Business was tough even before COVID, as Laguna’s land values skyrocketed and much of its gay community moved east to the Palm Springs area. An “I can’t even think straight” sign hung on the wall behind her.īut Jimmy Nelson died in August. ![]() “My brother Jimmy bought this bar 18 years ago to save what was left of gay Laguna,” said sister Wendy Nelson, sitting at the bar in the dim afternoon light. Its future is murky - it may be resurrected with new ownership and new name and new design and new zeitgeist - but the Nelson clan, which has run it for nearly two decades, is done. The Anchor Line is the last of Laguna’s vintage gay bars, a fixture since 1958. 22, the owners of the Anchor Line Bar, aka the Main Street Bar & Cabaret, are slated to serve their final libations as well. The Little Shrimp, a beloved piano bar, was reborn as Woody’s and then Avila’s El Ranchito Mexican Restaurant. Once upon a time, Laguna Beach was a haven, an oasis, a protective cocoon for men who loved men in ultra-conservative Orange County.Īn entire block of South Coast Highway hosted gay bars, the most famous perhaps being the raucous Boom Boom Room, which served its last drink 15 years ago as folks danced on the bar and the crowd went wild.
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