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And during the 1970s, the abandoned neighborhood was gradually colonized by gays, lesbians, trans people, punks, goths, rockers, socialists, and artists.īy the 1980s, when Derschang moved from Denver to Seattle to open her first business here (but the third business in her career), a clothing store called Basic on Broadway, the transformation of the neighborhood was well under way. We are on the third floor a Capitol Hill building that was once a part of "Auto Row." The construction of Interstate 5 in the 1960s initiated the decline of Auto Row. An open window with a view of one of the 60 or so cranes in the still-booming city is behind me. We are now sitting in her office, which is on the southeast corner of the headquarters of the Derschang Group, her small empire of bars, cafes, and restaurants (which used to include Bait Shop and Tallulah's-both were sold, the second very recently-and still includes King's Hardware in Ballard and Smith on Capitol Hill).Ī huge and surreal painting by the artist Kevin Willis is behind her. The pews of my childhood were, like the one I was sharing with the stranger at Oddfellows, all wood. I had not been in a house of God since my father's funeral in 2010, but the Seattle church where his funeral was held had pews with thick cushions and dropped arms. This was the black church that white supremacists burned to the ground in 1980.
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I then inwardly plunged into a memory of the racks that contained hymns, Bibles, and programs composed by my father (then a pastor) for his Sunday morning services at Zion United Methodist Church in Sharptown, Maryland, some 38 years ago. I looked ahead and saw that the position of my biscuit and eggs was where a hymnal rack would be. I looked to my right and saw the pew's raised arm. I looked down at the space between us and saw something surprising: We were sitting on an old church pew.
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I looked to my left and saw a complete stranger examining a menu. I stopped cutting and wondered why the pressure on and creaking in the wood was so familiar. I felt it bend and strain under the weight of a person who had just taken the table next to mine. At the moment I began cutting my food, I noticed something that I didn't expect to notice. Outside, people enjoying the last day of summer. On my plate, a homemade biscuit with scrambled eggs and slices of tomato. I was sitting at a table that faced the bar. (It will be painted Paris Rain or Temptation.) "The place already told my kind of story."Īnd what is Linda Derschang's story? Where does it begin and what does it tell us? Because the essence of Linda is, as she puts it, working with whatever the universe sends her way-meaning working with chance and accidents to achieve, by necessity, a particular kind of feeling or mood (she never runs a business with a plan)-let me share a Proustian memory that one of the pieces of furniture in Oddfellows Cafe + Bar, another of her businesses, once provoked in me. "Queen City has been a bar or restaurant for more than 100 years, and that was a real draw for me," she says, in between discussing the future color of the ceiling with her director of operations, Jennifer Engles-Klann. Queen City's interior will also include an old painting of a sailor, the original high-backed booths, and dim lighting. To produce this feeling, she plans to add a little taxidermy (gray birds, a reddish fox, a jackalope), a design element she's been known for since she opened Linda's Tavern on Pine Street in 1994. But I want it to be a place with the kind of feeling that makes people smile." "The Queen City could be a scruffy tavern, or an elegant Italian restaurant, or a fancy cocktail bar, or a regular steak house. She has a knack for bringing character into interiors.