Clementine's Closing after 36 years

Clementine's is closing after 36 years in business. iLoveSoulard first saw the news on Nextdoor. Sunday will be the last day of business. In April, the bar celebrated its 36th anniversary.

One of the oldest, if not the oldest gay bars in the Midwest, Clem's has been in business at the same location at 2001 Menard since the 1970s. It is routinely named one of the top gay bars in St. Louis.

An employee who answered the phone at Clementine's was not a happy camper, as expected. He did confirm that Sunday is the last day of business. Ownership is keeping them largely in the dark, other than, you know, telling them they are out of jobs as of Monday.

The only thing that was said to employees was that the bar was going in a different direction and would not be a gay bar any longer.

This post will be updated as more information is available.

**Update*

Chris Andoe spoke lovingly of Clem's in The Vital Voice today. Steven L. Brawley, who founded the STL LGBT History Project, will be at Clem's Sunday in an effort to collect memorabilia from the bar to memorialize it.

Here's another post from #Boom magazine.

Down Goes Arcelia's

With this post on their Facebook page, Arcelia's  announced it is closed for business.

Post by Arcelia's Mexicana.

Arcelia's got its start in Soulard back in the day and the moved to Lafayette Square, where it was a fixture for 20 years. It closed in December of 2010 there. Here's a post from St. Louis Magazine about the new incarnation of Arcelia's opening in Soulard in August of last year.

No word on any new possible tenant for the space at 12th and Allen.