Big Boo to Boho Bar Bastardry
Dear fellow supporters of free expression,
I have had a review, a less than complementary one at that, sitting in the draft file for a while now, not quite sure when to post it. Circumstances seem to have emerged such that it seems timely to make a comment about a certain establishment in Adelaide owned by the Booze Brothers chain, known as The Boho Bar.
Located on Unley Road, a hop skip and stagger away from Adelaide city, The Boho Bar describes itself thus on its website
“Indulge your sense in true bohemian spirit. Boho incorporates the nostalgic elements of the circus, the old burlesque sideshows and classic, bohemian cabaret theatres – and mixes them with a sleek, modern service and a kaleidoscope of sounds, light and movement. Its menu is bursting with colour & flavour with a fantastic selection of tapas style dishes and platters. Lavish, cheeky, sinister and enticing…”
I attribute the Adelaide Fringe for the rise in local Boho Chic, which in itself is not a bad thing, but when a venue seeks to make this its raison d’etre, well – I expect a certain standard to be achieved.
I’ll say it up front, The Boho Bar is to the French Parisian Café and Burlesque Hall what PJ O’Briens is to Irish Pubs. It’s a plastic paddy pub in a beret. Instead of fiddles, road signs pointing to Dublin and hurling sticks, its repro-french furniture, bad stage sets and cabinets with early 20th century entertainment flotsam and jetsam. Strip back the superficial fleur-de-lys patina and you would have a standard steel framed, television lined sports bar.
Yes, they serve absinthe, or rather ‘absinth’ – of the most atrocious and overpriced kind. More to the point they seem happy to charge an extra $5 on each cocktail for using “King of Spirits Absinth” which isn’t fit to disinfect my toilet basin, and nary a true absintheur would disagree (i.e. so bad we find it hard to justify purchasing a bottle to review). And they burn their absinthe for heaven’s sake, showing their schtick for cheap theatrics extends to the bar.
Now, the downward spiral has continued, with this establishment being reported in the Adelaide Advertiser as now implementing a “No Drag” policy. Sorry, come again? A bar that supposedly embraces the “true bohemian spirit” is bothered by cross dressers?
The paper reports that Male-to-female transgender retail worker Susan was refused entry to The Boho Bar while out with three non-cross-dressing friends. When she contacted Booze Brothers co-director Leon Saturno two days later seeking an explanation she was told there was a new policy that “no cross-dressers would be allowed anymore”.
Well, I think the more discerning Bohemian in Adelaide can probably find much more accommodating neo-Bohemian establishments in Adelaide that serve much better absinthe anyway – but it shits me that an establishment riding on the coattails of an attitude and aesthetic, that by its very nature embraces and promotes individuality and difference, may allegedly be implementing a policy of discrimination.
Might I suggest that all within the Burlesque arts and Bohemian culture think about reposting the Adelaide Advertiser article on their blogs and websites. Perhaps this will let Mr Saturno know exactly what the community thinks about his policy.
Methinks maybe it is time to relegate Boho alongside the likes of other theme restaurants like the Medieval Dirty Dicks ?
