2344 Market Street
San Francisco, California 94114
Beauxsf.com
Status: LGBT Bar
Previously: Trigger; Jet; The Detour; Patsy’s; Chops; Hombre; The Missouri Mule
In Their Own Words: Beaux, the French word for boyfriends, is the Castro’s newest venue. Open seven days and nights a week with a 2 for 1 Happy Hour until 8pm. Monday through Wednesday nights enjoy our signature craft cocktails in the front lounge. Thursday through Sunday nights Beaux transforms into a full dance club with revolving themed parties and drag shows.
History
Summary
| Name | Dates of Operation |
| Beaux | 2013 – present |
| Trigger | 2009 – 2012 |
| Jet | 2006 – 2008 |
| Detour | 1983 – 2005 |
| Patsy’s | 1981 – 1982 |
| Chops | 1980 – 1981 |
| Hombre | 1973 – 1979 |
| Missouri Mule | 1963 – 1973 |
Details
Beaux, the Castro’s most recent gay bar, is also the on the site of the Castro’s first gay bar, the Missouri Mule, which became a gay bar in 1963.
The Missouri Mule was first opened as a neighborhood bar in the 1930s by Hans K. Lund and Glen Swenson. They sold it in 1953 to Berkeley police officer Wayne Knutila and his business partners. When Knutila and his partners sold it in 1963, the new owners revamped it and reopened it as the Castro’s first gay bar.
In 1963, San Francisco’s gay population was then entrenched in the Polk, having first flourished in North Beach and then the Tenderloin. When it eventually closed a decade later in 1973 to make way for Hombre, over a thirty gay businesses had opened (and closed, in some cases) in the neighborhood, making the Castro the epicenter of gay life in San Francisco and quite likely the world.
The bar remained Hombre for the rest of the 1970s. After reincarnating two more times in the early 80s (as Chops and Patsy’s), it became The Detour in 1983, described by The Castro Biscuit as:
a rough and tumble, super cruisey, dude bar where all were welcome, was one of the most infamous and beloved booze joints in the ‘Stro during the 80′s through early 2000′s. Dark, moody, sparse in decor-black walls, limited lights, hard benches and chain link fence creating a mini-maze within its small acreage, the Detour boasted hot bartenders, cutting edge music from a wide variety of DJ’s spinning Punk to House and always a dose of trouble to be found.” (Palmer 2013)
In November of 2001, owner Don Minke put the bar up for sale and a bidding war erupted between Les Natali, owner of Badlands, and Greg Bronstein, owner of The Bar on Castro. Natali won the lease to the bar, but in the meantime, Bronstein bought the building and the adjacent store space. The bar reopened after remodeling (and perhaps toned down a bit) in 2003. An agreement between Natali and Bronstein allowed Natali to operate The Detour until his lease ran out in October of 2005.
Bronstein took over the space in late 2005 and closed it for remodeling. He had wanted to expand his new bar into the next-door framing and art store shop, which he also owned, but city permit delays forced him to put that plan on hold. He was going to open it in late 2005 as a short-term concept bar called the Bare Bones Bar, but instead he gussied up the bar and reopened it in 2006 as Jet.
In 2008, Bronstein finally received permits to expand the bar. He closed it for remodeling, and it was reopened in 2009 as Trigger.
In 2012, Bronstein – facing financial difficulties, disputes with the Bureau of Alcohol and Beverage Control, and legal disputes with his investors – was forced to close Trigger and his two other bars, Lime and the Bar on Church, selling their liquor licenses. After remaining vacant for a bit, the site was snapped by a group of bar owners who also own the QBar, The Edge, and the Midnight Sun. They remodeled it and reopened it as Beaux in 2013.
Sources
Bajko, Matthew S., “Detour bar to close Sunday, The Bay Area Reporter, October 13, 2005.
Bajko, Matthew S., “Detour space reopens,” Bay Area Reporter, August 31, 2006.
Flournoy, Raymond, “Business Briefs: A seat at Dante’s Table,” The Bay Area Reporter, April 11, 2013, accessed online June 12, 2014.
Lipsky, Dr. William, Gay and Lesbian San Francisco, Aracadia Publishing, 2006.
Palmer, Wayne, “Getting the Skinny on Beaux, Castro’s Newest Nightlife Offering,” The Castro Biscuit, June 21, 2013
Location
2344 Market Street, San Francisco
The info regarding the Missouri Mule is incorrect the mule was sold for the second time in 1963 that’s not when it opened. As my grandfather Hans Lund first opened and ran the mule in the early 30s up until 1953 when he sold it. To Wayne Knutila who ran the bar for another 10 years before selling the bar in 1963
Please update the bars history to include these facts.
Thank you,
Mary Vivenzi
Hi Mary,
We’re only chronicling each bar’s history as a gay bar, not the establishment’s entire history. As I understand it, the Missouri Mule wasn’t a gay bar until 1963. Can you confirm that it was not a gay bar when your grandfather owned it, nor when Wayne Knutila owned it?
No it wasn’t a gay bar during that time. And I understand that you are chronicling the history of gay bars. Which by the way I completely support 100%. I’m quite proud of that. All I want is for someone anyone really to understand that it is possible to do both by just changing a single word from opened to reopened.
I am proud of what the bar was as well as what it has become. But soon the first 18 years of the bars existence will be completely wiped out as if it never existed at all and for my family that is heartbreaking.
The text has been changed to touch on its prior history. Does this change accurately reflect what you wanted?
Your history on the Missouri Mule bar is incorrect the Mule first opened its doors in the early 30s. And was sold for the first time by my grandfather Hans Kristoffer Lund in 1953 to police officer Wayne Knutila and his business partners who would again sell the bar in 1963. Please update your information to include these facts. Thank You
Respectfully
Mary Vivenzi
HI Kevin thanks for getting back to me thats great if you only are intending to chronicle the gay bars.
I am proud support the LBGT community.
Do perhaps a compromise would be in order
Rather than families 89thstatements such as the Missouri Mule opened/ first opened why not write the Missouri Mule reopened its doors in 1963
Or the Missouri Mule rebranded itself as an openly gay bar in 1963? That way the information that was once out there stops being replaced the the massive amounts of new information until its gone altogether. That seems fair
While this may not seem a high priority please try to understand that this a huge piece of my families history and I am just trying to keep it from vanishing altogether as if it never existed in the first place thanks again
Mary
ALL of the corrections make sense; as I remember when it became a Gay Bar……. keep the records updated.