2/7/2024 0 Comments Eagle gay bar san francisco![]() The walls of the Cinch drip with nostalgia - still to this day. I put my lips to a paper straw and soaked in the overwhelming normalcy of the activity I was practicing: enjoying a drink at The Cinch Saloon (a.k.a “the Cinch”) - which remains the last-standing queer bar from the bygone era of San Francisco’s original gayborhood. I put my body on the barstool back relaxed, posture limp. I scribbled something north of a 30% tip using a provided pen there was neither a “clean” nor “dirty” vessel anywhere on the bartop for pens to go after being used. “Thank you,” I chimed, asking to close the tab before I flung myself onto a nearby barstool. ![]() The thirtysomething libation slinger - who was by himself amid the frenetic energy that pulsed across San Francisco Tuesday evening, scurrying behind the bar to contend dozens of drinkers - hurried to mound ice and generously pour house gin, leaving what looked like enough room for two tablespoons of carbonated water to float on top. It was a request heard not muffled by wearing a mask. “I’ll just take a gin and soda, extra lime,” I told the bartender June two years ago on June 15th - the same day San Francisco “reopened” after lifting a long list of then-relevant COVID-19 health protocols. What was intended as an outing to celebrate SF’s “reopening” in June of 2021 morphed into something perhaps more special: an ode to the importance of queer safe spaces in a heteronormative world.
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