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L.A.'s Roosterfish -- which opened in the Jimmy Carter era -- left a huge void when it closed last year. But against all odds, it's coming back.
Angelenos were devastated when Roosterfish -- a gay watering hole in the increasingly trendy Venice neighborhood -- shut its doors last year after 37 years of operation. Even with rents spiking in the area, two new leaseholders are bringing the bar back from the dead.
The bar will return as a "pop-up" in the early hours of September 23, coinciding with a neighborhood block party. The new leaseholders, Mario Vollera and Patrick Brunet, haven't announced a date for the permanent reopening but are busy finalizing details.
Roosterfish's infamous turquoise exterior is expected to remain, but new windows will be carved into its walls.
"There's no need to hide in the dark anymore," Grant Turck, a neighborhood resident who created Venice Pride, told the L.A. Weekly. Turck tried unsuccessfully to preserve the bar as a historic landmark and then later trademarked the bar's name; he helped convince Vollera and Brunet to keep the moniker and many of the bar's attributes, including the pornographic images that line the ceiling of its men's room.
"We love Venice," Vollera and Brunet said in an email to the Weekly. "Venice's identity was forged from the melting pot of nationalities, cultures, and ambitions. Reopening Roosterfish is a cultural act."
Roosterfish is bucking the trend of gay bars, which are shuttering across the country.
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