Bull City Rising’s Mellow Mushroom update: drugs are family-friendly, gays aren’t?

I work 100 yards from the Mellow Mushroom, but I’ll no longer go there. Whether or not there’s a soccer mom to take my place remains to be seen.

I wasn’t critical of Joe and Jo’s at all a couple of days ago when I wrote about Bull McCabe’s. But I struck a nerve by dismissing the affection people had for Joe and Jo’s. I was simply trying to make the argument that the Bull McCabe’s folks aren’t responsible for getting rid of Joe and Jo’s and shouldn’t be judged for not being the Bull McCabe’s folks.

But, in addition to the blog comments I received, I was told how Joe and Jo’s was specifically gay-friendly, and how this made it unique, as, while there are “gay” bars, there really aren’t “mainstream gay-friendly” bars. My half-serious response was, “Well, have all your gay friends start going to Bull McCabe’s, and it will be the gay-friendly bar”. My friend half-seriously responded, “When I go in there, I’ll make sure I’m super-gay!”

I guess my error in my post and in this conversation I had was that I was being both half-serious and half-kidding, failing to appreciate that the loss of Joe and Jo’s left a big hole for a lot of people, gay and straight, and it’s not as simple as picking a new place.

To be quite honest, I have never found a bar that I’ve enjoyed going to on a regular basis, where I’ve always felt relaxed and comfortable. I’ve never really liked bars. Perhaps it’s the anti-social misanthrope in me that just doesn’t like seeing people gathering to have a good time anywhere. Or, perhaps, I just haven’t been to the right bar, and perhaps Joe and Jo’s would’ve been the bar that I’d have liked.

To be perhaps too honest, I might find myself going to Bull McCabe’s, because I like the idea of being able to go there by myself, hide out in the church pews, and read selections from the book shelves, like the autobiography of Orel Hershiser, a novel by Joan Collins, or an encyclopedia of home remedies.