Years in the making, The Neighbor’s gives LGBTQ+ community a long-awaited bar to belly up to

The day after the soft opening of The Neighbor’s in downtown Santa Cruz, the new bar’s owner, Frankie Farr, sat alone in a spacious booth the color of red velvet cake. 

“I don’t know what I’m feeling right now,” said Farr (who uses the pronouns they/them) in a haze of exhaustion and relief. The evening before, Santa Cruz Mayor Fred Keeley and City Councilmember Sonja Brunner participated in a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the business tucked neatly between The Asti and the Oceanview Card Room on lower Pacific Avenue. The two city officials did their official business in the presence of a crowd of at least 100 people waiting to be the first to visit Santa Cruz’s latest and now only LGBTQ+-oriented watering hole.

Before the night was over, more than 200 people had come into The Neighbor’s, a beautifully if a slightly unfinished space redolent of an Irish pub in San Francisco’s Richmond District. The night was a culmination of seven years of planning and fundraising on Farr’s part, which included research into gay bars in other cities, all in an effort to create a spot that could quickly become the primary gathering spot for Santa Cruz County’s queer community.

I talked to several people who were part of the opening night crowd and I heard a consistent theme – that however much people were grateful to other area clubs and taverns for hosting occasional queer-friendly events, it was a joy to have a place where the LGBTQ community could call home. The place quickly reached capacity, with dozens of folks waiting patiently on the sidewalk in a queue reaching to Laurel Street. Now, The Neighbor’s is little more than a welcoming bar, but it hopes to soon open a kitchen serving a small menu to include crepes and poutine, reflective of Farr’s family and upbringing in Buffalo, New York. It’s now open until 11 p.m., but Farr is planning to soon push that to midnight.

The Neighbor’s is aspiring to be a kind of LGBTQ community center, welcoming 18-and-over crowds with various performances and events, including a “Holigay Market” from noon to 3 p.m. on Saturday, with gifts, artists and other vendors, right after the downtown Holiday Parade — and continuing the following two Saturdays, Dec. 14 and 21. Farr said that the staff now stands at nine people, but they are putting out a “help wanted” sign.

In the meantime, Farr said that they were gratified with the huge support The Neighbor’s received on its opening night. “There were some people who have promised me that they’re going to be here every day,” they said. “Last night, I recognized a handful of people, and the rest … well, I have no idea.”

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