Well, ladies and gentlemen and genderqueer fans of the former Lexington Club, the worst thing you may have expected would happen to the onetime lesbian bar is happening: It's becoming a high-end cocktail joint, and is getting a major makeover, under the name Wildhawk.
This was, of course, inevitable after we learned that the PlumpJack group was taking it over. And as Inside Scoop reports, now that it's been nine months since the Lex called it quits, renovations have been underway and the new team is readying for a March opening for the new, bougier bar.
Via a press release we learn that design inspiration is coming from the figure of Lola Montez, whom they call “San Francisco’s original ‘bad girl,’” which is not exactly a fair characterization. Montez, a performer and notorious world-traveling maneater originally born Eliza Gilbert in Ireland, may have arrived in SF in 1853 and caused some tabloid fanfare, but she was only a California resident for two years, and left for Australia in 1855. As writer Gary Kamiya described in a brief profile of her in the Chronicle, Montez made a name for herself worldwide for her "erotic exploits, political intrigues, violent temper and extraordinary beauty," and having reinvented herself as a "Spanish dancer," she became a sensation on the SF stage for mostly male, Gold Rush-era audiences.
Wildhawk sounds like it will be far more tame than Ms. Montez, with a cocktail program by Ken Luciano and Jacques Bezuidenhout, who also designed the drinks at PlumpJack's recently opened SoMa bar, Forgery.
And, obviously, no more pool table or pinball machine or raucous parties.
Previously: Lexington Club Bids Farewell This Weekend, Crowdfunds Commemorative Plaque
NSFW Photos: [Update] Two Arrested After 'Take Back Dyke March' Splinters From New Parade Route, Overwhelms Police Barrier