Weddings, funerals, karaoke, drag: Pasadena’s last gay bar says goodbye after 45 years

The Boulevard, Pasadena’s last gay bar that has stood witness to the worst years of the AIDS crisis and so much more, is closing after 45 years on Saturday with a farewell bash of drag and karaoke.

“We’ve had weddings. We’ve had funerals. We’ve had college graduations,” said Steven Terradot, owner of The Boulevard, who’s retiring and has put the bar up for sale.

“You always feel welcome,” said David Imai, who first came to the bar in 2012. “This place has a reputation of being the gay Cheers for a reason.”

Come November, what Pasadena loses isn't just a cozy watering hole, but a keeper of its LGBTQ+ past.

“We were more than just a place that sold drinks — or more than a party,” Terradot, 69, said. “I like to think that we had a conscience here, you know?”

Fridays are drag nights at the bar.

(

Fiona Ng

/

LAist

)

The Boulevard in Pasadena.

(

Fiona Ng

/

LAist

)

How The Boulevard survived the AIDS crisis

The Boulevard, Terradot said, opened in 1981, when original owners Randy Biggs and partner Carl got a liquor license after buying its predecessor, The Office, a gay beer-and-wine bar.

At the time, Pasadena had a cluster of queer night spots, Terradot said. Among them: The Vermie’s on Foothill Boulevard; Nardi’s, which became Copa; and The Whistle Stop, near The Office when it was on Colorado Boulevard.

Terradot first set foot inside the newly opened Boulevard in his mid-20s. “I looked both ways to see if anybody saw me come in, because there was a shame and a guilt in those days about who you were,” he said.

The place was packed, filled with people seeking belonging, sex, friendship — even as the AIDS epidemic was becoming full blown. He became a regular, eventually moonlighting as a bartender.

The Boulevard bartender Jamal Glasglow (left) and owner Steven Terradot (right).

(

Fiona Ng

/

LAist

)

The Boulevard on Foothill Boulevard.

(

Fiona Ng

/

LAist

)

The Boulevard felt the devastation of HIV.

“I saw it as a young man here,” Terradot said.

The daytime crowd of mostly older gay men, Terradot said, “started dropping like flies and it was scary, it was sad, and you couldn't do anything.”

Funerals were commonplace at The Boulevard and bar regulars started a fund for those in need.

“All we could do was try to get money for medicine or food or rent because people would get fired, they'd lose their health insurance,” he said.

Why he bought a struggling bar in 1999 

In 1999, Terradot bought The Boulevard, three years after the introduction of the so-called “AIDS cocktail,” which turned HIV into a manageable chronic condition.

At the time, business was slow. The internet was making it easy for LGBTQ+ folks to find each other. And his regulars were going to West Hollywood and Silver Lake to meet new people.

“The first Friday night I owned this bar, we did $200 on the register,” Terradot said.

But he saw it as a calling of sorts.

“I lost 11 friends during the AIDS epidemic,” he said. “I wanted to do something.”

A new generation finds community 

Honey B. Hive hosts Tuesday trans nights at The Boulevard.

(

Fiona Ng

/

LAist

)

To give the bar a jolt, Terradot started its now-signature karaoke nights. He then made drag a weekly night.

In recent years, The Boulevard has become a place for trans folks to build community, adding trans nights on Tuesdays.

“For a long time I would come to The Boulevard in drag, and I would just pick up a lot of the queens' tips, and that was my way of paying my dues,” said Honey B. Hive, a drag performer.

Before long, she was anchoring Tuesday trans nights.

“A lot of the San Gabriel Valley comes for Tuesdays,” she said. “People have been coming ever since it started. It feels very familial.”

One last rush, and hope for a buyer 

On its final Sunday, after the leather social and before karaoke, Terradot was pitching in behind the bar.

David Imai is a Boulevard regular.

(

Fiona Ng

/

LAist

)

Business has more than tripled, he said, as old-timers and newcomers flood in after hearing about the closure.

“It does feel like we are losing a resource and a local hangout for those of us living in the San Gabriel Valley,” Imai, the longtime regular, said.

A buyer could still reopen The Boulevard. Terradot said he’s holding out until mid-November for an offer before packing it all up and walking into the sunset.

He hopes someone out there sees the importance of a neighborhood gay bar.

“You still have kids that are lost that come in here, OK? You need to stick a hand out to them,” Terradot said. “So that is the role of the gay bar.”