UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Tuesday, August 30,1994
3B
lifestyles
Jay Thornton/KANSAN
Kerry Johnson, co-owner of Hideaway,106 North Park St., and Ken Stewart, general manager, sit in the "love pit" and discuss Lawrence's past gay bars. The new Hideaway has been open since July 17.
'This is not a closet Lawrence's newest gay and lesbian bar opens its doors so that its customers have a safe place to 'come out'
By Carlos Tejada
Kansan staff writer
in July, a bar like no other bar in Lawrence quietly opened its doors.
However, you would have to look hard to find the difference. If youhug out in the game room for a while, you'll see the usual pool tables and darts. The jukebox has Bob Marley, Meatloaf and Brooks and Dunn.
At the bar, you can get mixed drinks or a glass of Boulevard from the tap for $2. They also serve martinis and custom drinks.
On the dance floor — nicknamed "The Love Tunnel" — facets of red, beige and blue lights race across the floor. The music moves the house to music from U2.
The only indication you may get that this place is different is the sign you see when you open the front door: "This is not a closet."
"I want people to be themselves when they come in," says Kerry Johnson, owner of the new Hideaway, 106 North Park St. "I want them to be comfortable here. They can come in and do what they want, as long as they behave themselves."
Hideaway is a gay bar. It opened in July where the old Hideaway was, at the south corner of the west side of the Massachusetts Street strip. They dropped the "the" from the name and didn't keep much else either. Only the location and the bar top itself are the same.
"Now, the name has a totally different connotation," says Johnson, who owns the bar with her husband.
For Johnson, this is a golden opportunity. She says Lawrence's diverse gay community has been traveling too far to find a bar that accepts them. Now, they have a place that will tolerate everybody right in their own hometown.
"Why somebody didn't open a gay bar five years ago, I don't know." Johnson said.
But since opening, Johnson said, the
Hideaway is the first gay bar to open in Lawrence since the others closed in the 1980s, Johnson said. Diamonds is now the Yacht Club, 530 Wisconsin St., and the Room Downstairs is now the Big 6 Sports Club, 701 Massachusetts St. The only other gay bars around are in Kansas City and Topeka.
community has responded. An average night can bring about 150 people, while a busy night could see about 300 people passing in and out of the bar during the evening.
The secret to its success is diversity, says Ken Stewart, general manager. For drinkers and talkers, the bar area offers tables, as well as bar stools. The Love Tunnel is for those who like to dance. The game area is for the more competitive.
And at the far end of the bar is "The Love Pit," where furniture, a coffee table and works by local artists have been set up for the more serious and intellectual.
"We want this to be a gathering place, a hangout." Stewart says as he sips coffee in the Love Pit. "There are a lot of people who don't drink. You want to offer something to everybody.
"In that way, we're like a three-ring circus." Stewart said.
Stewart describes Hideaway as an "alternative lifestyle" bar, not just a gay bar. So, he says, Hideaway's spectrum of customers is pretty wide: homosexual and straight, flamboyant and reserved. In fact, he said, a significant number of its patrons are straight.
"There are a lot of young people who don't care," he said. "They just want to party."
The bar is looking to further expand and diversify, Stewart says. Plans call for enlarging the dance floor and broadening the Top 40 and techno music format. He also said shows — local homosexual bands, drag shows, amateur night, body painting, body piercing and other features — soon would be on the bill.
For now, he says, the format will remain the same. But patrons who were there Saturday night seemed to like what Hideaway offered so far.
"It's an inviting place and environment," said Bob McKinney, Lawrence resident. "It's more to my standards. The staff here is very polite. They make you feel quite at home."
Chris McHale, Lawrence resident, said the atmosphere was welcoming.
"There's room for everybody," she said. "I don't like reverse discrimination. I'm not prejudiced toward bisexuals and heterosexuals. I have been, but I didn't want to live like that. So I appreciate a bar like this. Nobody will be turned away."
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