Razing the Bar

It was a packed Friday-Saturday-Sunday weekend following the announcement of the imminent closing of the long-standing supporter neighborhood bar The Edge at Collingwood and 18th. Friday night Ben and Ricky of Ejector were spinning excellent sets to a cautiously celebratory crowd. Saturday night the crowd grew more dense and more typically outrageous in The Edge terms, with local drag stars holding court and various guys dancing/stripping on stage for beads and bucks. Sunday the place was just out of fucking control. The bar was serving whatever they had left and pouring mixers out of small plastic bottles. Napkins and various dark bar detritus filed the air, as did a sense of hammered celebration and farewell to a long-standing Castro institution serving very distinct, even if diverse, populations of the Bay Area LGBT community.

By 10:00, the street was littered with trash, the bar was dark, the doors were locked and a "thank you" note was posted in the window.

HOWEVER:
I have news from a reliable source that the owners of the Rainbow Cattle Company bar in Guerneville and Q-Bar in the Castro have bought the Edge from its previous owner and hope to re-open the bar as early as this Friday. The new owners plan a significant renovation (including the bathrooms!!), but plan to open and operate during the renovation period. Hopefully, the nasty toilet facilities and "giant turd" construction will be sledgehammered out first.