, San Francisco Planning Department, accessed March 11, 2015.
Lipsky, Dr. William, Gay and Lesbian San Francisco, Aracadia Publishing, 2006.
Lucky 13 Facebook page, accessed online September 25, 2014.
“Lucky 13 Likely To Be Razed For 31 Condos To Rise,” SocketSite, March 11, 2015.
Lucky 13 Yelp page, accessed online September 25, 2014.
Mak, Alex, “Plans to Replace Lucky 13 With More Condos,” Broke-Ass Stuart, March 11, 2015.
Preserving LGBT Historic Sites in California Facebook page, accessed online March 11, 2015.
Schmiechen, Richard, Rob Epstein & Gregory W. Bex (Producers), & Epstein, Rob (Director). (1984) The Times of Harvey Milk [Documentary Feature]. USA: New Yorker Films.
Spinelli, Adrian, “Lucky 13 Getting Replaced by Condos? We Have Answers,” The Bold Italic, March 11, 2015.
Staver, Sari, “Lucky 13 Could Be Replaced by New Condo Development,” Hoodline, March 11, 2015.
Uncle Donald’s Castro Street, accessed online June 6, 2014.
Location
2140 Market Street, San Francisco
Oops. You seem to have forgotten that Toad Hall was a dance bar before Alfies. I was there dancing in 1975!
Oh, yes, we do have info about the original Toad Hall, which was the Phoenix by the time I was going there. (Check it out here.) I had heard that Toad Hall was the first dance bar in the Castro, and Alfie’s was the first disco bar. Do you think that’s a fair assessment, or was the music at Toad Hall too similar to make that distinction?
Lucky 13 opened in 1994. Prior to that, it was called The Corral. I lived a block away and would walk past the black facade (which Lucky’s was, too, before it got the red makeover) every day, and I recall vividly that name written in ROPE (it was a gay country-western themed bar at the time)!
I remember going there when it was Alfie’s.
I went there when it was Alfie’s but also when it was the Mind Shaft. From 1974 to 1979, I lived on Landers Street, and so it was only a two block walk for me to get there.
It was known as The Corral, another two-step country bar when I arrived in town in March 1989. It lasted for several years before becoming Lucky 13.
I was the head DJ at The Phoenix, when it transformed from being named “DJs”. It changed in 1982. I was also one of the DJs at The Badlands when it put in the dj booth in 1980.
I think you’ve left out Bojangles, an all-Black bar on Larkin Street. It was owned by Ron Holmes, who was also the owner of the Badlands, and DJs/The Phoenix.