14 is to cover a small-business loan that its owners took out to keep it from permanently closing. It’s launch of a GoFundMe - a trend also followed by WeHo’s Eagle Bar and downtown’s Precinct - on Dec. Outside of West Hollywood, Akbar has also struggled to stay afloat. There are currently no lesbian bars left in Los Angeles and only 15 remaining in the entire country The Abbey hosts the city’s longest-running lesbian party with its GirlBar. “Keeping restaurants and LGBTQ+ safe spaces open is a mental health issue,” Cooley says. Even in the liberal bubble that is Los Angeles, safe spaces are important.” He also emphasizes the impact of having these spots closed during the holidays, when loneliness can be at all-time highs, following a tumultuous election season that has left some in the community feeling unsafe. Not everyone has the ability to be their true authentic self at home or at work, but they can be at The Abbey, Rocco’s, Akbar or the Motherlode. They are the heartbeat of the LGBTQ+ community.
“We don’t know what’s going to happen,” says owner David Cooley.Īs he’s watched some of his neighboring businesses go under, Cooley notes, “Gay bars and restaurants are not just places to eat or have a cocktail. While it has been able to open on and off throughout the year by offering outdoor dining on its large patio, it is now fully closed amid L.A.’s current COVID-19 surge. The Abbey, West Hollywood’s most famous spot that has been frequented by everyone from Kim Kardashian and Lady Gaga to Elton John and Elizabeth Taylor, has faced its own fair share of struggles. Flaming Saddles was a safe space and I think that more than anything is important to the community there.” “It was a very safe social community and I think that’s what we gave, too. “They could rent to anybody, it doesn’t have to be a gay bar - it could be whatever they want, which would change the fabric of the community,” she says. And after a half-decade of employing gay men from West Hollywood, she is worried about what comes next. She’s open to the idea of reopening in a new location, but would require a specific property to fit the western theme. “It’s devastating to go through a pandemic and think that you’re going to open and you have a deal in place, and then that deal is gone,” says Squatriglia, who has operated the business for the past five years.
The landlord is Monte Overstreet, who also owned the properties for Gold Coast and Rage. Her landlord, however, pressured her to reopen, and after she insisted on staying closed, the two made a verbal agreement to allow her to stay in the space and reopen at a safer date shortly after, she says, he changed his mind and Flaming Saddles was out. County allowed bars to reopen because “the virus was still going crazy,” she says. 16, opted to keep her bar shuttered even during the brief period in June when L.A. Flaming Saddles owner Jacqui Squatriglia, who announced the closure of the country western bar Aug.