While progress is unknown regarding opening the Pink Swallow bar at the marquee corner of 18th and Castro streets, a liquor license for the site is pending. State records list the application status date as October 2024.
Pink Swallow, an LGBTQ restaurant and bar, is slated to occupy the prime location that formerly housed Harvey's, which closed over two years ago. According to the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, Jam Stardust LLC applied for a license at that 500 Castro Street address.
Joshua J. Cook, a gay man who manages the Beaux nightclub at 2344 Market Street, is a member of, and the spokesperson for, the ownership group for Pink Swallow, several members of whom are listed as officers of Jam Stardust LLC. Cook has not returned multiple requests for comment from the Bay Area Reporter about the progress on the buildout of the nightlife venue and when it will open.
He had told the B.A.R. last September 24 that he had "no specific updates" on when that space will open, but that they're "getting ready to go into the permit application process."
Cook had told the B.A.R. last summer that work on Pink Swallow had been held up due to an outdated kitchen. The B.A.R. reported in February 2024 that the city's planning commission approved a conditional use authorization that month to establish a nighttime entertainment zone on the first and second floors of the space.
"It's still moving forward," Cook stated last year. "There was a small pause as the owners of the building investigated, or discovered, what needed to happen to bring the kitchen to current city codes. I don't think it'd been brought to code for decades to be honest, so it took exploration to figure out what to do."
Pink Swallow had originally been slated to open by summer 2024 – Cook previously declined to update the timetable for opening, stressing it depended on the permitting process. The new business is supposed to also incorporate 504 Castro Street, another vacant storefront.
An ABC department notice at 500 Castro Street shows Jam Stardust LLC applied for an ownership change over the space’s liquor license. It is dated November 15, 2024.
That space was initially the home of the Elephant Walk, which first opened in 1974. The late disco diva Sylvester James, known simply as Sylvester, performed there. It was a site of reprisal early on May 22, 1979, when San Francisco police officers came in and attacked patrons following the White Night riots downtown. The riots were a response to the late gay San Francisco supervisor Harvey Milk's killer, Dan White, receiving only a seven-year sentence for his 1978 crimes of assassinating Milk and then-mayor George Moscone in City Hall. (White ended up serving five years and later died by suicide.)
After a fire almost destroyed it in the late 1980s, the Elephant Walk required extensive remodeling. Harvey's was opened in the space in 1996 by Paul Langley, the property owner, who had refused to renew the Elephant Walk's lease.
The Paul Langley Co. owns the property to this day. The company did not respond to a request for comment.