The latest victim/cause celebre of the city's aging Castro District population, the inimitable Cafe Flore is scheduled before the Planning Commission this Thursday to argue for permits to have DJs, 24-hour food-service and to serve alcohol until 2 a.m.
The famous cafe, with its large, glass-enclosed patio and wood-heavy decor, has been a neighborhood landmark for about 35 years. Long a well-known cruising/flirting spot in the gay scene, SFist hangs some of the blame for the cafe's declining revenues on the Internet and its myriad pick-up opportunities that don't require users to change out of pajamas:
Homosexual men in the Castro went out to nightclubs and bars to get laid; community-building, hanging out with buddies, doing bumps in the bathroom, and hurling cruel but clever bon mots always came in at a distant second. If Cafe Flore wants to remain open, flourishing in the fertile SF nightlife scene, they should work around that... somehow. The powerful convenience of online sex is the reality nowadays.
But according to the website Save Cafe Flore, a "small but vocal group of neighbors" (which the 'Fist refers to as "cranky old homos) fears the changes will turn Cafe Flore into a real, live, techno-bumping nightclub, complete with house-shaking bass thuds and public urination.
The cafe's supporters and detractors will likely pack Thursday's meeting of the San Francisco Planning Commission. The meeting starts at 1:30 p.m., but Cafe Flore is on the agenda at item no. 15. If you can't make the meeting, Save Cafe Flore has a page on which you can write a letter to the commission.
