September 28, 2020
Watch: A Fifth West Hollywood Gay Bar Closes Due to COVID
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 1 MIN.
A fifth gay bar in West Hollywood, Calif. is closing for good after being hard hit by COVID. As was the case with several other closings, the establishment found itself unable to reach an agreement with its landlord.
Local news station CBS 7 reports that Gold Coast, a bar that has been in operation on Santa Monica Blvd. since 1981, is shuttering.
Gold Coast and two other West Hollywood bars - Rage and Flaming saddles - all belonged to Monte Overstreet, recalled WeHo News.
As previously reported at EDGE, Flaming Saddles had been in operation since 2011, but closed its doors for good in August after negotiations with the landlord failed to secure the space for a reopening after five months of closure due to COVID-19.
Rage followed suit in September.
Another bar, Gym Sportsbar, had closed earlier, in July. Club Cobra, which was a gay Latinx bar, closed in May, with owner Julio Licon announcing that, "Unfortunately, we were not able to come back from the COVID-19 shutdown."
Gold Coast bartender Billy Wilkin compared the bar with the Boston-based Cheers, made famous by the 1980s sitcom, telling ABC Channel 7, "We knew all of our customers, we knew what they drink. Sometimes we didn't know their name, but we knew what they drink."
Gold Coast had been the home of a yearly celebration known as the Red Dress Party, media sources noted.
Watch the ABC 7 news clip below.
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.
