In a city where queer spaces have dwindled like stars in the urban morning light, the Cinch Saloon stands defiant, a Polk Street stalwart since '74, and thanks to Scott Taylor, it's sticking around. SFGATE reports that Taylor, who's put in a solid 23 years in the hospitality trenches of San Francisco, is now at the helm of this cherished institution, having cut his teeth as the beverage director over at Harris' Restaurant among other notable locales.
Historically, the Cinch Saloon has been part of San Francisco's vibrant gay scene, lining the streets with over 60 other gay bars, peepshows, bathhouses, you name it, back in its heyday. And let's not forget, it was on these very streets that the city’s first Gay Freedom Day Parade went down in the 1970s. But as the San Francisco Chronicle details, rumors had been swirling that this last gay bar standing on Polk might meet its end before Taylor stepped in, rescuing it from the abyss of vanished nightlife.
Even though the Cinch’s puzzle of a history won't be tucked away anytime soon, Taylor insists on keeping the face of the bar familiar. "There will be minimal changes to the bar’s look. I want to hold onto its history," he said in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle. A minimal facelift for a bar with such an intricately storied facade, an artifact from the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition, seems a fitting tribute to its legacy.
Nevertheless, not everything about The Cinch is resistant to change. "Now it’s like, you’re lucky if you have 30 people in the bar," said Eric Berchtold, Cinch’s manager of many years, to SFGATE, hinting at a slumbering social scene jonesing for a reawakening. Patrons like William Hack lamented the missing crowds post-lockdown, a challenge Taylor hopes to reverse with fresh vitality.
