“You have to make sure that the owners are in it for the right reason, and not just in it for the gay dollar, and that all the staff who work there are gay-friendly.”Įventually, Mendez took his Wednesday-nights to Q’s Sushi a-Go-Go, which he described as a wonderful experience with very welcoming and open-minded people. “I learned that you can’t have a successful gay night at just any straight bar,” Mendez said of his Wednesday-night events at Club 634.
During his three years there, Mendez worked closely with his manager to promote Friday and Saturday nights, invaluable on-the-job training that helped him a few years down the road at Club 634, where he had his first nongay-bar promo gig. He initially worked at The Pub on Helena Avenue, and ultimately ended up at Fathom (the current location of Velvet Jones on lower State Street), where the higher-ups noticed Mendez’s knack for drawing a crowd. at the time-as a bartender and security guard in the early ’90s. “There was nothing special about it.”Īfter moving to Santa Barbara at 18 and coming out to a very supportive family at 21, Mendez learned what worked and what didn’t firsthand, bouncing around from gay bar to gay bar-there were several in S.B. But you can’t open a gay bar and charge $5 at the door seven days a week and offer people nothing,” Mendez said over a Red Bull on the Kitty’s back patio on a recent afternoon. Calling Sunday night’s Red Room his “baby,” the Carpinteria native explained that the secret to his success is keeping things fresh and exciting. The lack of a gay bar means it’s Mendez’s job to create this scene and get gays out of the house and onto the dance floor (at least once a week). It’s the idea that a gay club fosters community and offers a consistent gathering place.
Santa Barbara, without question, is an accepting and gay-friendly town, so the concern isn’t about two guys holding hands being kicked out of a bar. Since the closure in 2004 of Montecito Street’s Hades, our fair city has been lacking a gay bar and therefore a reliably safe space to meet and hang out with other gays and lesbians. Marvelous’s Drag Review, which donated money to the Children’s Miracle Network-or coordinating drink specials with a themed night, Mendez is fully aware that his Red Room is responsible for cultivating some modicum of a gay scene in Santa Barbara. Whether he’s hosting benefits-like the previously described Ms. And while there are many players who have come together to make this a reality, Robert Mendez is the prime mover behind Red Room, the now six-year-old weekly gay night.
Welcome to Sunday nights at the Wildcat Lounge.Īlthough the Kitty is widely understood as the best club for dancing any night of the week, a Sunday night at the Wildcat currently is the only place that comes close to resembling gay nightlife in Santa Barbara. Even though there was lots of hooting and hollering, the true measure of success was the dollar bills a few audience members were tucking into the performer’s cleavages. Glamour personified traipsed across the stage, lip-syncing and dancing. The crowd cheered as the lights lowered and the familiar strains of Rihanna’s “Umbrella” came through the speakers, announcing the start of the evening’s performances. The ladies paraded out onto the elevated stage, hair teased to oversized bouffants, gaudy jewelry adorning every ear and wrist. With Red Room, his now six-year-old gay night at the Wildcat Lounge, Robert Mendez has cultivated and maintained a gay scene in Santa Barbara.