Institutional Wrong

I used to love going to Martuni’s on the corner of Valencia and Market after work for a good old-fashioned $5 Martini, shaken and dirty. Martuni’s is an old-fashioned martini bar, doubling as a piano bar in the back room - where every night, after one (or five) vodka Martinis, ex-theater queens and their BFFs belt out the usual Liza and Judy to recapture the (dis)glories of the good old days. As a semi-gay bar in a gay neighborhood, Martuni’s surprisingly still manages to maintain much of its old-school charm. Absurdly pure, if you will - the perfect opposite to the purely absurd Rebel across the street (a dive bar doubling as a BBQ restaurant… Yup - you really can get it all in the Castro). 

I greatly admired the place and couldn’t stop gushing about it to everyone I know. Which makes the event that happened last weekend all the more disheartening 

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