"Beans" isn't what you would think it is from seeing the outside. It doesn't look like a bar at all, and that's probably why the customers only know about it by word of mouth. It's been around for about twenty years or so, and hasn't advertised even once that I know of. People just seem to find out it's there from a friend, come once, and then keep coming back because it's a great little bar.
On any Friday or Saturday night, the place will be full, but it's not your normal bar with loud music and the sounds of a hundred people trying to talk over the speaker system.
Shelly, the DJ, keeps the music soft and usually that music is jazz. That's because soft music is what the customers want. Ramsey Lewis, Miles Davis, or Vince Guaraldi playing in the background make Beans a nice place to kick back, have a drink or three, and talk to some friends to unwind from the week.
Sometimes, those friends become really good friends, and you'll see them leave together even though they came in at different times. Sometimes they come in together and leave separately with someone else. I wondered about that the first time I went to Beans, but now I know why that happens.
On the outside, Beans looks more like the old mom and pop grocery store it used to be. It sits in the middle of a block of storefronts that used to be a clothing store, a hardware store, a grocery store, a drug store, and a jewelry store before they started building malls and big-box stores out on the edge of the city. Now, the clothing store is an antique shop, and because the hardware store was beside the old grocery store, it became part of Beans. The other storefronts were torn down to form a parking lot.
Even though it's what used to be two storefronts, Beans isn't all that big, certainly not as big as one of the martini bars downtown. You go inside through the door that used to be to the grocery store and past the counter where you pay the cover charge, and the dance floor is right in front of you. It's not all that big, maybe twenty feet on a side, but it has a hardwood floor. Usually, you'll see a few couples dancing to the soft music. Around the dance floor are some tables, and at those tables will be other couples or maybe two couples together. There are lights on the dance floor, but just bright enough to let you see a person's face if you're pretty close to them. The tables are lit only by what light comes off the dance floor, so they're pretty dark.
In the part that used to be the hardware store is the bar itself, a long stretch of polished oak bar top with oak paneling and a brass foot rail. Behind the bar, where Marilyn, the bartender, mixes drinks and pulls long-necks out of the big tank of ice, is the rack of liquor bottles with a huge mirror over that. Marilyn has enough light she can see to mix drinks and you could read a newspaper sitting at the bar, but the tables behind the barstools are lit about as well as the dance floor tables. Nobody sits on the barstools unless they're waiting on someone else to come in. Well, I did, but that's because I wasn't waiting on anybody and I liked talking to Marilyn.
What makes Beans even more unusual is that Marilyn and Shelly own Beans. You never think of a woman owning a bar, much less two women in a partnership owning a bar. That's what they are though. The partnership is M & S Beans, LLC.
Marilyn and Shelly were both interior decorators for an architectural firm downtown, and didn't form that partnership until Marilyn's parents passed away and left her a sizeable bank account. She liked interior design, but didn't like working for somebody else. The money gave her a way to work for herself.
Shelly had gotten a pretty healthy settlement from her divorce and was also looking for a way to become self-employed. What Marilyn told me is Shelly's husband had done well in the stock market and had also been doing pretty well with his secretary. Shelly hired a private investigator and found out just how well he was doing with the secretary, and then sued for divorce and took him for almost everything he had.
Anyway, between them, they decided to form the partnership, bought the two storefronts, and started turning them into "Beans". Along the way of doing that, Shelly decided she'd had enough of men. Marilyn had decided she didn't want a man when she was in high school. The partnership became more than a business relationship and they renovated the second floor of the buildings as their apartment. I've never been up there, but Marilyn says it's pretty nice. They're both about forty now, or so Shelly told me, and have been together long enough I don't think there's any danger of either partnership dissolving.
As you might now suspect, Beans isn't like most bars for another reason as well. Any night you go in there, and Beans is open every night from seven to three in the morning except for Sundays, most of the customers will be women over thirty five. Once I got to know Marilyn a little better, I asked her if it was her or Shelly who had the last name of Beans. She just grinned.
"Neither one of us. We opened this place so women would have a safe place to meet other women. I'm sure you've heard the old saying - flicking the bean. That's why we named it Beans. We figured all we'd have here were women. The gay guys were a surprise."
She and Marilyn had figured there wasn't any place in town where lesbians could go to meet up if they were much over thirty. There were a couple of clubs downtown, but they were noisy and full of young kids. They wanted to make a place where older women would feel safe and not have young girls whisper about them because of their age.
On any given night, there will be a few mature guys in Beans too, but they'll be with each other. I've never seen a straight guy in Beans hitting on one of the women, but that's because Mike keeps a close eye out for anything like that. Mike is gay. He's also about six three and is built like a football guard.
I gather one young, straight guy did come into Beans when they first opened up. He looked at the women and decided he'd take one home that night. He'd had three beers and had asked six women before he figured out he didn't have a chance. That's when he started yelling about how he'd be able to convert them all if he could fuck them just once.
Marilyn and Shelly had seen this happen in the clubs downtown, so they'd hired Mike for just such a situation. Mike walked over to the guy, tapped him on the shoulder, and said, "Mr. I think it's time for you to go home. Are you going to walk out by yourself, or am I going to have to help you".
The guy left under his own power, and apparently the word spread about Beans because it hasn't happened again.
You're probably thinking I'm one of those gay guys who like Beans because other gay guys go there, but you'd be wrong. I'm straight, about as straight as a man can get. If that's the case, you'll be thinking then why would I go to a gay and lesbian bar in the first place?
It was more of an accident than anything else. I didn't know what Beans was the first time I went. I'd just heard two women talking about it at work and decided since I like jazz and hate noisy bars, Beans would probably be a place I'd like.
It was only seven and Beans had just opened when I walked in. There were a few women sitting at the tables, but in my experience, that's not really all that unusual. Most women go to bars to meet men, and some of them get there early so they have longer for that meet-up. It's also usual that they go to bars at least with one other woman.
It was dark enough inside I couldn't really tell how old they were, but that wouldn't have told me much anyway. Women are dressing and acting a lot younger than their mothers today, so a woman in sexy clothes doesn't have to be twenty-five anymore.
It wasn't until I sat down at the bar and Marilyn asked me what I wanted to drink I found out Beans wasn't what I thought it was. She smiled at me, but the smile was a little odd.
"I'm Marilyn. What can I get you tonight?"
I said I'd like a Miller, so she stepped to the bin of ice and pulled out a longneck, popped the cap, and sat it on the bar.
"It's our happy hour, so that'll be two dollars. It'll go up to three in an hour, so if you want another one at this price, be sure to let me know before eight."
I handed her three ones. Marilyn grinned, put one in her tip jar, and the other two in her register. Then she smiled at me again.
"Haven't seen you in here before. You new in town?"
"No, not really. I just heard this place is quiet and you play jazz."
Marilyn looked at me and smiled that funny smile again.
