Bourbon Street, once a bustling nightspot just a mile up the street, shuttered in 2015, and so did The Flame, a lesbian bar. Numbers, a popular nightclub on Park Boulevard, closed its doors in September 2017. The Caliph’s closure comes on the heels of other notable gay bars recently shutting down. We’ll knock it out of the ballpark.” ‘Like losing a family member’ … Sure, it will be sad, but there are so many memories to celebrate, and we will. It is a community,” said LeMaster, who also is the music director for San Diego Musical Theatre. “I’ll miss the warmth and friendship.”įellow entertainer Don LeMaster, who will wrap up his 18-year stint at The Caliph this Saturday starting at 7:30 p.m., knows he’ll probably cry after his last song, but the night “will be a celebration.” “This was my first job in San Diego after moving here from New Orleans,” Ard, who’s been playing at The Caliph off and on since 1987, said minutes before taking the stage for the last time. But, he admitted, it was all bittersweet. “One of the sweetest memories I remember is when that finally happened, we had a couple of marriage proposals,” recalled Carey, who said she sang every gay anthem in the book that night, from “Love Story” by Taylor Swift to “Defying Gravity” from the musical “Wicked.” “To be a witness to that, knowing that finally a couple of people could love who they want to love, that was one of those real heart moments.”Įntertainer Kenny Ard has experienced many of those moments, too, and this past Wednesday - his last show - he came ready to rock the night away. Supreme Court struck down all state bans on same-sex marriage across the country, it was a cultural turning point marked by cheers and tears inside the dimly lit bar at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Redwood Street. During the 1980s, at the height of the AIDS crisis, patrons raised money, many writing personal checks to help those who couldn’t afford medical care. Eisenhower signed Executive Order 10450, banning homosexuals from being employed by the federal government. It opened its doors in 1960, seven years after President Dwight D. More than that, though, The Caliph, for nearly six decades, bore witness to the evolution of the gay rights movement - its highs and its lows. “It was,” she added, “the safest little haven on Fifth Avenue.” And that was The Caliph - it’s inclusive.” “Bars like The Caliph have been a place where people in the gay community could be themselves - a place where you wouldn’t even be looked at twice. “As a straight woman who’s been able to perform there all these years, it’s always been a special place for me,” said Carey, who has clocked 12 years singing on Friday nights with pianist Kevin McCully.
That, entertainer Ria Carey said, has been a big part of The Caliph’s appeal. “It’s the kind of place,” he said, “where people really know your name.” Troy Davis, 57, of El Cajon has been a longtime patron - since the late 1970s. “When I bought the place,” he said, “I always wanted it to be all-inclusive - gay, straight, transgender, young, old, men, women. Owning the bar, Mendoza said, wasn’t always easy, but there was one thing that’s kept him going all these years: the people. Some nights, there are just three of us here, and on other nights, you can barely move around.”
It’s like a show, and we’re the characters. And you never know what you’re going to get from one night to the next. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune)įor Bankers Hill resident and Wednesday regular James Stephens, 60, The Caliph is special - a bar like no other: “It’s like a 1960s bar without the smoke. Even during the hardest times, when the economy wasn’t doing so well, we remained open and persevered.”īefore leaving, Geoff Buen, left, and Brett Granfield take a photo in front of the Caliph piano bar. “At the same time, I realize that it did have a long run - 58 years. “There’s no doubt that it saddens me,” said Mendoza, who bought the intimate Bankers Hill bar in 2003. The Caliph, with its Moorish motif mixed in with disco lights, is known for its live piano entertainment, karaoke, fresh popcorn and, perhaps most importantly, its old-school neighborhood bar vibe. After last call, it will shut its doors permanently - ending a historic, nearly 60-year run as one of San Diego’s most iconic gay bars. 31, as the calendar ushers in a new year, it will usher in a new chapter for Mendoza but usher out the last chapter for The Caliph. Just before midnight on New Year’s Eve, as the clock’s about to strike 12, Sherman Mendoza will steel himself to do something one last time: toast the new year with friends at The Caliph, the piano lounge and bar he’s owned for 15 years.