Things came to a head a few weeks back when I reported Pat Lanagan, a 48-year-old NoPo bar owner, had registered four variations of "Eagle" with the state so he could change the name of his bar Urge to Eagle Portland, which he did on Wednesday, Jan. 10, before hading to an adult-video expo in Vegas. That's despite the fact another bar owner, Karl Wilgus, is already using that name for his downtown leather-friendly men's bar (QW, "Flipping the Bird," Dec. 13, 2006).
On Tuesday, Dec. 9, things heated up. That's when Wilgus sent out two emails to local media. The first one was an all-out attack on "bottom dweller" Lanagan, including the info that Wilgus had reregistered the Eagle as his business name even though he's planning to close the Eagle as early as the middle of next month. The second email, which landed in my inbox a half-hour later, announced Casey's, a new "all-inclusive" gay bar Wilgus plans to open in an intriguing Old Town venue next month that'll be nothing like his Eagle.
I talked to Wilgus, 43, who has owned the club for the past two and a half years, on Tuesday about what he felt prompted this current state of gay bar affairs.
"The Eagle has served its purpose, but I think leather bars are dying," said Wilgus about his fetid fetish space. He believes the Eagle is for a dwindling older audience and scares more young gay people than it attracts. Which Wilgus thinks one of the real reasons Lanagan is "stealing" his business's name isn't so much about the actual word—a word he admits he may never use again—but because Pat had been ousted from the Eagle. He was kicked out twice—first during the summer of 2006 and again on Saturday, Jan. 6, Lanagan's own birthday, due to what Wilgus calls "inappropriate behavior" that is no longer tolerated in his club (read: sex). That alleged sexual behavior, by the way, used to be one of this club's main draws.
"I never liked the Eagle. I came in here and saw things that made me feel squirmy. That's why I bought it," says Wilgus. "There's a reason this bar is cleaned up. It's a business, and I'm a businessman. It's not a sex club. And when I took it over, I got rid of the crap that had been going on for years [he took down the sex sling], but it's still an Eagle."
Lanagan, who also spoke to me on Tuesday, doesn't deny he was kicked out of the bar, but he has a different take on Wilgus' story. Lanagan said he was 86'd only after an Eagle bartender followed him to another Stark Street bar and confronted him while he was urinating at the trough. "He accused me of inappropriate behavior, which I denied. My relationship with the gay community has always been based on logic and business," said Lanagan. "I never wanted this to get personal."
Wilgus, who will now focus on Casey's, hopes that Lanagan will be a little more responsible regarding his own club, and "just stay the hell out of my establishments."
What happens in the community affects us all, homosexual and heterosexual. This article matters to many who understand that where we come from, has a major significance in where we are going. All things effect us in one way or another, just as the recent freeze in California means you will be paying 30 cent more for your lemons & limes in the coming months.
Me and my partner now frequent the new Eagle on Lombard, formerly The Urge, and got to know the new owner when he made the effort to come up to me and my partner, introduce himself and welcome us to the bar, not once but often. He has never said anything to us derogatory about Karl and company although we had plenty to say ourselves. He appreciates our patronage and constantly makes improvemnts to the bar to make it more intersting, inviting and inclusive including no smoking in the bar, very impressive. I also love, love love the outside patio and the fact that his bar is not thrown together with somebody's trashed home improvement left overs, covered with fifteen coats of crappy cheap black paint. Karl and company are happy to take our money when we step up to the bar but oh so unwilling to do anything close to customer service and community appreiciation. Best basket contest?! That's not "Squirmy? Oh and the leather sling? It was 12 feet up in the air people, suspended from the rafters. I figure only the Jolly Green Giant could of used that puppy. That is if Karl would have let him past the bouncer at the front door. Just like everyting else in the bar, they talk dirty but really the only thing dirty there is their disgusting decrepid toilets. Karl if you want to clean up the Bar, start with the bathrooms.
I understand the Eagle on Stark is now here to stay, for the moment. Perhaps instead of being Portland masculine Gay Men's bar it touts on its website, it can now disintegrate into the meth induced, emaciated twink hangout Karl aspires to. Unfortuantly, he has a little competition from Silverado who locked up that genre long ago. Good luck and good riddance!
I take exception to the implication of the phrasing "dwindling older audience [scaring] more young gay people than it attracts."
How old is old?
I, for one, (and I know I'm not alone here) appreciate the dwindling older gay men that Karl so easily and flippantly dismisses. Not everyone likes a "nice, clean" bar, with young, hip gay patrons. Personally, I like my men's bars to be just that - men's bars. A place to go where you don't have to worry about impressing anyone with the latest, greatest look and slim waistline, where you have to be on your best church behavior. The Eagle downtown used to be that - a bar for guys that liked other guys, and wasn't ashamed of showing it. With Karl came a loss of character and friendliness that will never return. Walking in there now, I feel like the Gestapo's gonna rain on my little parade if I so much as wink at a hot guy. In short, Karl can have his nice, cleaned-up, gentlemen's bar - lacklustre, unimaginative, and altogether boring.
Give me a dark, friendly, guy's bar, complete with dwindling older people and friendly owners any day.
And what the f**k is up with the "bottomdweller" slam? Pat has been the friendliest, most welcoming bar owner this town has seen in years. Plus he's hot. Anyway. That's my two cents.