Historic Gangway Bar Being Sold

The historic Gangway bar in the Polk Gulch is being sold, leaving what used to the queer center of San Francisco with just a couple of gay or trans bars.

The Gangway, the tiny watering hole at 841 Larkin Street, has been in existence in one form or another for decades. For years, the bar, which has a replica of the Titanic above the door, was one of several gay taverns near the Polk Gulch neighborhood. Most of the other bars are gone now, with the exception of the Cinch, at 1723 Polk, and Diva's at 1081 Post.

According to the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, Clover Rose LLC, doing business as Daddy Bones, has a pending license application for the bar. Breaking Chad Inc. is listed as the corporation's manager. People associated with the application couldn't be reached for comment.

Jung Lee, the Gangway's owner, wasn't available for comment, but the Hoodline news site says Lee had already planned to sell the tavern next year. He's doing it now, though, after losing a lawsuit that a bartender filed over pay. The Bay Area Reporter wasn't able to locate any documentation of the suit. The Tablehopper site was the first to report the pending sale.

Bob Ames, 58, a Gangway bartender "for eight years, off and on," confirmed to the B.A.R. that Lee is "in the process" of selling the bar.

Ames, who's gay, said, "I don't know anything at all" about the new owners, except "supposedly, two of them came in one night and worked behind the bar for a little bit to get the feel of it." He declined to share the new owners' names.

Lee took over the bar's management after the death of Sukie Lee, who'd been his wife and owned the bar for several years.

Jung Lee, who's from Los Angeles, "wants to get home and be around his family," Ames said.

"Like all new owners, they say they're going to keep it the same," Ames said of the prospective buyers, but he's doubtful of that, given "all the other bars on Polk" that aren't primarily gay anymore.

Business has been "very good" at the Gangway, said Ames, who described the tavern as "a wonderful neighborhood bar."

In a Facebook exchange, Sal Meza, 43, whose first visit to the Gangway was around 1993, said, "For me the potential closure of the Gangway is a loss because it is the only bar I can think of in San Francisco that is gay and has a truly diverse crowd. There is no other bar in the city where you are likely to hear Latin music and old school funk played consecutively and people would dance, clap, or sing along."

In an interview, he said the Gangway would also take in other bars' rejects.

"Half the people you'd find in the Gangway were people 86'd from the Cinch," Meza, who's largely stopped going to bars, said.

Coy Meza, 49, Sal's husband, has also gone to the Gangway for decades. He even worked at the bar, until he retired two years ago. He still hosts celebrations of life and other special events there.

What drew him was the bar's atmosphere, he said.

"No matter what you look like," or "what you are, you're welcome at the Gangway, as long as you don't bother anybody else," Coy Meza said.

People who'd gone to the bar since the 1940s and 50s still went there.

"The stories were so amazing," he said.

Eric Berchtold, the Cinch's manager, said he's "sad to see" the Gangway go, but its patrons "will be welcome" at his bar.

"I don't think the Cinch has anything to worry about," Berchtold said. "... We're still going strong."