Out In The Mountains : News - Back in the Closet or Out in the Mainstream?

Back in the Closet or Out in the Mainstream?

      BURLINGTON — The closing of Vermont’s remaining two gay bars leaves the local LGBT crowd without a gay-specific nightclub to go to. Burlington’s 135 Pearl will close June 3rd, following the demise of Shooka Dooka’s in Rutland in late March.
      Known as “Pearl’s” under its previous owners, the 22-year-old Burlington nightclub had been on the market for two years when proprietor Robert Toms made the final decision to sell last month.
      A mainstay for many in the LGBT community, 135 Pearl has become more popular with straight clientele in recent years, which has been frustrating for some LGBT customers.
      Some say gay bars are becoming irrelevant, as the LGBT crowd feels more accepted in other venues.
      “The youth are going everywhere,” Toms said, admitting gay bars are “not the focal points they once were.”
      Other issues entered into the closing of 135 Pearl, however. A year ago, Toms appealed to OITM readers for help in keeping the bar open. He said then that the new smoking ban had hurt business, and that he was ready to “pass the torch” to a new owner.
       Toms said he had always kept the downstairs dance floor smokefree, and the upstairs bar also became smoke-free more than a year ago when the statewide ban took effect. At that time, a lot of bars started to fail, he said, due to the smoking ban.
      135 Pearl is slated to become a pizzeria downstairs with two upstairs apartments. Toms sold the building to Terry Meron of Plattsburgh. It was Meron’s third offer in a year. Toms refused the first two offers because he didn’t want to see it become a pizzeria. He said he struggled to keep 135 Pearl going, but eventually the financial reality could not be ignored. The space was too big for the relatively small crowds who came to be entertained, he said.
       Toms' announcement was made just five weeks after Shooka Dooka’s closed its doors in Rutland after a successful two-year run. Brett Rousseau, the bar’s owner, said he was surprised that Karen Lamay, the building’s owner, told him she would not renew the lease, according to a story in the Rutland Herald. The newspaper cited an apparent disagreement over renovations to the bar that Rousseau paid for. Lamay once complained to Rousseau that he did not notify her about some of the renovations in writing, but “we had a verbal agreement,” the Herald quoted Rousseau. He was looking for a place to relocate the club, but hadn’t found anything suitable, the newspaper said.
       OITM could not reach Rousseau or Lamay for comment.
       Far more heterosexual than LGBT customers frequented Shooka Dooka’s during its successful two years serving as Rutland’s only gay bar, according to the Herald.
       Rutland resident Matt Partalis was glad when Shooka Dooka’s opened near his business, ACT Computers. “It was nice to have and now that Pearl’s is closed, there’s nothing in Vermont,” he said, noting that the Rainbow Cattle Company, a gay bar in Brattleboro, also failed recently.
      After closing 135 Pearl, Toms plans to take his nightclub show on the road, including productions of Hedwig and the Angry Inch and other favorites.
       Toms took a moment to pose for a photo last month with local musician Steph Pappas, who will play the last of her many performances at 135 Pearl on June 2nd.
      “I’m happy for Robert,” Pappas said. “Now he has the opportunity to go on livin’ the other parts of his life. He’s been a tremendous support to the community and always will be.”