Not Comics: Piccadilly Lounge, RIP

Drawn and Quarterly's Peggy Burns notes that San Diego's Piccadilly Lounge has been closed as part of the re-furbishing of host hotel Pickwick that was taking place in every place but the bar during last summer's Comic-Con International.

The Piccadilly was a dive bar favored by the alt- and art-comics communities because of its open floor plan, accessibility to the Broadway group of hotels, the lack of comics' scenemakers, its general ratty personality and the reliable cheapness of its beer. Although it started to be used ten or so years ago by that crowd as a place to finish up nights or as an alternative to more elaborately planned events, it had the last couple of years become the main hub for that group's social gathering. (And this really was recent: unlike the scene shown from earlier this year in Peggy's photos, the place was nearly empty on Saturday in 2003.)

Why is this worth mentioning at all? Well, it might not be. But there's basically one other sort-of dive bar in or near the entire Gaslamp, at least that I know of, and that bar kind already gets a crowd by being a dive bar in the Gaslamp. I remember a classic dive bar in Little Italy, but that feels far, and the Turf Club is about ten blocks east, but is way more of a dinner place. All this detail adds up to the undeniable fact that downtown San Diego has continued to gentrify, and this has meant added cost, first seen in lodging but now beginning to be felt in other areas, for comics folk that wish to attend their industry's biggest show.
 
posted 2:06 am PST | Permalink
 

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