Once a popular gay haunt, Café Septieme is closing at the end of the year. Even with the new paint job some say the restaurant is a mere shadow of what it once was. You see the block is going to have a major redevelopment project that will take out some of the other businesses as well. One of my favorite gay breakfast joints Eggs Cetera left several years ago (now the home of Noah’s Bagels). But that was back in the good old days when people met face to face, in restaurants and at the clubs and rarely online.
Unfortunately, fewer and fewer young people understand the gay mecca that Broadway Ave once was. The long time gay friendly Bailey-Coy Books closed just two weeks ago. It’s progress I guess. Broadway will probably never be the same because gay culture has changed and assimilated into the city at large. But isn’t that what we worked for and wanted all along? To be accepted by society without bias or dirty looks and make everything “gay friendly.”
But I want to remember Broadway the way she was 15 years ago. Hamburger Mary’s was atop Broadway Market, stores like The Pink Zone only sold gay stuff and the very gay Broadway Grill was in the center of it all. They can tear down the buildings but they can’t take away my memories.
