‘WeHo,’ the St. Louis Gay Bar, Closes Its Doors

While the name “West Hollywood” is enough to drive traffic (automotive and pedestrian) to our fair city, its power seems to diminish as one moves east.

That’s what the owners of WeHo, a bar that opened in downtown St. Louis in April, have discovered. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, WeHo (the bar) closed on Saturday.

The Post-Dispatch says that’s because of the competition for St. Louis’s own little Boystown, an area known as the Grove, that “is brimming with gay and gay-friendly establishments.”

Brandon Bayer, who opened the club with Todd Zahner, says he was definitely inspired by West Hollywood, where he lived for a time. He also lived in South Beach.

“I was there when clubs were great,” he told the Post-Dispatch. “Some of the biggest DJs on Earth are my friends. I tried to do something here I thought would fly.”

never trying to compete with the G
Bayer explains many bar patrons prefer parking and bouncing in and out of businesses in the Grove rather than going to a single gay club elsewhere.

There was a time, long before the Grove was jumping, when nightlifers looking for a gay spot would venture downtown without question.

“Twenty years ago there were gay bars all over downtown. That’s where they were. There were more gay bars there than straight. Now there’s more straight than gay. We thought we would try to bring something back downtown and it didn’t work, it didn’t follow,” he says.

“Maybe there’s not enough people to go around.”

Bayer, who is a full-time hairdresser, got the idea for WeHo after living in West Hollywood and South Beach for years.

“I was there when clubs were great. Some of the biggest DJs on Earth are my friends. I tried to do something here I thought would fly,” he said.

Bayer said he and his business partner also encountered opposition from the gay bar and nightclub owners in the Grove neighborhood, apparently as competitive as WeHo’s Boystown.

“We opened and it was like World War III,” he said. “The other bars (in the Grove) had an issue. In some respects there might have been some sort of whisper campaign.”