Never underestimate Guerilla Gay Bar
It's been almost two years since Guerilla Gay Bar started, and it's more popular than ever. Much bigger than the management at Ryan's Daughter expected.
Have you heard of Guerilla Gay Bar? It's a gay happy hour which travels to local "straight" bars once a month. While the bar knows a couple days ahead of time, the location is kept secret for the patrons until the day before.
Last Friday, when the organizers of Guerilla Gay Bar got to Ryan's Daughter, there were only two or three bartenders on duty, according to one of my spies. Uh oh ...
The Ryan's Daughter crew thought only 35 or 40 folks were going to show up. It was more like 300 or 350, according to my source.
"Straight people don't realize the success of this," my source said.
That made getting drinks a nightmare.
"They were over-packed and overwhelmed," my source said. "It was incredibly hard to get a drink."
I did a piece on Guerilla Gay Bar shortly after it began in November 2008. Several cities, including Washington, have their own Guerilla Gay Bar events The happy hour "invasion" can come as a surprise for unsuspecting regulars.
"We don't want a ton of warning, because we don't want people to avoid that bar that night," co-founder Mark Yost said at the time. "We want good, peaceful interaction with people."
Erik Maza is a features reporter at the Baltimore Sun. He writes for several sections of the Sun paper and contributes weekly columns on music and nightlife. He also writes and edits the Midnight Sun blog. He often covers entertainment, business, and the business of entertainment. Occasionally, he writes about Four Loko, The Block, the liquor board, and those who practice "
Comments
Apparently GGB needs to do a better job of informing the bar a few days ahead of what to expect. If getting a drink at Ryan's Daughter was tough, imagine what parking must have been like in the Belvedere Square area! It's already bad on Friday nights as it is!
Posted by: Jeff | August 9, 2010 11:51 AM
I love the concept of GGB, even though I'm straight. However, they should target non-weekend days (Mon-Thurs) as the extra crowd would be a bigger plus to the target bar as opposed to backfiring and making the target bar regret the choice. I'd say the same thing if 300-350 midgets wanted to invade a bar on a Friday night.
Posted by: Rich B | August 9, 2010 12:57 PM
http://www.rathergood.com/gaybar
That says it all, to me......
Posted by: Alexander D. Mitchell IV | August 9, 2010 1:20 PM
@RIch B -- As long as the bar is made aware of the size of the crowd and staffs enough bartenders, there shouldn't be a problem. Don't know where the chain of communication broke down here.
Posted by: Sam Sessa | August 10, 2010 9:58 AM
Jeff, GGBB always gives advance notice to the bars we go to. On a few occasions, the bars have simply not answered their phones or not returned our calls. Hopefully that continues to occur infrequently.
Posted by: GGBB | August 23, 2010 1:10 PM