Owners of 1970s-themed Leslieville cocktail spot Yard Sale Bar are rebranding their Gerrard East location as queer, retro bar with a lesbian-focused name – Lavender Menace.
Co-owners Vivian Lynch and Agnes Lee said that while Yard Sale had always been LGBTQ-friendly, it wasn’t core to the identity of the bar.
“The rebrand just felt right for the times we’re going through with the loss of more and more spots every year, and for what we wanted to put our focus on,” they told NOW over email.
The married couple said they wanted to make the lesbian-owned aspect of the bar a focus of Lavender Menace, hence the name. Lavender Menace refers to a group of radical lesbian feminists who protested the exclusion of lesbians from the feminist movement back in 1970.
“We really want people from the LGBTQ+ community to recognize that this is a place for us by us. It’s not a big corporate rainbow cash-in. Just literally two lesbians trying to make an independent, tiny cocktail bar work,” they wrote.
Lynch and Lee said they received feedback, from especially queer women, about loving having a bar like Yard Sale in Toronto, and they “took it to heart.”
They wanted to highlight the authenticity of their bar, and said that after going to many cocktail and gay bars around Canada and all over the world, they wanted to create a place where they would want to spend a night, in an area of the city not known for queer hotspots.
“Lesbian voices particularly aren’t very common in the bar scene and in some way, we want to show others that it is possible and we are here still, trying to make our way in what feels like a very male-dominated, heterosexual-dominated industry,” they said.
With the rebrand comes a completely revamped menu from Lee, who is also the chef.
“Originally we had started with a free tapas idea, much like we’d experienced in Spain and a very limited full plate menu. This time, we’re dropping the tapas and settling on a wider set menu, and a single cuisine that is casual, tasty and brings back that home-cooked feeling of the American South,” they explained.
The cocktails will still be focused on flavours and quality ingredients, but this time they’ll be inspired by LGBTQ and women’s history.
Lavender Menace will be pivoting from the 70s focus of Yard Sale to a more general retro vibe, playing music from the 70s-90s and moving away from vintage thrift shop decor. The upstairs chill lounge will stay, and they hope to bring back the beanbag chairs soon as well.
“The transition is more in upgrading the little things, which is frankly, more gay. There’s more of a focus on our history and culture, both in terms of the LGBTQ movements and as women, although they’re often intertwined,” they wrote.
Lynch and Lee hope to carve out their own space within the queer bar scene in Toronto somewhere in between the big nightclubs and drag bars and the fancy martini bars.
“We’re simply a craft cocktail bar with Southern food, good music and cool clientele – that happens to cater more to LGBTQ people. It’s relaxed, inclusive, and open to everyone regardless of gender or sexuality,” they explained.
While they know it’s difficult to plan around potential COVID-19 restrictions, they’re predicting Lavender Menace will open with similar restrictions to the fall of last year – lower capacity, possibly only outdoor dining, group size limits, masks and physical distancing. Regardless, they’ve planned to get a coktail-to-go and take-out menu running once they’re open.
The pair said they just feel privileged and proud to be able to provide a space for queer people in Toronto through the bar.
“On a personal level, when I’m behind the bar and women come in, open and full of enthusiasm for what we do, who we are, and the feel of the place, it means a lot to us both,” Lynch said. “Finding nice intimate places to connect is becoming more and more difficult as small spaces get lost, and venues that have hosted lesbian/queer women’s parties are forced to close their doors. It makes us very eager to get started and get people enjoying having a more balanced and diverse space.”
