![gay bars palm springs california gay bars palm springs california](https://assets.palmspringslife.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/23152340/chillbarpalmsprings.jpg)
“That sort of image of, you know, the poor restaurant owner, spending all day at the restaurant and then at night doing their books and trying to unwind all of it- that’s the reality,” says Rob. Though it wasn’t as difficult as making a failing business profitable, every bar or restaurant owner knows that running a successful venue is, well- difficult. Rob added more of a nightlife flavor to Chill Bar and was able to grow its revenue 33% year over year. It was already a pretty popular bar in Palm Springs, so when my husband and I came in, it was basically, ‘just don't screw this up.’" “With Chill Bar, the previous owners had already gotten past that hurdle. You then have the opportunity to either cement those customers and make them your regulars, or the business is probably going to fail,” says Rob. “With the restaurant bar industry, you usually have a six month honeymoon period while your business is new, and everybody goes because they want to check it out.
![gay bars palm springs california gay bars palm springs california](https://www.pubclub.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/PSVillagePubPatio.jpg)
![gay bars palm springs california gay bars palm springs california](https://s3-media3.fl.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/zjAvnVuXAN2J7K1W-zOKcg/258s.jpg)
#Gay bars palm springs california full#
They sold the firm in 2015, then purchased Chill Bar in 2017, relocating to Palm Springs full time. Rob and his husband are both former finance professionals who previously ran a successful financial services firm in New York, with Rob as CFO. It’s all the time- so I’ve been running it, and my husband has gone back to offering financial consulting to his clients and doing the bar’s books.” If you’re the guy welcoming people to the bar, it’s not a once or every couple of weeks type of deal. “Then about a year after we bought the bar, my husband realized that owning a bar is not as much fun as he thought it was going to be,” Rob laughs.
![gay bars palm springs california gay bars palm springs california](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/41/3c/53/413c53f4c540eb835c3aa8a2517561c7.jpg)
I’ve always resonated with the gay club scene, but I never thought I would be a bar owner or own a nightclub.“ This week, we caught up with Chill Bar’s owner, Wolfgang 'Rob' Giesecke, to share his story and get a glimpse of what running a bar in Palm Springs currently looks like, as well as what’s next for the Palm Springs LGBTQ community.Īs with many of the best things that happen in life, Rob’s venture into owning a bar was mostly unplanned. Today, an estimated 40%- 50% of Palm Springs’ total population identifies as LGBT (only 4.5% of the US population identifies as LGBT by contrast), and the city is home to many prominent LGBTQ-owned businesses, including Chill Bar, one of Palm Springs’ most popular and successful gay nightclubs. The years were long and the fight was tough, but in 1991, Palm Springs saw its first gay bar, Streetbar, located boldly on the city’s main (and very public) Arenas Strip. As decades rolled on, Cary Grant, Rock Hudson, and Liberace frequented the area, bringing in a new age of high-class, desert-dwelling queerness.īut despite the subculture of influential high rollers, having an openly gay business-even in the sprawling desert- wasn’t yet possible.Įventually, gay bars opened up in the shadows of nearby still-unincorporated Cathedral City- the only place they were allowed to operate, because Cathedral City was considered a town of vice. Greta Garbo helped popularize Palm Springs when she used its seclusion to vacation with her rumored lover, writer Mercedes de Acosta. A long time ago, when being queer was more or less illegal in California and Hollywood was turning out some of the greatest stars that ever lived, Palm Springs became the location of a discreet but vibrant gay scene among Hollywood celebrities, who needed to escape the city’s prying eyes while remaining within 100 miles of Los Angeles as a condition of their studio contracts.