When Jahaziel Garay, a long-time bartender, bought Beauty Bar in summer of last year, he expected to reopen in a few months. He put a sign in the window that read, “When you are 25 years old like we are, one needs an occasional nip & tuck. A more beautiful Beauty Bar is coming this fall!”
As it turned out, a nip and tuck was not sufficient. Garay’s plans to paint the place, change the DJ booth, “make it cute” and, last but not least, clean the bathrooms spiraled into full-on surgery.
“It is a difficult project, because the bar needed so much work,” said Garay, listing water damage, walls, bathrooms and the surface of the bar as some of the items needing attention.
Now, says Garay, expect a good drink and a good dance floor starting in mid-April.
Beauty Bar had been a staple of the Mission District since its opening in 1998. In its early years, it was known as a spot for manicures over martinis, and for being a symbol of gentrification; a flier distributed by the Mission Yuppie Eradication Project described it as “neighborhood enemy number one,” and called out Paul Devitt and Aaron Buhrz, the bar’s co-owners, as “yuppies who spent over $100,000 taking over the liquor license and renovating this place to look like Barbie’s Malibu Beach House … Beauty Bar is a chain … Beauty Bar must be destroyed.”
Beauty Bar was a chain, of sorts. Devitt and another business partner, Deb Parker, based it on a bar they had opened in a former hair salon in the East Village. They stocked the San Francisco location with a truckload of salon equipment driven over from the East Coast, and went on to open several other locations with the same name and aesthetic in LA, Chicago, and other cities.
The manicures didn’t last at the San Francisco Beauty Bar. It became best-known for dancing, live DJs and, a week before its abrupt closure last April, gunfire. One Friday, shots were fired outside, leaving a fist-sized hole in the bar’s window. At the time, longtime patrons and DJs lamented the business’ closure.
“I am honored to be amongst the last to be able to rock the Beauty Bar,” posted DJ GoldCutz last spring, one of the last to perform before the closure. “Sadly, the end of an era.”
Garay was a regular on the Beauty Bar’s dance floor before buying the business, and said that the place, at times, experienced issues with gangs. His goal as its new owner is keep all of the fun, and none of the trouble. He’s keeping the retro vibe and vintage salon chairs, he said, but adding a cocktail menu and making the space a little more modern.
“It’s gonna be way more chill and relaxing. I want it to be a neighborhood bar where everyone feels safe and people can come and enjoy a good drink at a good price,” said Garay. “We’ll be here with good cocktails and good vibes.”
The Beauty Bar was attacked as an early symbol of gentrification in the late 90’s, as technified yuppies began moving into the Mission, driving up rents and driving people out of their homes. It was a prominent target of the Mission Yuppie Eradication Project https://www.foundsf.org/Mission_Yuppie_Eradication_Project. Obviously the Yuppies prevailed and the project was eradicated, for better or worse, depending on one’s interpretation of history.
Guao! Northeast corner that gets the afternoon light!