One of Los Angeles’ two lesbian bars announced that it would close permanently because of the effect of the wildfires that have devastated the city, while the queer community is rallying to support the remaining lesbian bar.
The Ruby Fruit, a “Sapphically inclined” wine bar that opened on Sunset Boulevard in the city’s Silver Lake neighborhood in February 2023, announced Saturday that operating “is no longer possible due to financial impact from the current natural disaster.”
“Sadly, along with all the feelings of grief and shock that we have experienced over the last few days, also came this undeniable reality: that running our small business is no longer sustainable,” owners Emily Bielagus and Mara Herbkersman said on social media. “The hospitality industry functions on a day-by-day basis and right now, as they say — the math just isn’t mathing.”
The Los Angeles community was immediately sent reeling, with owners of other lesbian bars across the United States asking how they could help in comments on the post.
The owners of The Ruby Fruit did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether they will raise funds to keep the bar open. In an update Tuesday afternoon on Instagram, they said that they would “have more to share soon regarding any hopeful future plans, as well as ways y’all can help,” and that in the meantime, they will amplify the GoFundMe fundraiser they created for their employees.
The city’s other lesbian bar, Honey’s at Star Love, which opened in East Hollywood the same month as The Ruby Fruit, posted on Instagram last week that it would be closed all weekend “out of respect for those impacted by the wildfires in Los Angeles.”
On Saturday, Pearl Bar, a lesbian bar in Houston, created a call to raise money for Honey’s and its staff. The post was shared by bars in San Francisco, New York and Phoenix.
“We need all lesbians & queers everywhere to unite! @honeys.la had to temporarily close this weekend due to the fires and air quality,” Pearl Bar said in an Instagram post that included information about how people could donate. “A whole weekend closed is 25% of service employees’ income. This disaster could last for a month or longer.”
Julie Mabry, the owner of Pearl Bar, said that she connected with one of the owners of Honey’s, Kate Greenberg, and that Greenberg was hesitant to accept help. Mabry said she told Greenberg about her experiences with multiple hurricanes over the years and a tornado in Houston in May and how they affected her business.
“I was just telling her that maybe they could have some temporary relief for their staff, because they decided to close that weekend to help their community, which I also had a lot of respect for,” Mabry said. “The concern for them is what’s going to happen after this, because it’s going to take a long time for that city to recover.”
Pearl Bar has been open for 11 years, Mabry said, and she has considered closing twice in the last nine months because of natural disasters. In May, the bar lost electricity for three days after a tornado and had to close for three days over a weekend. Then, in July, the bar lost power for a week because of a hurricane. As a result, Mabry said, the bar lost $102,000 in revenue and damage but was able to manage because the city had just celebrated Pride Month in June, which brought in higher-than-usual revenue. She said January and February are some of the slowest months for bars.
“I think it’s OK to ask for people to help Honey’s, because we don’t want to lose our spaces,” Mabry said.
Greenberg did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the efforts or whether Honey’s faces the threat of closing.
For decades, lesbian bars nationwide have been declining, with about 20 remaining in 2020, NBC News reported. The Ruby Fruit and Honey’s at Star Love were among more than a dozen Sapphic spaces that opened since then, bringing the total number of lesbian bars nationwide to at least 35, according to another NBC News report last year.
Erica Rose, one of the founders of the Lesbian Bar Project, a fundraising campaign and documentary about the country’s remaining lesbian bars, said Los Angeles didn’t have a dedicated Sapphic space for more than a decade before The Ruby Fruit and Honey’s opened. She added that the two spaces complemented each other, with The Ruby Fruit offering an intimate date experience, while Honey’s feels like a cocktail lounge.
Elina Street, the Lesbian Bar Project’s other co-founder, said: “When we lose a space, we lose our culture, and that’s tied to our identity, and we all need our spaces in order to exist. So this is really devastating news, and we really hope that the community can rally together the way they do so beautifully, and that we can find more solutions to create more spaces.”
