Lexington Club Sets Closure Date; Newsom's PlumpJack Group Taking Its Space

We all knew it was coming, but the other shoe has finally dropped: the Lexington Club, San Francisco's last remaining lesbian bar, has set its closure date. Inside Scoop reports that owner Lila Thirkield will shutter the bar on April 30. And the bar, which has a full liquor license, already has a taker: The PlumpJack Group, owned by lieutenant governor Gavin Newsom and his sister Hilary, and responsible for MatrixFillmore, Balboa Cafe, and the forthcoming makeover of Mid-Market nightclub Sloane, as well as a slew of projects outside the city.

While PlumpJack remains opaque about what they're planning to do with the Lex's former space, they've clearly had their eye on this corridor for a while: their original plan was to take over Luna Park, right down the street, until that deal fell through. "The Mission District is a thriving neighborhood and we're thrilled to be a part of it. We are committed to making the new iteration of the Lexington Club space a welcoming destination for the community," they said in a statement. But the optics of turning an easygoing LGBT-oriented dive into what will inevitably be a sleeker, more upscale concept are definitely going to be uphill sledding, especially in a neighborhood that's become San Francisco's gentrification lightning rod.

For her part, Thirkield says PlumpJack has been very accommodating, allowing her "to move through this process in a way that worked best for me, the Lex and our patrons." She's planning a blowout final party for the Lex on April 24-25, and says that she "want[s] to continue to celebrate The Lexington Club until the very last moment."