The Stud is Coming Back… But We Need Your Help!

The Stud is San Francisco's oldest LGBT bar and one of the world's most famous drag bars. And we just signed a lease on a new spot that will open by the end of winter!

We’ve been saving money and looking for a new home for our 57-year-old venue (she still acts 21) since we were forced to close our doors during the pandemic. And last month we signed a contract to buy the perfect bar (1123 Folsom Street) on the main commercial corridor of San Francisco’s historic Leather District, (where everyone gets nasty for Folsom Street Fair.)

Buuuuuut this is San Francisco… and buying a bar is insanely expensive… and that’s before we even start construction. It’s not cheap to turn a straight sports bar into a fabulous drag bar, and we’re going to need to build everything from scratch. That includes a stage, dressing rooms for the girls, a dance floor, (a dark room,) and DJ booths, and you know we have to bring in a top-of-the-line sound system for the world famous DJs that love the Stud.

Queer, straight, trade, family, frenemies and exes… We’re going to need the entire music and nightlife community, all over the world, to help us with this one. If everyone who’s ever had an amazing night out at the Stud donates what they can—we will be able to open in a few months.

What’s the Tea On the New Space?

You know we love our history… and the new space we found is historic as hell. In the early 70s it was the site of a collectively owned (yay!!) vegetarian restaurant called Wellsprings Reunion. But the collective was eventually unmasked as a front for an armed revolutionary cult (ewwww) named Tribal Thumb whose members were implicated in the kidnapping of Patty Hearst, the San Francisco assassination attempt on Gerald Ford, and a shoot out at a food-coop that ended with multiple deaths (okay seriously that part really sucks.)

When the now famous Julie’s Supper Club took over the space in the 80’s, they found cult graffiti on the walls of the upstairs office and a weird space in the basement that everyone has told us is one of the places where Patty Hearst was held (we love you Patty...you’re an ally, girl.)

The new location will be double the size of our notoriously crowded old space, we’ll have two bars, a new stage and sound system… and best of all, multiple working toilets (no more having to squat in the piss trough, ladies) And we’re definitely bringing back the crazy collections of queer, chotchkies that made the design of the Stud so awesome.

But we are gonna need that coin… seriously. I know everyone is kind of over this shit, but if you can help us on this one and share this on your socials, we need you.

(What we were up to in the 70s)

Why Should I help?

Because you love the Stud. And you love our vibrant Queer Community. And you love this city. There’s a lot of talk about how San Francisco is over, or we’re falling into a doom loop (which might be the name of our new goth night.) And look, we know we got some problems, but our community has thrived during much worse (I mean, the city literally burned to the ground, girl.) The Stud has been there through wars, and plagues, and good times and bad. We just want to make sure that it’s here for the next generation of San Francisco weirdos.

The Stud is the first collectively owned queer bar in the country. That means none of the worker-owners ever take home profit. We do this because we love the Stud, and we love all of you. Help us make this dream a reality.

XOXO

The Stud Collective

Small Vintage Stud Ashtray