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Business & Tech

East/West Lounge Goes South

The popular Boystown bar closes for good Sunday night after an agreement couldn't be reached on a long-term lease, the owner says.

As LA’s gay pride celebration shut down Sunday night, so did .

The 6-year-old Boystown bar, located at 8851 Santa Monica Blvd. (at Larrabee), went out of business Sunday night.

Owner Trip Wilmot says he was unable to come to terms on a new lease with building owner Golden West Properties. East/West has been operating on a month-to-month lease for the past two years, and was interested in a long-term lease.

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Golden West wanted to almost double the rent for the 2,500-square-foot space from $9,000 a month to $16,000, Wilmot says.

Wilmot had been in negotiations to sell the bar and says Golden West also wanted veto power over East/West buyers and a one-third cut of the proceeds from the sale.

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“Under those terms, who would sign such a lease?” asked Wilmot.

Additionally, there was an ongoing sewage problem, which Wilmot said Golden West had told him was his responsibility to fix. Wilmot believed the building owner should repair it. 

Calls to Golden West for comment were not returned. When Weho Patch phoned the building manager, he said to contact the lawyers representing Golden West, but those calls were also not returned.

Besides the negotiations to sell the bar, there were talks of someone leasing out the entire building, which includes the adjacent clothing store in the old A Different Light bookstore location. However, the lack of a long-term lease proved to be a sticking point in the sale.

Eventually, the potential buyers started dealing directly with Golden West on the lease, which Wilmot says voided their sale negotiations. A lawsuit over a letter of intent to sell is pending.  

The upshot is East/West is now history. Wilmot and his staff will spend the next 10 days dismantling the lounge, removing the bar, all furniture, and the audio-video and security equipment. “It’ll be a completely empty building when we vacate on June 23,” he said.

A Cape Cod, MA, native, Wilmot moved to Los Angeles in 1994, working as a senior vice president with a Wall Street investment firm. He grew frustrated that none of the gay clubs and bars at that time felt like the kind of place you could go to immediately after work. He dreamed of creating a nicer place where people would feel comfortable dropping by in a suit and tie straight from the office.

When Revolver, a bar that had been in that location for 20 years, went out of business in 2004, Wilmot saw his chance to realize his dream. He got the lease and spent almost a year getting all the proper permits.

East/West opened in 2005 to great success. Prices were higher than many other area bars, but that didn’t deter the upscale clientele it was targeting.

Business was solid for the first three years, but then the economy began to tank. “When our business dropped off,” Wilmot said, “was when the stock market dropped below 7,000.”

At one point, Wilmot considered moving East/West two blocks east to the space beside , but ultimately opted not to.

Wilmot is proud of what he accomplished with East/West. He proved that Boystown would support an upscale bar/lounge, he said.

His biggest regret is that his staff of 20 will now be out of work. He considers them all family, some having been with him since the start.

“I told my staff we accomplished what we wanted to do,” Wilmot said. “We built a beautiful bar. We’ve got a great clientele. We’ve got a lot to be proud of. I’m sorry it can’t continue.”

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