(Leather Life column published in Lavender Magazine, Issue #89, October 23, 1998)
Random thoughts on this year’s International Mr. Drummer Contest/Folsom Street Fair weekend in San Francisco:
• San Francisco is high on my list of favorite places to visit. It has generally nice weather, a scenic setting by the bay, interesting architecture, and more nice scenery in the form of gorgeous men. There’s another feature of San Francisco that’s not so pleasant: high numbers of homeless people begging on the streets. (My traveling companion at one point wryly remarked that we needn’t have bothered with hotel reservations, we could have just brought bed rolls.) Throughout a weekend charged with sex, fantasy and celebration, the homeless were a constant and somewhat disturbing presence.
• This year’s International Mr. Drummer Contest was held at a new venue: San Francisco’s Russian Center, where the auditorium was plain but serviceable. For the past several years, general admission ticketholders have had to stand at the back of the room throughout the entire contest and were probably unable to hear most of it; this year everyone got a seat where they could both see and hear what was going on.
• The theme of this year’s contest was “Drummer Boot Camp”—a phrase which, when you think about it, could have meanings the contest organizers never intended (or maybe they did). Fortunately, the “boot” factor was high and the “camp” factor low as emcees Brian Dawson and Queen Cougar took the part of drill sergeants who put the ten contestants/new recruits through their paces.
• The International Mr. Drummer Contest can be counted on for good fantasy presentations, and this year’s offerings more than lived up to expectations. Mr. Southeast Drummer Tom Stice got a standing ovation with his White House fantasy featuring, among other things, both Clinton and Newt Gingrich in bondage. Mr. Florida Drummer Michael Cruz’ “Toy Story” fantasy portrayed a hot three-way between life-size Billy, Carlos, and G.I.Joe dolls; the action was interrupted by Barbie stumbling onstage, looking for Ken. Mr. Europe Drummer Hervé Bernard presented an “Avengers”-themed fantasy that was very European in feel (and much better than the recent “Avengers” movie.)
• Mid-Atlantic Drummerboy ryan goldner became the new International Mr. Drummerboy; goldner is the assistant director of a gay men’s health and HIV prevention organization in Philadelphia.
• In the Mr. Drummer competition, Northern California Mr. Drummer Ray Tilton was second runner-up; Mr. Southeast Drummer Tom Stice took first runner-up honors; and the new International Mr. Drummer 1998 is Mr. Europe Drummer Hervé Bernard. Bernard is from Paris and is an actor, writer, Buddhist and activist. He currently does voice-over work for French radio and television, so if you lived in Paris you would recognize his voice. He was in Minneapolis several years ago when he appeared at Target Center in a show called “Jesus Was His Name” (!), and he has happy memories of “the back room at the Gay 90’s.” Let’s hope someone persuades him to make a return visit to the Twin Cities during his title year.
• Saturday’s Drummer contest was followed by the climax of the weekend, Sunday’s Folsom Street Fair. Now in its 15th year, it’s the third-largest fair in the state of California (according to the California Department of Tourism) and has attracted up to 300,000 people in recent years. But even in San Francisco, the kink community gets no respect—the only mention of the fair in either of San Francisco’s major daily newspapers, the Chronicle and the Examiner, was a note about how it would affect traffic.
• For fourteen years the Folsom Street Fair has been blessed with beautiful weather. This year, for the first time ever, it rained. Most of the huge crowd took it in stride, but the rain seriously dented sales for at least one vendor I talked to. In spite of the rain, and in spite of having been to the Folsom Street Fair three times prior to this one, the experience still was impressive. The sight of a couple hundred-thousand members of the Leather Nation spending an afternoon on a street in San Francisco remains a powerful spectacle—one that I would recommend to anyone, whether they’re just getting into leather or are an old-timer.
Dan Savage Savages Leather Community? Not Really
It has been a longstanding policy of mine that I don’t use this column to trash people. But I was prepared to make an exception for nationally-syndicated sex-advice columnist Dan Savage. I was going to take him to task based on a quote from him which appeared in the October 4 New York Times Sunday Magazine, in which he called SM sex “ridiculous” and “laughable.”
I read the quote in a weekly media watch put out by the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom (www.ncsfreedom.org) and was outraged at the disrespect Savage showed the leather/SM community. I downloaded the text of the article (“Sex Advice for the Clinton Age” by Rebecca Johnson) from the Times website and was further outraged—elsewhere in the article SM is mentioned on a par with bestiality and incest.
Well, it just so happened that Savage was appearing in Minneapolis at the Gay 90’s to promote his new book. So off to the 90’s I went, bringing along my copy of the Times article.
Savage started the evening by reading from his book—specifically, the chapter on “Kink.” It was hilarious, but the information he conveyed was sound. Throughout the evening’s question-and-answer session he addressed subjects such as bondage, water sports and even scat, and I heard a lot of good information being dispensed—but nothing disrespectful or condescending to the leather/SM community.
During the question-and-answer session I asked him how someone so seemingly kink-friendly could have said something so kink-unfriendly in the New York Times. He asked to see the article and read the offending paragraph aloud. He then admitted that when he first saw the article in print he thought he might have a problem, because the Times hadn’t printed everything he said.
Here’s what the Times printed:
“ . . . Even the most vanilla sexual scenario has a subtle interplay of power back and forth. In the leather S&M scene, they take those seeds and exaggerate it until it’s laughable. You watch people having S&M sex and it’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever seen. It’s like cops and robbers or Indians and cowboys with your pants down.”
But when he was originally interviewed for the article Savage went on to say that ANYBODY looks ridiculous when they’re having sex, regardless of gender, orientation or what they’re doing. The Times didn’t print that part, however. Savage meant no disrespect to the leather/SM community (of which he considers himself a kinky, card-carrying member), and it’s unfortunate that the Times and/or Rebecca Johnson abridged his words to make it appear that he did.
As far as I can tell, Savage is sex-positive, gay-positive, kink-positive and humanity-positive. The only thing he seems to be against is stupidity. Here’s hoping he writes a letter to the Times to clarify his position, and here’s hoping they print it.
Moral of story: I guess these days one can’t even trust the New York Times to always get the story right. Other moral of story: Savage can take comfort in the fact that “You know you’ve finally arrived when you’re misquoted in the New York Times.”
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Friday, October 23, 1998
Postcard from Drummer/Folsom
(Leather Life column published in Lavender Magazine, Issue #89, October 23, 1998)
Random thoughts on this year’s International Mr. Drummer Contest/Folsom Street Fair weekend in San Francisco:
• San Francisco is high on my list of favorite places to visit. It has generally nice weather, a scenic setting by the bay, interesting architecture, and more nice scenery in the form of gorgeous men. There’s another feature of San Francisco that’s not so pleasant: high numbers of homeless people begging on the streets. (My traveling companion at one point wryly remarked that we needn’t have bothered with hotel reservations, we could have just brought bed rolls.) Throughout a weekend charged with sex, fantasy and celebration, the homeless were a constant and somewhat disturbing presence.
• This year’s International Mr. Drummer Contest was held at a new venue: San Francisco’s Russian Center, where the auditorium was plain but serviceable. For the past several years, general admission ticketholders have had to stand at the back of the room throughout the entire contest and were probably unable to hear most of it; this year everyone got a seat where they could both see and hear what was going on.
• The theme of this year’s contest was “Drummer Boot Camp”—a phrase which, when you think about it, could have meanings the contest organizers never intended (or maybe they did). Fortunately, the “boot” factor was high and the “camp” factor low as emcees Brian Dawson and Queen Cougar took the part of drill sergeants who put the ten contestants/new recruits through their paces.
• The International Mr. Drummer Contest can be counted on for good fantasy presentations, and this year’s offerings more than lived up to expectations. Mr. Southeast Drummer Tom Stice got a standing ovation with his White House fantasy featuring, among other things, both Clinton and Newt Gingrich in bondage. Mr. Florida Drummer Michael Cruz’ “Toy Story” fantasy portrayed a hot three-way between life-size Billy, Carlos, and G.I.Joe dolls; the action was interrupted by Barbie stumbling onstage, looking for Ken. Mr. Europe Drummer Hervé Bernard presented an “Avengers”-themed fantasy that was very European in feel (and much better than the recent “Avengers” movie.)
• Mid-Atlantic Drummerboy ryan goldner became the new International Mr. Drummerboy; goldner is the assistant director of a gay men’s health and HIV prevention organization in Philadelphia.
• In the Mr. Drummer competition, Northern California Mr. Drummer Ray Tilton was second runner-up; Mr. Southeast Drummer Tom Stice took first runner-up honors; and the new International Mr. Drummer 1998 is Mr. Europe Drummer Hervé Bernard. Bernard is from Paris and is an actor, writer, Buddhist and activist. He currently does voice-over work for French radio and television, so if you lived in Paris you would recognize his voice. He was in Minneapolis several years ago when he appeared at Target Center in a show called “Jesus Was His Name” (!), and he has happy memories of “the back room at the Gay 90’s.” Let’s hope someone persuades him to make a return visit to the Twin Cities during his title year.
• Saturday’s Drummer contest was followed by the climax of the weekend, Sunday’s Folsom Street Fair. Now in its 15th year, it’s the third-largest fair in the state of California (according to the California Department of Tourism) and has attracted up to 300,000 people in recent years. But even in San Francisco, the kink community gets no respect—the only mention of the fair in either of San Francisco’s major daily newspapers, the Chronicle and the Examiner, was a note about how it would affect traffic.
• For fourteen years the Folsom Street Fair has been blessed with beautiful weather. This year, for the first time ever, it rained. Most of the huge crowd took it in stride, but the rain seriously dented sales for at least one vendor I talked to. In spite of the rain, and in spite of having been to the Folsom Street Fair three times prior to this one, the experience still was impressive. The sight of a couple hundred-thousand members of the Leather Nation spending an afternoon on a street in San Francisco remains a powerful spectacle—one that I would recommend to anyone, whether they’re just getting into leather or are an old-timer.
Dan Savage Savages Leather Community? Not Really
It has been a longstanding policy of mine that I don’t use this column to trash people. But I was prepared to make an exception for nationally-syndicated sex-advice columnist Dan Savage. I was going to take him to task based on a quote from him which appeared in the October 4 New York Times Sunday Magazine, in which he called SM sex “ridiculous” and “laughable.”
I read the quote in a weekly media watch put out by the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom (www.ncsfreedom.org) and was outraged at the disrespect Savage showed the leather/SM community. I downloaded the text of the article (“Sex Advice for the Clinton Age” by Rebecca Johnson) from the Times website and was further outraged—elsewhere in the article SM is mentioned on a par with bestiality and incest.
Well, it just so happened that Savage was appearing in Minneapolis at the Gay 90’s to promote his new book. So off to the 90’s I went, bringing along my copy of the Times article.
Savage started the evening by reading from his book—specifically, the chapter on “Kink.” It was hilarious, but the information he conveyed was sound. Throughout the evening’s question-and-answer session he addressed subjects such as bondage, water sports and even scat, and I heard a lot of good information being dispensed—but nothing disrespectful or condescending to the leather/SM community.
During the question-and-answer session I asked him how someone so seemingly kink-friendly could have said something so kink-unfriendly in the New York Times. He asked to see the article and read the offending paragraph aloud. He then admitted that when he first saw the article in print he thought he might have a problem, because the Times hadn’t printed everything he said.
Here’s what the Times printed:
“ . . . Even the most vanilla sexual scenario has a subtle interplay of power back and forth. In the leather S&M scene, they take those seeds and exaggerate it until it’s laughable. You watch people having S&M sex and it’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever seen. It’s like cops and robbers or Indians and cowboys with your pants down.”
But when he was originally interviewed for the article Savage went on to say that ANYBODY looks ridiculous when they’re having sex, regardless of gender, orientation or what they’re doing. The Times didn’t print that part, however. Savage meant no disrespect to the leather/SM community (of which he considers himself a kinky, card-carrying member), and it’s unfortunate that the Times and/or Rebecca Johnson abridged his words to make it appear that he did.
As far as I can tell, Savage is sex-positive, gay-positive, kink-positive and humanity-positive. The only thing he seems to be against is stupidity. Here’s hoping he writes a letter to the Times to clarify his position, and here’s hoping they print it.
Moral of story: I guess these days one can’t even trust the New York Times to always get the story right. Other moral of story: Savage can take comfort in the fact that “You know you’ve finally arrived when you’re misquoted in the New York Times.”
Random thoughts on this year’s International Mr. Drummer Contest/Folsom Street Fair weekend in San Francisco:
• San Francisco is high on my list of favorite places to visit. It has generally nice weather, a scenic setting by the bay, interesting architecture, and more nice scenery in the form of gorgeous men. There’s another feature of San Francisco that’s not so pleasant: high numbers of homeless people begging on the streets. (My traveling companion at one point wryly remarked that we needn’t have bothered with hotel reservations, we could have just brought bed rolls.) Throughout a weekend charged with sex, fantasy and celebration, the homeless were a constant and somewhat disturbing presence.
• This year’s International Mr. Drummer Contest was held at a new venue: San Francisco’s Russian Center, where the auditorium was plain but serviceable. For the past several years, general admission ticketholders have had to stand at the back of the room throughout the entire contest and were probably unable to hear most of it; this year everyone got a seat where they could both see and hear what was going on.
• The theme of this year’s contest was “Drummer Boot Camp”—a phrase which, when you think about it, could have meanings the contest organizers never intended (or maybe they did). Fortunately, the “boot” factor was high and the “camp” factor low as emcees Brian Dawson and Queen Cougar took the part of drill sergeants who put the ten contestants/new recruits through their paces.
• The International Mr. Drummer Contest can be counted on for good fantasy presentations, and this year’s offerings more than lived up to expectations. Mr. Southeast Drummer Tom Stice got a standing ovation with his White House fantasy featuring, among other things, both Clinton and Newt Gingrich in bondage. Mr. Florida Drummer Michael Cruz’ “Toy Story” fantasy portrayed a hot three-way between life-size Billy, Carlos, and G.I.Joe dolls; the action was interrupted by Barbie stumbling onstage, looking for Ken. Mr. Europe Drummer Hervé Bernard presented an “Avengers”-themed fantasy that was very European in feel (and much better than the recent “Avengers” movie.)
• Mid-Atlantic Drummerboy ryan goldner became the new International Mr. Drummerboy; goldner is the assistant director of a gay men’s health and HIV prevention organization in Philadelphia.
• In the Mr. Drummer competition, Northern California Mr. Drummer Ray Tilton was second runner-up; Mr. Southeast Drummer Tom Stice took first runner-up honors; and the new International Mr. Drummer 1998 is Mr. Europe Drummer Hervé Bernard. Bernard is from Paris and is an actor, writer, Buddhist and activist. He currently does voice-over work for French radio and television, so if you lived in Paris you would recognize his voice. He was in Minneapolis several years ago when he appeared at Target Center in a show called “Jesus Was His Name” (!), and he has happy memories of “the back room at the Gay 90’s.” Let’s hope someone persuades him to make a return visit to the Twin Cities during his title year.
• Saturday’s Drummer contest was followed by the climax of the weekend, Sunday’s Folsom Street Fair. Now in its 15th year, it’s the third-largest fair in the state of California (according to the California Department of Tourism) and has attracted up to 300,000 people in recent years. But even in San Francisco, the kink community gets no respect—the only mention of the fair in either of San Francisco’s major daily newspapers, the Chronicle and the Examiner, was a note about how it would affect traffic.
• For fourteen years the Folsom Street Fair has been blessed with beautiful weather. This year, for the first time ever, it rained. Most of the huge crowd took it in stride, but the rain seriously dented sales for at least one vendor I talked to. In spite of the rain, and in spite of having been to the Folsom Street Fair three times prior to this one, the experience still was impressive. The sight of a couple hundred-thousand members of the Leather Nation spending an afternoon on a street in San Francisco remains a powerful spectacle—one that I would recommend to anyone, whether they’re just getting into leather or are an old-timer.
Dan Savage Savages Leather Community? Not Really
It has been a longstanding policy of mine that I don’t use this column to trash people. But I was prepared to make an exception for nationally-syndicated sex-advice columnist Dan Savage. I was going to take him to task based on a quote from him which appeared in the October 4 New York Times Sunday Magazine, in which he called SM sex “ridiculous” and “laughable.”
I read the quote in a weekly media watch put out by the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom (www.ncsfreedom.org) and was outraged at the disrespect Savage showed the leather/SM community. I downloaded the text of the article (“Sex Advice for the Clinton Age” by Rebecca Johnson) from the Times website and was further outraged—elsewhere in the article SM is mentioned on a par with bestiality and incest.
Well, it just so happened that Savage was appearing in Minneapolis at the Gay 90’s to promote his new book. So off to the 90’s I went, bringing along my copy of the Times article.
Savage started the evening by reading from his book—specifically, the chapter on “Kink.” It was hilarious, but the information he conveyed was sound. Throughout the evening’s question-and-answer session he addressed subjects such as bondage, water sports and even scat, and I heard a lot of good information being dispensed—but nothing disrespectful or condescending to the leather/SM community.
During the question-and-answer session I asked him how someone so seemingly kink-friendly could have said something so kink-unfriendly in the New York Times. He asked to see the article and read the offending paragraph aloud. He then admitted that when he first saw the article in print he thought he might have a problem, because the Times hadn’t printed everything he said.
Here’s what the Times printed:
“ . . . Even the most vanilla sexual scenario has a subtle interplay of power back and forth. In the leather S&M scene, they take those seeds and exaggerate it until it’s laughable. You watch people having S&M sex and it’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever seen. It’s like cops and robbers or Indians and cowboys with your pants down.”
But when he was originally interviewed for the article Savage went on to say that ANYBODY looks ridiculous when they’re having sex, regardless of gender, orientation or what they’re doing. The Times didn’t print that part, however. Savage meant no disrespect to the leather/SM community (of which he considers himself a kinky, card-carrying member), and it’s unfortunate that the Times and/or Rebecca Johnson abridged his words to make it appear that he did.
As far as I can tell, Savage is sex-positive, gay-positive, kink-positive and humanity-positive. The only thing he seems to be against is stupidity. Here’s hoping he writes a letter to the Times to clarify his position, and here’s hoping they print it.
Moral of story: I guess these days one can’t even trust the New York Times to always get the story right. Other moral of story: Savage can take comfort in the fact that “You know you’ve finally arrived when you’re misquoted in the New York Times.”
Friday, October 9, 1998
New Minneapolis Eagle Soars
(Article published in Lavender Magazine, Issue #88, October 9, 1998)
“It’s the nicest leather bar I’ve ever seen!” That has been a frequent reaction from visitors to the new Minneapolis Eagle, located at 515 South Washington Ave. The bar was formerly known as The Mill Inn because directly across Washington Avenue is the historic Minneapolis flour-milling district on the Mississippi River.
Decked out in beautiful tri-tone mahogany paneling supplemented with dark green and dark red upholstery, carpet and wall colors, the Minneapolis Eagle doesn’t fit the usual image of a leather bar as a dark and somewhat spartan space. Liquor and glasses are displayed on a streamline-moderne masterpiece of a bar, complete with spectacular wood-veneer and chrome inlays and amber fluted glass columns lit from inside with red light tubes. Owner Ed Hopkins was concerned at one point that maybe everything was too nice—now, he says, “If I changed the woodwork I think people would kill me, because everybody comments on it.” At the back of the bar is a small kitchen and a hallway leading to an outdoor patio in back of the bar.
Hopkins is one of the Eagle’s three owners; the other two are Greg Norton, who is in charge of the kitchen, and Tom Wolden. Hopkins and Wolden have been friends for ten years and have worked together as CPA’s specializing in taxes, while Norton’s background is in the bar and restaurant industry. The idea for the Eagle started with Hopkins: “I wanted to do something for gay community; I wanted to have my own business; I’ve always liked being in a bar and being around music, so this was ideal way for me to have my own business.”
The partners have been working on opening the Eagle for over two years and considered several other sites before finding their present location. Plans for a West Bank location led to lengthy negotiations that finally collapsed. A south Minneapolis location had parking problems. Space in downtown Minneapolis on Hennepin Avenue was also investigated.
Once the present space was located came the hardest part of opening the bar, according to Hopkins: obtaining the liquor license. “It was cumbersome, and there was a gigantic amount of paperwork. There is a police investigation of all the owners, and you have to submit a business plan and financial information. The city is very concerned about where the money’s coming from to purchase a bar, and how it will be run.” Hopkins applied for a Class A liquor license which allows stage shows (a leather contest could not be held at the bar without a Class A license). By contrast, the previous (Mill Inn) license was Class E which, according to Hopkins, “basically allows them to watch television. Jumping from Class E to Class A was a big deal with the City Council.”
In Minneapolis liquor licenses are not sold from bar owner to bar owner; each prospective bar owner must apply to the city for their own license. Part of the licensing procedure is a public hearing. Hopkins didn’t expect his hearing to go poorly, and was surprised when it did. “A man stood up and argued they shouldn’t issue a Class A liquor license because of all the apartments and condos by the river. He said, ‘I thought we cleaned up Washington Avenue, what are you doing granting another Class A liquor license?’ He was afraid it would be an ‘adult entertainment’ business, a straight strip bar. I tried to counter that it would be a gay bar and our clientele would better behaved than other types of bars. There wouldn’t be a lot of police calls, we’d have our own security, there wouldn’t be a lot of problems.”
After the meeting the gentleman who had protested pulled Hopkins aside and apologized, saying he hadn’t known it was going to be a gay bar. Hopkins again: “He said, ‘I have a lot of gay neighbors, they’re wonderful people, I think you should go for it.’ He was an older gentleman and I thought that said a lot for him.
“Unfortunately, he did the damage before the council. Typically the liquor committee gives a recommendation to the full City Council as to whether you should be granted a liquor license or not, and the committee did not give me a positive recommendation.” Hopkins called Jackie Cherryhomes, the city council member for the ward where the Eagle is located, and Cherryhomes’ office wrote a letter to the City Council supporting the issuance of the Eagle’s liquor license.
Hopkins called Lisa Goodman, the council person for ward where his residence is located, and “she was exuberant about supporting me too. But I didn’t know going into the full council meeting what would happen because it left the liquor committee meeting without a recommendation. Then at the full council meeting, the chairman of liquor committee, Mr. Biernat, said ‘We’ve discussed this and we’re changing our position—we’re going to recommend you get your liquor license.’” In the end the City Council voted 13 to 0 to issue it.
Hopkins said one of the minor problems of opening the Eagle was with bartenders and other staff accepting a position with the bar and then changing their mind. “That would screw up the entire schedule, and it was close to opening. But the bartenders who stepped up to the plate in a pinch have been incredible. Our staff is amazing, and it frees the owners to do other things.”
Hopkins plans to have a different personality at the Eagle on different nights of the week, leading up to dress-code weekends. “I was afraid I was going to be criticized for not being a full-time leather bar, but I was also afraid I would not succeed as a strictly full-time leather bar. I felt I had to diversify in order to be able offer the community a leather bar on the weekends—I felt without something different on the other nights I would not have the level of business I needed to stay in business.” Plans call for Karaoke Monday nights, two-for-one Thursday nights with 80s videos, and a Sunday beer/soda bust from 4 to 8 pm. Happy hour pricing is in effect from 5 to 7 pm on weekdays; Friday’s happy hour includes a complimentary buffet. “One thing we want to try, but we don’t quite know how to do it yet, is to have a Womyn’s night. We’d also like to promote something toward the Sober Leather community. It’s easy to offer non-alcoholic drinks, but we want to do something more in coordination with that.”
Friday and Saturday nights a leather/rubber/uniform dress code will be enforced starting at 9 pm (check the Eagle’s website at www.mplseagle.com for what is and is not allowed.). People have already been turned away for wearing white shoes or other dress code violations. Hopkins instructs his bouncers to enforce the dress code because it’s what his customers expect. But dress code issues are sometimes not as simple as they might seem. Hopkins has already received e-mail from patrons who have seen customers in white tennis shoes on Friday and Saturday night and who wonder why he’s not enforcing the dress code. “If you see somebody with white tennis shoes they were probably there before 9 pm, when we begin enforcing the dress code, and we’re not going to ask people to leave if they’re already in the bar. It’s not appropriate to ask them to leave.” Hopkins also reminds the community to be careful about what’s exposed and how people behave. “We’re new, and we don’t know when the vice squad is going to be in here, checking to see if we’re legit or not. We haven’t seen any sexual behavior so far, and that can’t be tolerated. We just can’t allow it here.”
The kitchen at the Eagle is open weekdays from 11 am to 10 pm, which means they cater to both a lunch and a dinner crowd. (On weekends the kitchen is open from 3 to 10 pm.) The menu currently features, in Norton’s words, “pub food, but with a creative twist to it.” Their most popular menu item is the Eagle Burger, and Norton wants to concentrate on developing other signature dishes. Future plans call for some sort of kitchen expansion, which would allow the Eagle to offer steaks, prime rib and pastas, as well as a Sunday brunch with exhibition-style cooking.
There are leather bars called “The Eagle” in major cities around the world. One question Hopkins hears often is who owns the Eagle franchise. His answer: “Wouldn’t you have liked to be the person who franchised it? That was the very first thing I checked into: whether it was franchised or if they were somehow all connected. They’re not; they all stand alone. But there’s kind of a brotherhood in a sense. I made a lot of calls to the other Eagles around the country and they’re very excited that someone’s opened another one. They sent me posters when I asked for them, and asked if there was anything they can do to help. I thought that was pretty nice.” (Another nice touch: The Saloon sent flowers and a card welcoming The Minneapolis Eagle to the community.)
There are already posters on display from the Baltimore and Washington, DC Eagle bars, as well as New York City’s LURE (which stands for “Leather, Uniform, Rubber, Etc.”), with more to come. People tell Hopkins they want to contribute “posters, flags, videotapes. The leather groups want to contribute their colors. They all want to contribute something. People are taking stock in it as if it’s theirs. That’s exactly what we wanted to do, and it feels so good.”
In addition to the kitchen expansion plans already discussed, future possibilities for the Minneapolis Eagle include expanding into the unused space in the building next door. (There is a second floor to the existing building but it is currently inaccessible.) Hopkins says the building next door “needs work, but it would be wonderful to be able to expand into it.” But for now, he’s glad that The Minneapolis Eagle is finally open and he knows he did the right thing in opening it. He says he’s enjoying it as much as he thought he would: “I’m about a hundred times happier than I ever was doing taxes. Every night, it’s like having a group of friends over.”
“It’s the nicest leather bar I’ve ever seen!” That has been a frequent reaction from visitors to the new Minneapolis Eagle, located at 515 South Washington Ave. The bar was formerly known as The Mill Inn because directly across Washington Avenue is the historic Minneapolis flour-milling district on the Mississippi River.
Decked out in beautiful tri-tone mahogany paneling supplemented with dark green and dark red upholstery, carpet and wall colors, the Minneapolis Eagle doesn’t fit the usual image of a leather bar as a dark and somewhat spartan space. Liquor and glasses are displayed on a streamline-moderne masterpiece of a bar, complete with spectacular wood-veneer and chrome inlays and amber fluted glass columns lit from inside with red light tubes. Owner Ed Hopkins was concerned at one point that maybe everything was too nice—now, he says, “If I changed the woodwork I think people would kill me, because everybody comments on it.” At the back of the bar is a small kitchen and a hallway leading to an outdoor patio in back of the bar.
Hopkins is one of the Eagle’s three owners; the other two are Greg Norton, who is in charge of the kitchen, and Tom Wolden. Hopkins and Wolden have been friends for ten years and have worked together as CPA’s specializing in taxes, while Norton’s background is in the bar and restaurant industry. The idea for the Eagle started with Hopkins: “I wanted to do something for gay community; I wanted to have my own business; I’ve always liked being in a bar and being around music, so this was ideal way for me to have my own business.”
The partners have been working on opening the Eagle for over two years and considered several other sites before finding their present location. Plans for a West Bank location led to lengthy negotiations that finally collapsed. A south Minneapolis location had parking problems. Space in downtown Minneapolis on Hennepin Avenue was also investigated.
Once the present space was located came the hardest part of opening the bar, according to Hopkins: obtaining the liquor license. “It was cumbersome, and there was a gigantic amount of paperwork. There is a police investigation of all the owners, and you have to submit a business plan and financial information. The city is very concerned about where the money’s coming from to purchase a bar, and how it will be run.” Hopkins applied for a Class A liquor license which allows stage shows (a leather contest could not be held at the bar without a Class A license). By contrast, the previous (Mill Inn) license was Class E which, according to Hopkins, “basically allows them to watch television. Jumping from Class E to Class A was a big deal with the City Council.”
In Minneapolis liquor licenses are not sold from bar owner to bar owner; each prospective bar owner must apply to the city for their own license. Part of the licensing procedure is a public hearing. Hopkins didn’t expect his hearing to go poorly, and was surprised when it did. “A man stood up and argued they shouldn’t issue a Class A liquor license because of all the apartments and condos by the river. He said, ‘I thought we cleaned up Washington Avenue, what are you doing granting another Class A liquor license?’ He was afraid it would be an ‘adult entertainment’ business, a straight strip bar. I tried to counter that it would be a gay bar and our clientele would better behaved than other types of bars. There wouldn’t be a lot of police calls, we’d have our own security, there wouldn’t be a lot of problems.”
After the meeting the gentleman who had protested pulled Hopkins aside and apologized, saying he hadn’t known it was going to be a gay bar. Hopkins again: “He said, ‘I have a lot of gay neighbors, they’re wonderful people, I think you should go for it.’ He was an older gentleman and I thought that said a lot for him.
“Unfortunately, he did the damage before the council. Typically the liquor committee gives a recommendation to the full City Council as to whether you should be granted a liquor license or not, and the committee did not give me a positive recommendation.” Hopkins called Jackie Cherryhomes, the city council member for the ward where the Eagle is located, and Cherryhomes’ office wrote a letter to the City Council supporting the issuance of the Eagle’s liquor license.
Hopkins called Lisa Goodman, the council person for ward where his residence is located, and “she was exuberant about supporting me too. But I didn’t know going into the full council meeting what would happen because it left the liquor committee meeting without a recommendation. Then at the full council meeting, the chairman of liquor committee, Mr. Biernat, said ‘We’ve discussed this and we’re changing our position—we’re going to recommend you get your liquor license.’” In the end the City Council voted 13 to 0 to issue it.
Hopkins said one of the minor problems of opening the Eagle was with bartenders and other staff accepting a position with the bar and then changing their mind. “That would screw up the entire schedule, and it was close to opening. But the bartenders who stepped up to the plate in a pinch have been incredible. Our staff is amazing, and it frees the owners to do other things.”
Hopkins plans to have a different personality at the Eagle on different nights of the week, leading up to dress-code weekends. “I was afraid I was going to be criticized for not being a full-time leather bar, but I was also afraid I would not succeed as a strictly full-time leather bar. I felt I had to diversify in order to be able offer the community a leather bar on the weekends—I felt without something different on the other nights I would not have the level of business I needed to stay in business.” Plans call for Karaoke Monday nights, two-for-one Thursday nights with 80s videos, and a Sunday beer/soda bust from 4 to 8 pm. Happy hour pricing is in effect from 5 to 7 pm on weekdays; Friday’s happy hour includes a complimentary buffet. “One thing we want to try, but we don’t quite know how to do it yet, is to have a Womyn’s night. We’d also like to promote something toward the Sober Leather community. It’s easy to offer non-alcoholic drinks, but we want to do something more in coordination with that.”
Friday and Saturday nights a leather/rubber/uniform dress code will be enforced starting at 9 pm (check the Eagle’s website at www.mplseagle.com for what is and is not allowed.). People have already been turned away for wearing white shoes or other dress code violations. Hopkins instructs his bouncers to enforce the dress code because it’s what his customers expect. But dress code issues are sometimes not as simple as they might seem. Hopkins has already received e-mail from patrons who have seen customers in white tennis shoes on Friday and Saturday night and who wonder why he’s not enforcing the dress code. “If you see somebody with white tennis shoes they were probably there before 9 pm, when we begin enforcing the dress code, and we’re not going to ask people to leave if they’re already in the bar. It’s not appropriate to ask them to leave.” Hopkins also reminds the community to be careful about what’s exposed and how people behave. “We’re new, and we don’t know when the vice squad is going to be in here, checking to see if we’re legit or not. We haven’t seen any sexual behavior so far, and that can’t be tolerated. We just can’t allow it here.”
The kitchen at the Eagle is open weekdays from 11 am to 10 pm, which means they cater to both a lunch and a dinner crowd. (On weekends the kitchen is open from 3 to 10 pm.) The menu currently features, in Norton’s words, “pub food, but with a creative twist to it.” Their most popular menu item is the Eagle Burger, and Norton wants to concentrate on developing other signature dishes. Future plans call for some sort of kitchen expansion, which would allow the Eagle to offer steaks, prime rib and pastas, as well as a Sunday brunch with exhibition-style cooking.
There are leather bars called “The Eagle” in major cities around the world. One question Hopkins hears often is who owns the Eagle franchise. His answer: “Wouldn’t you have liked to be the person who franchised it? That was the very first thing I checked into: whether it was franchised or if they were somehow all connected. They’re not; they all stand alone. But there’s kind of a brotherhood in a sense. I made a lot of calls to the other Eagles around the country and they’re very excited that someone’s opened another one. They sent me posters when I asked for them, and asked if there was anything they can do to help. I thought that was pretty nice.” (Another nice touch: The Saloon sent flowers and a card welcoming The Minneapolis Eagle to the community.)
There are already posters on display from the Baltimore and Washington, DC Eagle bars, as well as New York City’s LURE (which stands for “Leather, Uniform, Rubber, Etc.”), with more to come. People tell Hopkins they want to contribute “posters, flags, videotapes. The leather groups want to contribute their colors. They all want to contribute something. People are taking stock in it as if it’s theirs. That’s exactly what we wanted to do, and it feels so good.”
In addition to the kitchen expansion plans already discussed, future possibilities for the Minneapolis Eagle include expanding into the unused space in the building next door. (There is a second floor to the existing building but it is currently inaccessible.) Hopkins says the building next door “needs work, but it would be wonderful to be able to expand into it.” But for now, he’s glad that The Minneapolis Eagle is finally open and he knows he did the right thing in opening it. He says he’s enjoying it as much as he thought he would: “I’m about a hundred times happier than I ever was doing taxes. Every night, it’s like having a group of friends over.”
Mario is new Ms. MN Leather
(Leather Life column published in Lavender Magazine, Issue #88, October 9, 1998)
As the publicity for the contest prophesied, Ms. Minnesota Leather is back! Her name is Mario and she’s the president of Dykes on Bikes, the women’s motorcycle group that is a perennial favorite at the Twin Cities Pride Parade.
After a year’s hiatus, the contest staged a blazing return Saturday night, September 19, at the Bell Museum Auditorium on the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis. (Also a feature of the weekend was Friday’s combination meet-and-greet and “Bare As You Dare” party at the Saloon.) This was the most untraditional leather contest I’ve ever seen—and I mean that in a good way. It was a fresh, creative, and sensual celebration of leathersex from a womyn’s perspective. If a guy like me found the evening’s entertainments erotically stimulating, I can only imagine what the women in the audience were feeling. Then again, I guess it wouldn’t take much imagination; the audience, which was made up of all sexes, genders and orientations, was unrestrained in voicing its approval.
The evening’s fantasy presentations were entertaining and skillfully presented. But, to me, it was the contestants’ speeches that really stood out—they were more performance-art pieces than speeches. Mario told her leather history entirely in verse (and clever verse at that—see below). Ruth gave a stream-of-conscious monologue about her leather/SM history. Pamela tried (and failed) to maintain her composure as she delivered a lecture on various methods of tanning leather, and the various uses for the leather produced by each method. Babalon, who took first runner-up honors, gave the sole traditional speech of the evening; it was about being visible as a community so that no one ever needs to feel they’re the only kinky person on earth.
The evening’s emcee was International Ms. Leather 1991 Kay Hallanger. Head judge was current International Ms. Leather Megan DeJarlais; other judges were Joshua Smith, current Mr. Minnesota Leather; B.D. Chambers, current Mr. Minnesota Olympus Leather; Sue Able, Ms. Nebraska Leather 1994; and long-time member of the Twin Cities leather community Russ Helbig.
More About Mario
The new Ms. Minnesota Leather’s full name is Mario Lorenzi, but everyone knows her as Mario. Those who remember Foxy’s and Ladies Night, two womyn’s bars of years ago, may remember that Mario was a DJ and bouncer at both of them. Nowadays her interests are many and varied: She lives in northern Minnesota where she runs a ranch and horse stables. She is a musician and writes original music and lyrics, which are performed by her band, “Stay Hungry.” She is a welder and metal sculptor whose art is in the collections of celebrities such as Bonnie Raitt and the artist formerly known as Prince. And, as mentioned earlier, she’s president of Dykes on Bikes. She says that during her title year she “wants to be visible in the community”; she also thinks raising funds for local causes and groups is important and plans to make that a focus of her title year.
Mario’s speech at the Ms. Minnesota Leather Contest was really a poem (or perhaps a lyric), “Intro to Leather 101,” written by Mario for the contest. Here it is, reprinted with her permission:
Intro to Leather 101
By Mario Lorenzi
My intro to leather
Was at quite a young age.
Black leather diapers set the stage,
Ahh, at the daycare I was all the rage
My intro to leather was at quite a young age.
I enjoyed all my spankings . . . the sound and the slap
As my mom bent me over and gave me a whack.
I sought out the trouble as only I could
With the hopes Mom would catch me and give it to me good.
And in adolescence, I’d share what I knew
Got caught spanking Julie behind the church pew.
Got caught spanking Shelly and Katie and Jen
Got caught and got punished, and did it again.
And now that I’m older, I do what I want
I do what I want, and my leather I flaunt.
I do as I please and I please who I do
As I’ve got a collection to please even you.
I’ve got black gloves, and bracelets
My chaps and my whips.
There’s the belts and the handcuffs
And clips for your tits
There’s shackles, a rack,
And a sweet cat-o-nine.
My tight leather pants
And it’s mine all mine.
Upcoming Leather Events
Please note: The Mr./Ms. Minnesota Olympus Leather Weekend has been postponed due to the impending relocation of the event’s producer, former Mr. Minnesota Leather Roger Gregg. (A fabulous career opportunity means he and his boy david will be moving to San Francisco in short order.) Watch for a rescheduled Minnesota Olympus Leather event later this year (or perhaps in January 1999).
As the publicity for the contest prophesied, Ms. Minnesota Leather is back! Her name is Mario and she’s the president of Dykes on Bikes, the women’s motorcycle group that is a perennial favorite at the Twin Cities Pride Parade.
After a year’s hiatus, the contest staged a blazing return Saturday night, September 19, at the Bell Museum Auditorium on the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis. (Also a feature of the weekend was Friday’s combination meet-and-greet and “Bare As You Dare” party at the Saloon.) This was the most untraditional leather contest I’ve ever seen—and I mean that in a good way. It was a fresh, creative, and sensual celebration of leathersex from a womyn’s perspective. If a guy like me found the evening’s entertainments erotically stimulating, I can only imagine what the women in the audience were feeling. Then again, I guess it wouldn’t take much imagination; the audience, which was made up of all sexes, genders and orientations, was unrestrained in voicing its approval.
The evening’s fantasy presentations were entertaining and skillfully presented. But, to me, it was the contestants’ speeches that really stood out—they were more performance-art pieces than speeches. Mario told her leather history entirely in verse (and clever verse at that—see below). Ruth gave a stream-of-conscious monologue about her leather/SM history. Pamela tried (and failed) to maintain her composure as she delivered a lecture on various methods of tanning leather, and the various uses for the leather produced by each method. Babalon, who took first runner-up honors, gave the sole traditional speech of the evening; it was about being visible as a community so that no one ever needs to feel they’re the only kinky person on earth.
The evening’s emcee was International Ms. Leather 1991 Kay Hallanger. Head judge was current International Ms. Leather Megan DeJarlais; other judges were Joshua Smith, current Mr. Minnesota Leather; B.D. Chambers, current Mr. Minnesota Olympus Leather; Sue Able, Ms. Nebraska Leather 1994; and long-time member of the Twin Cities leather community Russ Helbig.
More About Mario
The new Ms. Minnesota Leather’s full name is Mario Lorenzi, but everyone knows her as Mario. Those who remember Foxy’s and Ladies Night, two womyn’s bars of years ago, may remember that Mario was a DJ and bouncer at both of them. Nowadays her interests are many and varied: She lives in northern Minnesota where she runs a ranch and horse stables. She is a musician and writes original music and lyrics, which are performed by her band, “Stay Hungry.” She is a welder and metal sculptor whose art is in the collections of celebrities such as Bonnie Raitt and the artist formerly known as Prince. And, as mentioned earlier, she’s president of Dykes on Bikes. She says that during her title year she “wants to be visible in the community”; she also thinks raising funds for local causes and groups is important and plans to make that a focus of her title year.
Mario’s speech at the Ms. Minnesota Leather Contest was really a poem (or perhaps a lyric), “Intro to Leather 101,” written by Mario for the contest. Here it is, reprinted with her permission:
Intro to Leather 101
By Mario Lorenzi
My intro to leather
Was at quite a young age.
Black leather diapers set the stage,
Ahh, at the daycare I was all the rage
My intro to leather was at quite a young age.
I enjoyed all my spankings . . . the sound and the slap
As my mom bent me over and gave me a whack.
I sought out the trouble as only I could
With the hopes Mom would catch me and give it to me good.
And in adolescence, I’d share what I knew
Got caught spanking Julie behind the church pew.
Got caught spanking Shelly and Katie and Jen
Got caught and got punished, and did it again.
And now that I’m older, I do what I want
I do what I want, and my leather I flaunt.
I do as I please and I please who I do
As I’ve got a collection to please even you.
I’ve got black gloves, and bracelets
My chaps and my whips.
There’s the belts and the handcuffs
And clips for your tits
There’s shackles, a rack,
And a sweet cat-o-nine.
My tight leather pants
And it’s mine all mine.
Upcoming Leather Events
Please note: The Mr./Ms. Minnesota Olympus Leather Weekend has been postponed due to the impending relocation of the event’s producer, former Mr. Minnesota Leather Roger Gregg. (A fabulous career opportunity means he and his boy david will be moving to San Francisco in short order.) Watch for a rescheduled Minnesota Olympus Leather event later this year (or perhaps in January 1999).