Colorado Springs Introduces New ‘Gay Piano Bar,’ Icons
Colorado Springs has been on the rise for new restaurants and bars, even during the COVID-19 business crisis. The newest addition in the southern Colorado city is the gay bar Icons, located downtown at 3 E. Bijou St. This is not just any gay bar, its a gay piano bar.
The predominantly white neighborhoods in Colorado Springs don’t have many LGTBQ-friendly bars around the area, and there are simply not enough safe places for the LGBTQ community. While Colorado Springs has the second-largest gay population(1,144 married couples surveyed), Denver being number one (4,052 married couples surveyed), there is still work to be done.
Club Q, the oldest standing gay bar in Colorado Springs, has been serving brunch with a socially-distant show to make up for the lost revenue of COVID-19. Though, Club Q feels more like a dance party or a night club, while Icons is going for a more laid-back atmosphere, serving up song and dance with every meal.
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Icons owners John Wolf and Josh Franklin are both business partners and life partners and have big dreams for Icons. Both having experiencing homophobia in the business sector in the past, Wolf and Franklin wanted to created a space for LGBTQ persons to express themselves freely, without fear of slander.
Franklin is Colorado born and raised but moved to New York to work on Broadway. He’s been in Broadway shows such as Legally Blonde and Ghost. Coronavirus halted Franklin’s acting career so the couple went back to Franklin’s hometown of Colorado Springs so Wolf could meet his parents.
“We couldn’t believe there still wasn’t a gay bar downtown,” Franklin told The Gazette. They both believed Colorado Springs needed more for the LGBTQ community like what he experienced in New York.
The 2,100-square-foot building once stood as an old bakery and now the inside is lined with photos and murals of queer icons including Lady Gaga and Nina Simone, all created by a local artist Molly McClure. There are black and white photos of individuals that heavily influenced the LGBTQ community. There is a seven-foot tall portrait of Dorothy’s red slippers from the Wizard of Oz. From top to bottom, queer was in mind.
*This article was updated to reflect a correction to the statistic about the LGBTQ population.
