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“It will get warm, vaccines are coming out, our space (will then be) viable again.” Pandemic woesĪt first, like many Portland bars, Blackstones was planning to reopen Nov. We need to set an exact date, (but) now we’re covered for that,” he said. “We’ll be closed all of April and some of May.
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The crowdsourced funds will give Blackstones a chance to make it to the warmer months, and by then Currie hopes COVID-19 in Maine will be more under control.
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eateries closed permanently or long term in 2020.Ĭurrie said last month that he and Pekins are still “investigating the option” of relicensing Blackstones to allow them to serve more food, since the bar has a full kitchen.īut with a small indoor space and virtually no room for outdoor dining, that could also prove futile. Even then, however, the National Restaurant Association reported in December that 110,000, or 17 percent, of U.S.
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Some local bars have changed their license classification to allow them to expand their menus and reopen as restaurants. Janet Mills indefinitely delayed the reopening of indoor bar service in November because of rising coronavirus cases statewide, which have continued to climb to unprecedented levels in December and January. “The younger crowd that’s going out can really go anywhere and feel accepted,” Luce said.ĬOVID-19 could have a further impact on gay bars. Some have attributed the decline to the boom of the Internet, where LGBTQ+ young people are more easily able to find a community than in decades past, or more widespread acceptance of gay people in mainstream society.Įven 15 years ago when Sisters Bar closed, Audrey Luce, who had then been a bartender at Sisters since its opening in 1995, told the Phoenix she attributed its declining numbers to the changing community.įormer patrons of the bar at that time, she said, were buying houses and having kids, and the younger generation was having a different experience than their older counterparts. According to a 2019 study, the United States had 1,500 gay bars in 1980 and fewer than 1,000 at the end of the last decade. The late 1980s and 1990s were the heyday of Portland’s gay bar scene, which featured talented pianists like Charlie Grindle playing at the Underground, the Phoenix, and Blackstones in its early days.īlackstones is also one of Maine’s only remaining gay bars at a time when the establishments are dwindling nationwide. Lesbian bars also existed, including the Danforth Street spot Sisters Bar, which closed in 2005. The city once had other popular gay establishments, most recently Styxx (formerly the Underground) night club, which was open on Spring Street for 30 years before closing in 2016. establishment.īlackstones has been a West End fixture since 1987 Pekins bought it in 2014. (Portland Phoenix/Elizabeth Clemente)Īlthough the money underscores the affinity many people have for Blackstones, others have criticized the bar in recent weeks, claiming management has not done enough to prevent racism and other problems at the 6 Pine St.
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“I’m genuinely humbled by it and I don’t quite know how to thank people yet.” Blackstones at 6 Pine St., near Longfellow Square, is Portland’s last remaining gay bar and one of the only ones in Maine at a time when the establishments are also declining nationally. “We hoped to get $10,000 and the fact that we hit $25,000 in 10 days, I’m kind of not shocked – and shocked,” Currie said recently. But less than two weeks after he created a GoFundMe page asking neighbors to help save Portland’s last gay bar, they had raised enough in pledges to survive the winter. He said the decision was a difficult one that he and Pekins tried to avoid, and that it made him uncomfortable. The coronavirus pandemic has left many local bar owners without a path forward, and reality set in for Blackstones manager Carl Currie last month.Ĭurrie had just come out of a staff meeting with bar owner Matt Pekins where they decided they would have to ask the community for money to stay afloat until spring.