Castro dance club and bar Q Bar (456 Castro Street) is set to reopen next week, almost exactly five years since it was shuttered after being damaged in a 4-alarm fire.
Q Bar will officially reopen on Friday, November 8. Co-owners Cip Cipriano and John "JB" Bellemore shared the announcement in a release on Thursday.
"Nearly 5 years to the day after a tragic fire shuttered the business, QBar will triumphantly re-open on November 8, 2024, with a refurbished and redesigned interior at 456 Castro Street," stated Cipriano and Bellemore.
Q Bar and a handful of other businesses were damaged in an early morning 4-alarm fire on November 16, 2019. Seven residents were also displaced from the damaged residential units above.
Q Bar at 456 Castro St. reopens on Friday, November 8. | Photo: Steven Bracco/Hoodline
Since that time, the space has been completely overhauled and remodeled. Q Bar has announced its reopening a few times, but manager Christian Gabriel assured Hoodline that this time is for real.
When asked what caused the delay Gabriel cited the "disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic" along with facing "several frustrating obstacles including a lot city bureaucracy, securing permits, and a lengthy process working with contractors to refurbish the interior, reroute plumbing, electrical wiring, etc."
In reopening, Cipriano, Bellemore, and Gabriel plan to revive several of Q Bar's most popular parties along with launching new ones.
Customers can expect an entirely different interior when they step inside Q Bar for the first time in five years. Cipriano and Bellemore explained the interior "has reimagined Q Bar as a dark black, industrial underground space closed off from the outside world." Q Bar was not able to provide photos of it remodeled interior for this story.
Windows that were once looked out from the smoking area have been boarded up and replaced by solid metal doors.
"Customers will enter a dark hallway plastered with posters of past QBar events, a nod to the bar’s past as you travel into its future," explained Cipriano and Bellemore.
Q Bar along with several other businesses were damaged in a 4-alarm fire (2019). | Photo courtesy of Michael Mallory
Q Bar's long granite bar has been preserved, however the DJ booth has been relocated and replaced by an art installation of classic vinyl sleeves by Black musicians.
Beyond the bar, the bathrooms have been expanded into the backroom art space once fondly used for a photo studio at the long-running Booty Call Wednesday party by drag icon Juanita More.
"A theme of repurposed materials runs throughout the interior design of the venue, making it a particularly unique addition to the bars and nightclubs of the neighborhood," explained Cipriano and Bellemore.
Mixed-media artist Optimist Williams has installed a wall of painted, postered, and graffitied sheet metal lines in the hallway.
Art by Optimist Williams continues in the former smoking area at the front of the bar. Here Williams has installed giant woodblock paintings of old MUNI bus tickets labeled with birthdays of iconic San Franciscans.
A giant mural of the Golden Gate Bridge has been constructed using Q Bar's famous old wood happy hour 2-4-1 tokens.
The Bar on Castro was at 456 Castro from 1998-2009 (2003). | Photo: Max Kirkeberg/SFSU
Across from that is a giant mural of the Golden Gate Bridge, hand constructed using QBar’s old wooden happy hour 2-4-1 tokens, and a photo tribute of historic images from LGBTQ San Francisco history cover where window seating once allowed customers to peer out to the street and onlookers to peer inside.
The space was once the long-time home of Castro Station from 1977 until 1998 before being purchased by Greg Bronstein. From the late '90s until the early 2000s, the space was home to Bar on Castro (BOC).
"We will continue the bar’s mission to serve as an all-inclusive space while catering specifically to queer, trans, and communities of color," they explained. "Initially the space will operate primarily as a nightclub, with plans to expand to more daytime events in the future."
"QBar hopes to be a part of the continued revitalization of Castro Street and usher in a new era of nightlife for San Francisco and the larger Bay Area’s LGBTQ+ communities," they added.
