The Rawhide is a long-running, dark, comfortable neighborhood hangout for leather gays, but the place has suddenly become the object of some heavy duty S&M.
The new landlord has virtually doubled the rent and Rawhide has been sent packing like a man.
The bar--which opened way back in 1979--is being evicted from the space as of March 31.
Talk about a raw deal.
this is that bar that you could smell the stink from the inside, as you walked by, outside.
r.i.p.
Man, I wish we could stop this onslaught of straighties into gayborhoods once we are done gentrifying them!
OMG!!!! I remember when it was a backroom bar....waaay back in the early days...before "Chelsea" was on the gay map.
Also I gave Lady Bunny an unsolicited foot massage back when Wigstock transitioned from Tompkins's Sq to the Piers! [she was utterly grateful and nice, btw]
And nevermind, back in the day[I hate that phrase, but it works here] I used to get picked up there by "not" cruising...just playing the pinball machine, minding my own business...that seemed to be a "boy-magnet"...some good/excellent...others, mmmh, that's life.
Well...say goodbye to gay dive bars...Keller's, Peter Rabbit, One/Two Potato, Bike Stop...[Spike and 'former' Eagle, their own category], Nickel Bar....RIP, it was a good ride.
Oh, and not to be remiss, shout out to the only remaining, UWS dive of note, The Candle Bar...the current location not dead, gay in name only nowadays,really...but the old location..70th St/Amsterdam? was FIERCE! The current locale lived up to it's name till the late '90's or so.
@SavannahMontgomery I remember the one at 70th and Amsterdam. The bartender downstairs would check your pants, and just about anything else you wanted checked. It got pretty wild some nights. Well mornings. It didn't really get busy until the other bars closed. Ah youth! Nowadways I would be dozing off drooling in my beer.
opps...The Bar, Dicks...(Is The Boiler Room still alive?)...I wasn't much of LES gal myself...
Rawhide was the Chelsea equivalent of "Boots and Saddles"...back when Boots still had the "hitching post/fence"...both were everyone's first and "last" stop...if you know what I mean.
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Christine Quinn is a big supporter of this place! Let's hope she comes to its rescue.
@bethesda If they don't get baile dout why don't they move to East Village like all of the other small bars! If they keep this up NYC will not have any gay bars. Don't they know it is arecession and everybody is struggling even the money bars??? Kiss my grits!
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