Q Bar has risen from the ashes — literally. The storied watering hole finally reopened a few weeks ago after an intense fire sent the bar on a 5-year hiatus. Now in its triumphant return, Q Bar’s dance floor is already packed with energy and nostalgia.
With dreaded Thanksgiving family time hanging in the air, Juanita More provided space to drink ourselves stupid with Booty Call Wednesdays, an OG party with drinks, sweaty bodies, and a high-end photo booth run by Cabure Bonugli and other queer nightlife photographers. It’s a simple setup that was insanely popular in the 2000s and 2010s — enough to charge a $10 cover on a weekday just to peer inside last week. And the small space was packed to the gills.
“The number of Wednesdays I’ve forgotten here in this cave of a bar is astronomical,” San Francisco drag icon Katya Smirnoff-Skyy told me as she hovered near the door. “But I don’t drink like I used to.”
She added that the old energy is there in the new party, but the faces are new.
“I sometimes like to call this sea of humanity the faces of Grindr,” Smirnoff-Skyy said with a smirk, then gestured toward the packed dance floor, “Q Bar really is a cavern of delights for all ages over 21, with a mild air conditioning system, and strong drinks.”
It’s my first time in the newly-refurbished space, and there’s lots to see. On the left wall is the bar, a holdover from the old space with rainbow lights along the wall, a TV, liquor and taps behind busy bartenders placed every 6 feet or so. The club was packed and several bar lines formed across the small dance floor.
Q Bar’s low-ceiling, which is painted black, draws your eye to a back wall covered in album covers from black artists lit with a warm glow. Behind that wall are the bathrooms.
The DJ booth has moved from its former home on the back wall to a slightly elevated platform on the right wall virtually in the middle of the dance floor with a large TV set behind the DJ.
Juanita More told me that when Q Bar announced plans to reopen, the owners contacted her about relaunching her Wednesday night institution. More said yes and knew exactly when to launch the new and improved party.
“In all the years we did it, the night before Thanksgiving was traditionally a busy night for us,” More said, staring off at the dance floor, a sparkle of nostalgia in her eyes, “So I knew we had to do this tonight.”
Booty Call Wednesdays sits close to More’s heart, as she can remember a time when the Castro didn’t feel particularly welcoming to people like her.
“When I would come to San Francisco as a little kid after high school I didn’t fit in in the Castro. I was a little brown boy,” said More, who went on to establish herself as a public figure mostly in San Francisco’s other gay district, SoMa. After gaining some notoriety, More decided, “I needed a footprint in the Castro as well, and Booty Call Wednesdays was born.”
The party ran for 8 years and was popular with locals, not to mention actual glitterati: Lady Bunny, Jonathan Groff, Jake Shears, Megan Mullally, Raven Symone, Lady Miss Kier, Russell Tovey, Honey Sound System, Dita Von Tesse, House of Stank, Kim Ann Foxman, Kesha.
“I’m looking around, and I am seeing so many faces I recognize,” More said, that trademark sly smile growing wider, “Some of them I haven’t seen in 9 or 10 years. It’s overwhelming but it’s also super familiar, and lovely.”
More and “Granny” Glamamore spent the evening taking photos with friends old and new, and celebrating the rebirth of a classic nightspot with a rich history, and a bright shiny new future as another visible, safe and packed queer space in our beloved gayborhood.
Hopefully there’s more BCW to come soon? We’ll keep you posted.
Christopher Beale is an award-winning journalist, podcaster, and producer based in San Francisco. christopherjbeale.com
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