The Eagle Tavern, a gay bar that was a 30-year-old SOMA mainstay until it closed last April due to a rent increase, is going to re-open, at least according to its web site.
From the site:
It is our pleasure to announce that the Eagle will fly again! Your new hosts, Mike and Alex, will reopen the bar as the S.F. Eagle. It will take a couple of months to do the much-needed repairs and upgrades that the property requires, but some upcoming events are already in the works prior to the opening of the bar. Please check this website periodically for new announcements coming soon.
The bar and patio located at 398 12th Street has long been a special place, not only to the LGBT community, but to the entire community for decades, not to mention the live music community as well. We just couldn’t let such a historic place like this disappear!
We will continue to host fundraisers for all the organizations from the past, as well as welcoming new ones to make the S.F. Eagle the pride of our community once again.
We look forward to seeing all of you very soon!
Today San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener told us he was very happy that the Eagle has re-landed. "A lot of us fought very hard to keep The Eagle Open," he said. "Having people that want to re-open it as The Eagle is great news." Wiener said he and Supervisor Jane Kim worked with the new proprietors, Alex Montiel and Mike Leon, to gain a lease.
Wiener also discussed the significance of The Eagle. "The Eagle has been a very important cultural nightlife venue in the LGBT community for several decades. In particular the Sunday beer bust has been a wonderful community gathering to raise money for nonprofits, especially HIV providers. So The Eagle is something that's very important to a lot of us."
Last year at a rally for The Eagle, Wiener told KQED's Joshua Johnson how important nightlife in general is to many in the LGBT community. "Our bars and our clubs are our gathering places," Wiener said. "For a lot of gay people, when you come out, your family are sometimes the people that you're meeting in these bars."