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(Image: Queer/Bar)

In October 2017, Queer/Bar opened on 11th Ave to make a stand for queer nightlife and culture in Pike/Pine. Then the next five years happened.

Now, the bar and performance venue is ready to mark five years on Capitol Hill and continue its climb to be a center of LGBTQIA+ good times in Seattle. It will do so at the center of a new Capitol Hill business family made up of some familiar old but valued faces including The Cuff, Elliott Bay, and, now, Oddfellows.

“It’s amazing. Queer/Bar is turning this awesome corner,” owner Joey Burgess tells CHS. “We just didn’t stop working through the pandemic. Kept our core crew. We’ve been kind of dreaming of this the whole way through the pandemic.”

Queer/Bar at five is finally taking its full shape with performances and events that keep the club “activated every night of the week” and “just makes the venue feel alive,” Burgess said.

It is also taking its place in a larger Pike/Pine family of businesses. In August, Burgess and husband Murf Hall announced they were buying Linda Derschang’s much-loved Oddfellows Cafe. That deal followed the Burgess Hall Group acquisition of Oddfellows neighbor Elliott Bay Book Company only a few weeks earlier.

Burgess says the acquisitions are a combination of preserving important parts of the Pike/Pine neighborhood and some under the radar business savvy.

“The goal of the company is to make sure legacy businesses stay local,” Burgess said, “and preserve businesses we feel could be at risk. Queer bars are fading over the country. Bookstores are Important mainstays that create education, vibrancy but are also challenged.”

“A bookstore and a queer bar are not too far away from each other,” Burgess said.

(Image: Queer/Bar)

The biggest efficiencies in the new family come from the group’s strong team of managers, Burgess said, and the ability to share knowledge and resources across the venues and stores. Hall’s exit from Nordstrom to join the company full time has also been key, Burgess said.

“The pandemic taught us to expand our horizons and have a collection that can support each other,” Burgess said.

Gay bar support? They’ve got it. The new kid Queer/Bar joined up with old-timer The Cuff to start 2020 in a deal that paired one of the longest running queer venues with the fresh-faced 11th Ave addition. The group also includes the Grimm’s nightclub. Burgess, meanwhile, also has chaired the board convened for the GSBA’s Capitol Hill Business Alliance small business effort and has represented the neighborhood’s small business community in council work with city hall.

Queer/Bar debuted in mid-October, 2017 in the space where gay bar Purr once did its thing. At the time, Burgess was still part of Guild Seattle, the group behind Lost Lake Cafe, The Comet, and three Big Mario’s locations across Seattle. It would be the start of Burgess moving out on his own. Guild partner Dave Meinert was also a partner in Queer/Bar. In 2018, Burgess and Queer/Bar cut ties as Meinert’s Pike/Pine business holdings dissolved amid rape allegations.

The bar has also faced down hate. Earlier this year, CHS reported on a guilty plea in a 2020 federal arson case that targeted the bar.

Setting off now into year six, Burgess says Queer/Bar can continue to focus on its central mission.

“We know that Queer/Bar is ultimately a space for local artists,” Burgess said. “Trying to program and be activated every night of the week is our biggest change.”

The costs of each new show and event can be huge from the planning to the marketing, but Queer/Bar remains on track to continue to grow the efforts, “honing in on what we have to officer,” Burgess said.

“Ultimately, it is about making sure the space is filled with local neighbors,” Burgess said,” and a full fledge party on the weekends with the best queer talent from across the country and more.”

Queer/Bar will celebrate its fifth anniversary with with Violet Chachki and Gottmik on Saturday, October 8th. The late show is already sold out but there were a few tickets remaining for an added 7 PM performance. Queer/Bar is located at 1518 11th Ave. Learn more at thequeerbar.com.

HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE
Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you.

Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for as little as $5 a month.