4 days ago
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
One of S.F.'s oldest gay bars saved by new owner
The last remaining gay bar on Polk Street has found a new owner just in time for LGBTQ Pride month.
Scott Taylor, the beverage director at nearby Harris' Restaurant, is taking over the bar, according to a Tuesday announcement; Taylor has spent the past 23 years working in the industry managing various restaurants, bars and nightclubs throughout San Francisco.
'There will be minimal changes to the bar's look. I want to hold onto its history,' Taylor said.
That history is rich. The Cinch was founded in 1974, and is one of the oldest gay bars in the city. During that decade, it was part of a vibrant gay scene in Polk Gulch that competed with the Castro as an epicenter of queer life in the city. At its height, there were more than 60 gay bars, peepshows, bathhouses and other gay establishments in the area. The first Gay Freedom Day Parade in San Francisco (now San Francisco Pride) was held on Polk Street in June 1970.
Before news of the sale, rumors had flown that the Cinch's days could be numbered. Taylor assumes ownership from Robby Morgenstein, who ran the bar with business partner Bob Thornton. Thornton died in May 2023. The building's famed western facade is the last from the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition.
LGBTQ community leader Juanita More noted that when she first moved to Nob Hill in 1982, 'I often adventured down to the bars on Polk Street, with which I had been familiar since high school. And the Cinch is where I felt comfortable and began making many new friends (sometimes at the urinal).'
More said she will lend her support to Taylor and 'will be by his side to ensure it succeeds and lives on for a hundred years.'
On June 22, More and drag king and activist Alex U. Inn will lead the 'People's March & Rally — Unite to Fight!' for the sixth year. Beginning at 11:00 a.m. the intersection of Washington St. and Polk St., near the Cinch. The event is inspired by the first Gay Liberation protest in the neighborhood, and will progress down Polk to Civic Center for an afternoon celebration with DJs, performers and artists' booths from 12:30-4 p.m.
