The Boulevard, located at 3199 E. Foothill Blvd, as the oldest and last remaining gay bar in Pasadena. It permanently closed its doors on Halloween, October 31, 2026, after 45 years in business. Originally established around 1979 (and opening under that name/liquor license in 1981 after taking over a predecessor called The Office), it operated for over four decades as an LGBTQ+ staple and safe space in the San Gabriel Valley. Local patrons often described these spaces—particularly The Boulevard—as a local “gay Cheers” where generations found belonging without needing to travel into downtown Los Angeles or West Hollywood
Known as a neighborhood dive bar featuring nightly karaoke, weekly drag shows, a pool table, and hosting community events like weddings and memorials. Longtime owner Steven Terradot retired and put the business up for sale, with its final farewell and Halloween party taking place on October 31, 2026. He originally purchased the bar in the 1980s during the height of the AIDS crisis to provide a safe space for queer people.
Other historical queer nightlife spots in Pasadena that closed prior to The Boulevard include Nardi’s (which became Copa), Encounters, and The Vermie’s.
Nardi’s, located at 665 E. Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, was historically known as Nardi’s Bar Liquors in 1943. It was in the basement beneath the four-story brick Crown Hotel on the corner of Colorado and El Molino Avenue, which was condemned after the Northridge Earthquake of 1994. The basement bar was operated from 1945-1947 as Nardi-Waldorf Café, and became the Waldorf Café in 1960. The building was demolished around 1998 to make way for the Laemmle theater complex (now the Landmark) next to Vroman’s Bookstore.
Nardi’s was a total dive bar. Allegedly, back in the 50’s, the secretly gay performers at the nearby Pasadena Playhouse and their School of Theater Arts would gather there. Back in the 1970s, Nardi’s was owned by a woman named Freda, originally from Austria and survivor of the Holocaust. The lead bar tender was named Gabriel. It was just the legal distance from the Pasadena Playhouse school for a bar. Charles Pierce frequented Nardis in the 1950s. In the early 1980s, Kieth Ann when had enough to drink he would get up on the bar and lipsink California Dreaming strutting across the bartop. The apartment building was a historic landmark in Pasadena until the earthquake damage made it unsafe for residents.
In East Pasadena were a number of gay bars or bars friendly for meeting other gay people. There was the Whistle Stop on Colorado near the Big Five Sporting Goods store and also a lesbian bar called The Horn. There was also a small dive bar known as Richard In, owned by Richard Blair, at 2024 E. Colorado Blvd. It was popular with young gay men and also traveling scholars at the nearby Huntington Library and occasional man of science from Cal Tech.
In the 1980s when gay bars became more open and accepted, several popped up in East Pasadena. Encounters was called Incognito. Encounters, located on Sierra Madre Villa Avenue, had a decent size dance floor, various themed nights, and special Rose Parade viewing from its patio every January 1st. Several popular DJ’s from Weho would work the turn-tables on certain nights. Encounters was remodeled as an office building. Adjacent to Encounters was Club 3772, originally known as Vermi’s and owned by a woman named Judy. It was not welcoming to gay men. It was one of the bars where Melissa Etheridge started out. The building is now a Coffee Bean drive-thru.
