I actually consider this place my “coming out” bar as a leatherman.
Renslow later opened the Chicago Eagle in the 1990s I remember the entrance being the inside of a truck, and the basement Pit. The Gold Coast closed in 1988 (alas, I never went there) at the 5025 North Clark location, having moved from its original location at 501 North Clark Street. Much of what is perhaps now the traditional dynamic of gay leather bars originated there: the leather biker look, the rough sex and BDSM, the l hypermasculinity revealed in the famous artwork of Etienne aka Dom Orejudos now displayed in the Leather Archives and Museum. Much has been written on this place of LGBT history already I’ll just add that it seems to be the granddaddy of places where like-minded men could meet others who shared their sexuality. I know one person who remembers this bar he is in his eighties (hard to believe). I thought I would do an IML-related piece, the whole leather contest circuit actually began in a leather bar, the famous/infamous Gold Coast founded by the legendary Chuck Renslow.
