Memories of Weird Nights at Soon to be Closed 21 Club

Apparently the 21 Club is closing. Ain’t that some shit? That is the last bar in the world I would’ve thought would hit the chopping block, mainly because it’s at the corner of “rob someone” and “stab someone”.

I wrote about the 21 Club in my book Broke-Ass Stuart’s Guide to Living Cheaply in San Francisco. It was a fun and weird night. I guess there’s no better time to share it than now.

21 Club: 98 Turk @ Taylor

It was around 1am and I’d been out researching Tenderloin bars since roughly 10:30pm; needless to say I was pretty drunk. Despite this, I was not prepared to look out the window and see a middle aged Asian guy with orange, battery powered, glowing/blinking glasses, who was waving a wand crowned with an equally luminescent snow-globe type thing. He was also pushing around three huge duffle bags, on a cart, each filled with more glowing/blinking toys. I’m pretty sure the guy had accidentally stepped through a wormhole and was actually from another dimension. Just when I said “Who the hell in the Tenderloin is gonna buy that shit” Kenny walked in with his own pair of glasses and a wand. The Loin is a strange fucking place at night and Club 21 is a great spot to meet some of its most interesting characters.

RIP 21 Club.

What are your 21 Club memories? Leave them in the comments

photo from soapbox despot