The Future Bars group, a team of cocktail bar trendsetters with ventures like Tradition, Bourbon and Branch, and Local Addition, are resurrecting the gay dive bar of yesteryear Ginger's Trois, which once stood in the space now occupied by their bar Rickhouse. Ginger's Trois was the third in a line of bars owned by Don Rogers and named for the actress with whom he shared a last name. It closed in 2009, but now it's back, as the Rickhouse staff teased on their Facebook page.
Eater dug in for some details on Ginger's Trois, reporting that the new incarnation of the bar — Ginger's Quatre? — is located in a space the Future Bars team has been using for prep. The Ginger's entrance is on Hardie Place rather than 246 Kearny Street, and so far, hours are Thursday through Saturday from 5 p.m. to last call.
Don Rogers opened the OG Ginger's at 100 Eddy in 1978, where it lasted into the late '80s. In the meantime, it spawned a sister bar, Ginger's Too, on 43 6th Street, then Ginger's Trois on Kearny in 1991. According to a remembrance in the Bay Area Reporter, the late columnist Richard "Sweet Lips" Waters christened Ginger's Trois "an inexpensive bar for people with money," a motto the bar adopted.
By 2017 standards at least, the new Ginger's could be worthy of that old nickname. Most cocktails look to be around $9. Rickhouse has had a a cocktail named for Ginger's Trois on its menu for some time, and now Ginger's Trois' menu features drinks named for more former gay bars like Esta Noche, Deco Lounge, and the Lexington.
This isn't the first time Future Bars has delivered a surprise opening, waiting to share details of their projects with the public until a bar was nearly complete. Their downtown tiki bar, Pagan Idol, opened in a flash that felt like the food world equivalent of a surprise album.
SFist has reached out to Future Bars for more info on Ginger's Trois and will update this post when they tell us more.
