Bar-stool charity

Some Bay Area watering holes offer more than just a hangover.

By Forrest Caskey

BAR HOPPERS, beware! Some generous San Francisco bar owners are consistently slipping something mind-alteringly good into your alcohol: altruism.

After a year full of tragedies such as the tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, the south Asia earthquake, and W's re-election, charities have been relying largely on grassroots organizing from local communities to generate money and support. In many parts of the country, those groups organize fundraisers through churches, telethons, and community-center events.

In San Francisco, a lot of nonprofits hit the bars.

Everywhere you turned your bar stool this year, it seemed as if a fundraiser was popping up for this or that cause. And for a few establishments, it was just business as usual: A handful of local bars have been hosting fundraisers – lots and lots of fundraisers – for years.

Here are some shining examples of Bay Area bar-stool charity:

With 80 or 90 different fundraisers a year, the Edge (4149 18th St., SF. 415- 863-4027) has become a center for alcohol-infused fundraising in San Francisco. During a recent five-hour drag show and auction, featuring some of the queer community's most venerable charitable contributors, the bar raised nearly $20,000 for gay and lesbian victims of Hurricane Katrina whose nontraditional families are not recognized by the Red Cross. That's an impressive take when you consider that the total human capacity of the bar is a mere 67 people.

I attended this event in early September and witnessed hordes of people, stuck outside because of the large turnout, crowding the doorway and windows, tossing money and checks into the crowd with hopes of finding a donation box. Local businesses had donated hundreds of items such as wine, plane tickets, vacation packages, designer luggage, gift baskets, and porn to be raffled or auctioned off. Most donations were purchased at more than three times their market value.

After buying my fair share of raffle tickets, I left with the beginnings for a new collection of 1970s porn and half of a penis pump, the other half being wrestled out of my hands by a bearded guy dressed like a nun.

"Some guy paid $550 to throw a pie in my face," says local charity organizer and legend, the Queen.

The Queen has been the backbone behind the Edge's monthly Basket Contest, which started more than 12 years ago. A pageant of sorts featuring genetically gifted men in their underwear, the contest has become the most successful and longest-running charity event the bar has hosted, raising more than $100,000 for the AIDS Emergency Fund (AEF).

Other notable successful events thrown by the Edge are Deena Dawn's monthly Spurs-And-Fur Party, which raises thousands of dollars for Under One Roof, Krewe de Kinque's Full Moon Contests, and Gary Virginia's benefits, which since 1996 have been bringing in droves of money for the AEF, the Breast Cancer Emergency Fund, Positive Resource Center, Magnet, Toys for Tots, and Immigration Equality.

Besides providing the space for these events, the Edge's owner, Don McMartin, donates all of the beer consumed during the popular $8 all-you-can-drink beer busts, supplies the DJ, and gives away Edge apparel for raffles and auctions.

"When Don opened the bar fourteen years ago, half of his bartenders died of AIDS. I think this inspired him to open his doors to charity and help others out," Virginia says.

El Rio (3158 Mission, SF. 415-282-3325), another bar whose name has become synonymous with charity, has helped prove that salsa is but a condiment to good deeds. The place hosts between three and four charity events a month. Since it's much larger than the Edge, these fundraisers normally attract hundreds of people, and usually involve a line-up of DJs, a band, catered and donated food, raffles, and sometimes poetry readings. A door fee of anywhere from $5-$15 goes to the organization throwing the event. With a capacity well into the hundreds, a large event can generate thousands of dollars.

"It's a perfect place to hold these events. They have the space, the stage, and the heart," said Heidi Kieskowski, a self-described "charity hopper" who was at a recent El Rio event benefiting the Hidaya Foundation, a nonprofit group providing relief for victims of the southeast Asian earthquake.

El Rio is also a popular venue for local filmmakers who are looking to generate some funds for their films, as well as political fundraisers, and most recently an event for the Blue Star Builders, a gay building team headed to New Orleans to help build homes.

When owner Dawn Huston bought the bar, her vision was to make El Rio not only a drinking establishment but also a community center. "I look at what we do with the benefits and never feel that it is enough," she says, "and yet I understand that even a little money and goodwill spirals outward."

Hosting at least 52 fundraisers a year, Jack's Elixir (3200 16th St., SF. 415- 552-1633) serves up an unusual approach to giving called Charity Guest Bartending. Every Wednesday night, a different group of aspiring altruists will organize an event by sending out Evites to their friends to come and buy drinks from them while they put in a guest bartending stint for charity. Since most cameo bartenders are novices at the trade, an Elixir bartender is on staff to help supply mixology instructions. A small portion of the tips made in the evening go to the Elixir bartender while the rest is pocketed by the organization chosen for the evening.

"On a good night with a lot of turnout an event can top $1000," says Jennifer Skowlund, an Elixir manager.

Recent recipients have been Building a Cure, College Students in Broadcasting, FACES, various Mission community centers, and an overwhelmingly successful turnout for a liquor distributor representative who had cancer.

It's hard to find a simple description for 111 Minna (111 Minna, SF. 415-974-1719). In the course of one week, sometimes one night, this space will be used as a bar, an art gallery, a happy-hour dance club, a lounge, and a concert hall. Thanks to the generous spirit of owner Eiming Young, 111 Minna has become one the city's premier spots for lucrative fundraising activity.

Charities that hold events at 111 Minna get more than the door profits. Often they auction off artwork donated though 111 Minna's large network of artists and local philanthropists. Promoters can find big-name DJs and bands to draw in large crowds; some events raise more than $10,000.

Nina Hagen recently brought in big bucks by donating her time and voice at a benefit for an impoverished hospital in India.

Big name organizations such as the Craigslist Foundation and Creativity Explored consistently hold events at the space, as do smaller groups benefiting artists and filmmakers. Eiming actively pursues benefit promoters to hold events at his club because "we have the space here to do it. I feel fortunate to live in San Francisco. It's easy to come together here and do something positive for people."

With basket contests, DJ events, guest bartenders, and art auctions, what other options are there for bringing people in to charity events? Drag queens, of course! Drag shows are notorious for raising money to help others out, and no place raises money quite like Marlena's (488 Hayes, SF. 415-864-6672).

Marlena's, named for its matriarch and owner, hosts dozens of events each year that are sponsored by the San Francisco Imperial Council, a charitable organization in the leather community.

Organizations regularly touched by Marlena's open hand to charity are the AEF, Magnet, and Camp Starburst (a group supporting children with AIDS). Money for these groups is generated through auctions, raffles (which the bar donates items for), and, of course, the infamous drag shows. Local drag celebrities such as Nikki Starr, Gladys Bumps, and Donna Sachet often perform at these events, exciting the crowd into forking over tips – which always go into the charity basket.

At the end of an event, Marlena goes one step further: When all the money raised is counted and ready to go out the door, Marlena will cap off the amount from her own pocket. If the amount is $525, she'll write the check for six or seven hundred dollars.

"I've done charity my whole life," says Marlena. "I love people, always believed in helping those who can't help themselves, it makes me feel good."

Adds longtime Hayes Valley resident Brynn Gelbard: "Marlena's acts like a community center.... Any given weekend you can see leather mamas, daddies, and over-the-top drag queens spilling out into the streets, all ready to lay down some cash for one of her causes."