One of the longest running gay bars in Texas shuts its doors over the weekend. It was a shock to not only the bar staff but also the customers who would walk by in disbelief. This was a bar that was home to popular drag shows on Sunday nights with normally a RPDR performer and one of the only sports bars for gays in town.
Oil Can Harry’s or OCH had a sign on the door that said it was closed for maintenance and repairs. We were in Austin right after this happened and asked around and were told it was bought by the folks that own Rain on 4th. According to a regular at OCH they say it will stay the same but in the meantime the bar staff and performers seem to be posting on a GoFundMe post:
Many of us lost our jobs without notice . As ashamed as we are to ask for help we have to. The club were working for was sold, and we are excited about a new beginning, what we didn’t expect was for things to end like they did before the transition happened. We all showed up to work one day to find a sign that said the business was closed and were no longer with jobs, Some of us didn’t get paid for the last weeks of work, some of us had multiple checks bounce, and some of us are also in the negative with bank accounts due to multiple checks returned for non sufficient funds. Rent is due in less than a week and many of us are stressed and figuring out how we are going to come up with the money to cover bills , and not to mention food. If you can find it in your heart to remember the good times we’ve all strived to provide all of our customers when you would visit our club, please remember the times we as a staff donated our tips for worthy causes, we ask if maybe you can spare a few dollars to help us make ends meet and we will be more than thankful and honored. We are all looking for jobs until the club re opens with our new amazing owners but, till then we need to find ways to pay rent and food to survive. We always ask for help for others but now as embarrassing as this might be we are asking for help for us. We will all split the amount collected and apply it to living expenses If you can’t help us with money please share this so that maybe someone will find it in their heart to help us during this very scary depressing and difficult time. We all thank you in advance and wish you many many blessings and remember that every dollar adds up. On behalf of Joey Mojica, Miguel Rivera, Mackey Ray, Dino Odino, Shalako Anecito, Eric Contreras, Daniel Marquez, Lawrence Camarada Drake Spence and Kelly Kline we the thank you for any help you can provide.
It must be a trend in Texas this year as we have seen two clubs do this one in Houston and another in Austin. South beach Houston (Sobe) also closed its doors for repairs and shocked the community HOURS before a drag show was scheduled. Do you think they will really re-open and will it happen to any more LGBTQ clubs this year?
UPDATE: It seems OCH has rebranded the club to Oil Can’s and re-opened.
Related: Top 30 LGBTQ Nightclubs in the U.S.
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