Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Checker Bar & Grill (Gay Bar)
Checker Bar & Grill was located on Bates in Detroit. Ca. 1950's and 1960's. Share you stories about this place in the comments section. *See Credits.
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The Checker Bar was in the old gay area near Bates and Farmer, but it was not a gay bar. It was a beer and burger place for downtown workers. All the businesses on that block were forced to close or move when the city cleared the buildings out for "urban renewal" in the '70s - which has resulted in it being a surface parking lot to this day.
ReplyDeleteThe Checker Bar moved around the corner onto Cadillac Square and still exists today.
Talk about sense memory! Just seeing this post and I can practically taste their famous Checker Burger, advertised (correctly) as the burger in town.
ReplyDeleteChecker Bar was on Bates across alley behind Cadillac Tower, to the right of Checker's was La Rosa's Drag Bar, serving mainly a black gay and trans clientele. Checker's was one of those looong, skinny bars, bar on left, booths on right side, 4 ft aisle down the middle, the grill was in the back on bar side. Harry Monro tended bar with his son, his wife or one of his daughters would cook the burgers and onions and handled the takeout crowd, all they served were their famous burgers and a bag of better maid chips, dill pickle spear too! During the week at lunchtime, the crowd would be lined up all the way from the grill out the door and down sidewalk towards Cadillac Square, rain or shine didn't matter....They must have sold hundreds of thousands over the decades. Always made the best burger list for decades too. During the 60's and early 70's Every Halloween, a gay drag parade would take place downtown in broad daylight and it started at La Rosa's bar and would wind towards and around Cadillac Square, all the lawyers and secretaries would join in or clap and wave from the sidewalks and windows, it was quite the happening back in those days. My mother worked in Cadillac Tower for years and we lived in Cadillac Square Apts from 76-79.
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