Red Carpet Lounge

Red Carpet Lounge 

Location: 937 North New Warrington Road, Pensacola, Florida, USA

Opened: At least by 1998

Closed: 2010



Her self description says very little. In fact, the only reason you would even know that Red Carpet Lounge was a lesbian bar is because it was listed at LesbianNightLife: 

We are located at 937 N New Warrington Rd. an open from 5pm - Close Tuesday thru Sunday. Tuesday its all you can drink for $8! We also have an open pool tournament @ 7:30 with a $5 entry. Cash Prizes. Wednesday its karaoke with KJ Karmyn from 9pm- Close

Lonely Planet is very brief, but at least they use the L word:

This popular lesbian bar has special themes nightly.

Fortunately, the Pensacola Independent tells us more:

Red Carpet Lounge (June 2010)

This primarily lesbian bar calls itself Pensacola's "Hottest Ladies' Bar." Drag pageants, pool tournaments and pajama parties are just a few of the fun events hosted by the bar."

Gaycities informs us that Red Carpet Lounge had the reputation for being anti-male (oh, the horror!):

Lesbian bar in Pensacola
Referred to as "the Rug" by the locals, this lesbian bar has had it's ups and downs in the last couple of years. And unfortunately for guys, it has gained the reputation of unfriendliness towards members of the opposite sex.

It appears that at least one straight dude customer echoed this opinion regarding the Red Carpet Lounge. I'm guessing the ladies did not grant him the deference to which he obviously felt entitled. From yelp, July 2007:

men...do not go in here! the lesbian regulars are hostile and will make your stay very uncomfortable! the lesbo bartenders will not even serve you if you are male! equality and justice...not even in the lesbian dictionary!

However, at least one other patron disputed this claim in  August 2007:

I don't really frequent "The Rug", as it is so affectionately referred to as, all that often, but I wanted to counter the scathing review already posted.  The Red Carpet--if you couldn't tell from the name--is a lesbian bar.  So, if you're going to visit, gay friendliness is a prerequisite. 

I'm not sure what kind of hostile treatment this guy got, but the bartenders and patrons have always been good to me and my male friends whenever I have found myself there.

Blue Mule Saloon
(formerly the Red Carpet Lounge)

Yet another customer at Yelp tells us that the Red Carpet Lounge closed in 2010. No additional details are provided. 

As to when it opened, the earliest reference I have found to the Red Carpet Lounge is in 1998.

Today it is the Blue Mule Saloon.

You Got It

El Paso lesbians

You Got It

Location: El Paso, Texas, USA

Opened: ?

Closed: 1996

You Got It is a lesbian bar mentioned in a book of essays called Performing the US Latina and Latino Borderlands, specifically in an piece called "Decolonial Border Queers" by Emma Perez. In a discussion on machismo, Myrna Avalos, a Chicana lesbian, contributes the following: 

She believes that the border city breeds machista attitudes toward women, which take the form of drunkenness, womanizing, and battering. She was exceedingly critical of this "cultural thing." Myrna observed that butch women in lesbian bars exhibit territorial behavior that she does not like. She said she used to go to You Got It, a lesbian bar that closed down around 1996 because the police had to break up fights between lesbians too often. "I mean these women would literally fight. Throw bottles at each other. I mean, territorial. . . .with their women. 'This is my woman, you leave her alone, Bop!'" She named their territorial behavior a "butch pussy-stance" and refused to engage in the type of restrictive role-playing that was anti-feminist. Identifying as a butch lesbian for Myrna meant negotiating role-playing within a patriarchal structure that already condemned women. She adamantly reclaimed her butch identity as a role beyond "machista" behavior that was confining to women, particularly lesbians.

Myrna came out in El Paso at the age of seventeen. Before then, she endured six brothers and their homophobic remarks as well as an extended family who persistently asked her when she planned to marry.  

Club 505

The former Club 505 (later the Corner Bar & Grill)

Club 505

Location: 505 East Shiawassee Street, Lansing, Michigan, USA

Opened: Around 1993

Closed: 2008

Here's a customer review of Club 505 from January 2008:

This is a popular lesbain bar, pretty much the only one around the Lansing area. The bar is usually packed on Thursdays and Saturdays. The service is good, drinks are a bit pricy, but the bartenders make it worth it! The do not tolerate drunken stupidity, so if you've been out all night and just want to pop in for a while, be sure you are sober enouigh. There are 3 pool tables, a medium sized dance floor, and 3 or 4 flat screen tv's. ESPN is always on, so guys will have a good time as well. The atmosphere is friendly, the drinks are good, and someone will always keep you entertained in this bar. Pros: Parking

From May 2008:

I am a regular at "The 5" and it is my fav. place to hang out!!! I have taken sooo many people there because the atmosphere is so comfortable. I know this is a place I can really let my hair down because they do not put up with BS. I am not a lesbian so I do not consider it a lesbian bar, though that is a great number of it's patrons. I have been going there for over 10 years and I ("Brick House") will be sad to see it close. I recomend it to almost everyone i know and I hope you, the reader, visit it before it closes. Pros: Friendly group Cons: small womens bathroom


And then she was gone. From Capital Gains, October 8, 2008:

The popular lesbian hangout at 505 E. Shiawassee St., Lansing, was a staple downtown for nearly 15 years, famous for bingo nights and other themed events, before owners Kathy Nicoll and Dee Andrews decided to hang it up. Now a new business is coming to the old spot, The Corner Bar & Grill, squelching some women’s hopes that another lesbian bar would open there.

San Diego College for Women

San Diego College for Women
Administration Building

San Diego College for Women

Location: San Diego, California, USA

Opened: February 1952

Closed: 1972

The San Diego College for Women was a private, Catholic women's college in San Diego, California. It was founded by the Mother Rosalie Hill, superior vicar of the Society of the Sacred Heart, in 1950. It first opened to students in February 1952, enrolling about 33 students and having a staff of nine. The first president was Mother Catherine Parks, with Hill serving as honorary president. 

In 1956, Mother Frances Danz was named president of the College. Within her first year, the college received full accreditation from the State of California and established a nursing program in collaboration with nearby Mercy College of Nursing. The college expanded again two years later, offering its first graduate degrees in 1958.

Mother Anne Farraher became president of the college in 1963. Two years later, following the Second Vatican Council that encouraged Catholic educational institutions to "unite in a mutual sharing of effort," the San Diego College for Women and San Diego University, a men's college founded by the Diocese of San Diego, began to consider combining their resources. Mother Nancy Morris became president in 1968, and by 1969 had introduced coeducational classes in cooperation with the College for Men. That same year, the colleges also combined their graduation ceremonies for the first time.

Citing financial deficits and a desire to share more resources, the San Diego College for Women fully merged with San Diego University to form the coeducational University of San Diego in 1972.

Fascinating that the Vatican wanted to close down a women's college before they would even consider letting a woman into the priesthood--just goes to show that spaces segregated by sex are not necessarily equal in terms of status or respect. On the contrary, it's the women's spaces that are considered expendable....

Duchess

Duchess

101 Seventh Avenue South today

Location: 101 Seventh Avenue South (at Grove Street), New York, New York, USA

Opened/Closed: late 1970s/early 1980s

This is actually a bar I remember personally. My friend Bonnie and I would sometimes make the haul down to New York for dinner and a trip to the Duchess. Ah, the good old days....

A gay history timeline for Greenwich/West Village says this about the Duchess: 

1980    Popular late '70s/early '80s lesbian hangout Duchess (101 Seventh Ave. South at Grove St.) begins coming under attack from state liquor license inspectors, reportedly refused service after they charmed the bartender with refrains of "Come on girlie, give us a drink."

Radical Walking Tours New York City (2011) provides additional detail:

One hundred-one Seventh Avenue South was a famous lesbian bar called the Duchess, until then-mayor Ed Koch took its liquor license away in the 80s by using the anti-discrimination laws against it, effectively closing it down. 

Interesting paradox here, in that Ed Koch was widely rumored to be a closeted gay man--even in the day. Of course with his recent death, the rumors flew once again.

In a book of essays called Love, Christopher Street: Reflections of New York City, reviewer Andrew Holleran mentions a piece by Christopher Bram with the following Duchess reference:  

Christopher Bram gives us a more recent history by simply describing the tenants of his apartment building on Perry Street over the last thirty years, and, in his introduction, some of the changes the rest of the Village has undergone. Take, for example, the genealogy of a lesbian bar called The Grove. The Grove amounted to salvation for the Scottish mystery writer Val McDermid when she came to New York from a country where there were no bars for women, much less anything like the Village. The Grove, which later became the Duchess, Bram tells us, is now a vitamin store.

It appears the former vitamin store is now a cupcake place. The beat goes on....

Cloud Nine Lounge

Cloud Nine Lounge

Location: 7126 Sterling Road, Davie, Florida, USA

Opened: At least as early as 2007

Closed: Spring 2012?

Gay Bars Fort Lauderdale is pretty much to the point. Cloud Nine Lounge is a "Lesbian Neighborhood Bar, Mixed Crowd." 

From sunny.org: "Lesbian-friendly nightclub with nightly drink specials such as 2-4-1 everything everyday 12pm-8pm, Fri Ladies Night, Sat Free Drinks 11pm-1am, and Sun Karaoke 9pm-1am."

From SouthFlorida.com: "Cloud 9 offers entertainment and mingling for gay women in South Florida."

And from lesbian night life:

Run by women for women, this lounge features two pool tables, dartboards, and beer-pong tables, a dance floor with a pole and a friendly staff.  

Cloud Nine (2008)

Cloud Nine won "the Best Cheap Thrill in Broward" award in 2007. (Woo Woo!) Here's how Voice Places described it: 

Cloud 9 is lesbian hangout that's also the kind of place you turn to for good conversation -- and when you're in need of a stripper pole. The understated interior is disguised by a generically painted/decorated exterior that might lead many a passerby to drive on, ignorant of the genial friendliness inside... And of the amateur strip contests like Dare 2 Bare.

This description is derived from a longer piece (by a dude) on Cloud Nine published on November 15, 2007:

Cloud Nine Lounge 

You can learn a lot about women at Cloud 9 Lounge, a local's bar in Davie where on many nights the majority of the patrons are lesbians. Cloud 9, with its many faces, can act like a dive bar one night, then put on its dancing shoes and act like a naughty schoolgirl on her way to the sock hop the next night. Cloud 9 is not exclusive. It doesn't pretend. It's functional — two bars, three pool tables, TVs, a dance floor, a stage, and, oh yeah, a stripper's pole. And it's the kind of place you turn to for good conversation. The understated interior is disguised by a generically painted/decorated exterior that might lead many a passerby to drive on, ignorant of the genial friendliness inside, ignorant of the stage with the stripper's pole and the few of us guys taking notes. What we're learning is that too often, guys neglect these good traits (functionality, good conversation, humility) for the sake of being a hunter. For the sake of being a "man." You see, here, the hunt is futile, making for excellent practice on how to become better-rounded. Social classroom or not, after a few Corazon tequila shots, it's still a bar (full of women) famous for its amateur strip contests, like this week's Dare 2 Bare, in which someone will take home $150. Friday is ladies night, which means $5 Jäger bombs. On Saturdays, get $3 Long Island iced teas and get spun by DJ Buttafingaz all night.

If you want a sense of the atmosphere, here's a 40-second video from 2008. 

Earlier customer reviews from citysearch are fairly upbeat. 

From September 2008: "it's very crowed, but all the girls are fine."

From January 2010: "fun times.... great time with friends. cozy atmosphere and friendly people."

So are the ones from the yellow pages: 

From December 2007: "Regulars and bar staff alike are always happy to see you and are friendly. just soak up the good vibe. There are some interesting house specials. it feels inviting."

From February 2011: "Although my recent visit to Cloud 9 was during the morning, as one of the few places open during those hours, I could tell it was a cool place to hang out anytime, 24/7....The people and staff were friendly, so it was naturally inviting. Yes, this bar is known to be a favorite of a certain type of female, but who cares?....everyone is there to have a good time, and so will you."

Yelp features four later reviews, though, and all of them are pretty negative. 

By 2010 - 2011, a lot of problems with general quality were apparently starting to develop at Cloud Nine. 

Admittedly, some complaints were of the whiny variety--the "eh" music that was too "ghetto" along with the empty dance floor. That the bartender had an "attitude" and "dressed like an early 90s stripper- not cute."

But not all of the complaints were whiny or minor. For example, we're informed that the bathrooms were both "disgusting" and "horrifying." And it sure sounds like they were.

From July 2011: "One toilet had no seat, and the other was covered in vomit.  Ugh. I probably get herpes just thinking about this place."

In addition, we now had lots of boundary problems with men--a sign of incompetent and/or indifferent management, particularly at a bar that identifies itself as a place for lesbians.

From July 2011:  "The locals were a small handful of local lesbians, and a TON of straight guys, just staring at them (and us).  Not exactly what I want in a bar.  I'm all for mixed crowds, and I rarely enjoy all-lesbian clubs. But cmon guys, don't come just to stare.... pick  your jaws up off the floor, and stop being creepy."

From another reviewer, also July 2011: "full of horny old men who stalk you."

There were also, unfortunately, (barely veiled) racist reactions to Cloud Nine's mostly African-American clientele. 

From September 2010: "I was excited to go here because it was a "club" and so close to home. It was when I arrived when I began to have a mood change. This is a lesbian lounge but obviously you dont have to be homosexual to go. There is not girls all up on each other it is just a place to hang out. The crowd was mostly black, not that this is a bad thing but my friends and I received faces as if saying, "what are you doing here?"

According to jumponmarkslist, Cloud Nine is now closed, but no date is given. However, the last visit regarding health code violations was April 2012 (the reported violations started in November 2010, which more or less coincides with the beginning of the poor customer reviews). 

Hotel Ritz Ladies' Bar

Fifty Million Frenchmen (1931)

Hotel Ritz Ladies' Bar 

Location: 15 Place Vendome, Paris, France 

Opened: The Hotel Ritz opened in 1898, the Hotel's first bar (the male-only bar known as Bar Cambon) opened in 1921. When the Ritz Ladies' Bar opened is not real clear, but it apparently began its life as the ladies waiting room next to to the Bar Cambon.

Closed: What is now known as the Ritz Bar (the bar that was formerly the male-only Bar Cambon) went coed in 1936.  The Ladies' Bar then became Le Petit Bar, and then Bar Hemingway. The Hotel Ritz (along with all its bars) closed for a two-year renovation project in 2012. 

This is yet another case of pure serendipity. I stumbled upon this story about the Hotel Ritz Ladies' Bar in an old newspaper article published in the Oelwein [Iowa] Daily Register, May 9, 1931. The context was the opening of a new movie, Fifty Million Frenchmen. This is some of what it said: 


When "steam room" is mentioned it brings to the average mind a picture of a Turkish Bath with sheeted figures wiping dripping brows in a dense fog. But to a Parisian, the steam room spells something entirely different--the ladies' bar!

Jed Kiley, prominent figure in Paris night life, owner of Cafe Boulevardier, and more recently technical director on Warner Bros. production "Fifty Million Frenchmen," showing at the Galaxy Theatre, Sunday and Monday, coined the phrase. He called the ladies' bar a steam room because at the cocktail hour in Paris, it is so hot and bothered with cigarette smoke that it resembles a steam room. The name stuck and from then on the women's salon of the bar was the "steam room."

An exact duplicate of the Ritz bar in Paris with its accompanying steam room was built on the Warner Bros. lot for the making of this rollicking farce adapted from the stage play of the same name.

Bar Hemingway, the former Hotel Ritz Ladies Bar

From what I can tell, the men's bar began in 1921. It was initially known as the Cambon Bar because the entrance was just inside the Hotel's Rue Cambon entrance.

Colin Peter Field explains the rest:

Just opposite the bar was a very small 'salon de correspondance' with lovely wooden walls. This became the ladies' waiting room, where ladies waiting for their husbands would while away the 'minutes'. (Ladies, at this time, were not allowed in the bars.) In 1936 the principal bar was transformed to receive both sexes, and at the same time a second bar was created. This was 'Le Petit Bar', over which Bernard 'Bertin' Azimont was to preside until his retirement in 1975. The little bar was to become Ernest Hemingway's favourite haunt. He had discovered the Ritz Paris in 1925 after meeting Scott Fitzgerald in the 'Dixies Bar', a drinking hole for ex-patriot American artists and writers. The Dixies no longer exists, but Le Petit Bar, now known as the Bar Hemingway, continues to thrive.

A Frenchwoman invades the male-only Ritz Hotel Bar (1931)

If you watch the first few minutes of 50 Million Frenchmen, you get a rare glimpse into how these various male and female spaces functioned within a high-class hotel of that era. I'm not going to summarize the whole film, but it begins with an American man managing to steal a Frenchwoman's money. She tracks him down to the Ritz Hotel bar, which is obviously male only. She barges in anyway in order to confront the man. The men within the bar treat her with utter derision and contempt. We later see a small sign by the entrance which states that ladies are not admitted. However, we see gentlemen passing in and out of the so-called Ladies Bar with no problems at all. In fact, there are at least as many men in the Ladies Bar as ladies. 

This conforms with what many women observed during that time period. And it's the same double standard regarding boundary enforcement that we still see around womyn's spaces today.