It was always the perfect vacation bar to go to.

and found it so easy to make new friends here in Laguna. It was always Saturday night at the Boom Boom Room. We would come down early Saturday morning because we could only afford one night in a hotel and stay through Sunday night. “My memory goes back to the 1980s when my boyfriend, Geoff, and I used to visit Laguna three or four times every year for 11 years. The place has a magic about it and its location is legendary, something that will be difficult to replicate.” “I recall back in 1998, having just moved to the West Coast, running into someone at the Boom Boom Room one summer evening who would turn out to be my partner for six wonderful years. … It’s been a landmark for six decades, and we will not rest until it returns as a gay landmark.” “I’m sad this chapter is ending but optimistic that the next chapter we’re entering … will lead to a happy ending. “It’s melancholy inside those walls,” he said. It was nationally known for the best high-energy dance music and being one of the few places gay men could let loose.Īn underlying sadness has crept into the bar’s energetic atmosphere during its final weeks, Karger said. The bar has been an icon in the gay community. Since 2006, a grass-roots effort led by Fred Karger had tried to keep the bar open – gathering thousands of signatures, lobbying the City Council and even reaching out to Hollywood celebrities.īut in the end, it was the establishment’s owners, Patrick O’Loughlin and James Marchese, who decided to turn down a month-to-month lease through spring 2008 for the properties that house the bar and Coast Inn because they felt there was no future. The friends I met there 20 years ago I still know today.” It’s where I found safety and new beginnings,” said Eric Grich, 37, of Reno, who has been a patron at the Boom since the late 1980s. It’s the most special place in the world to me. The popular gay bar – for decades a landmark in Laguna Beach – was slated to close its doors at 2 a.m. Last night the Boom Boom Room served its last drink, played its last song and turned off the lights.

Boom boom room newport