I used to manage Al's Bar in downtown L.A. during it's heyday. One of the things that made it such a cultural oasis was that it was all inclusive. Everyone, from the suits to the homeless, to USC fratboys (they did get on our nerves), to the whole downtown community were welcomed to hang out and speak their mind (what ever was left of it by the end of the night). This made for some wild conversation which kept me and the rest of that community in a state of continuous creativity. To further my point, let me paraphrase what I heard the filmmaker John Waters say in an interview on Terri Gross' Fresh Air 2/14/07 (I think that was the interview) when asked about where he likes to hang out. He said that he usually didn't like to go to gay bars because the crowd wasn't mixed. Even though he was gay, he preferred to be in a crowd full of all different types.

When I moved up to SF from LA I had already heard about Zeitgeist. The first time that I went there I met a sampling of humanity very similar to the Al's Bar crowd. I've been hanging out there ever since.

;)

It was a lesbian biker bar at one point. Well, at least until one of them went off their meds and killed her girlfriend in the bar. Or so I've heard.