Clementine’s – St. Louis T-Shirt Opened: 1978 • Closed: 2014
For more than thirty five years, Clementine’s was a steady presence in St. Louis’s gay nightlife — a welcoming, no-frills bar where the city’s LGBTQ community gathered night after night. Opening in 1978, it became known as a reliable neighborhood spot: strong drinks, familiar faces, and a crowd that skewed more about connection than spectacle.
Clementine’s wasn’t chasing trends or reinventing itself every few years. It offered consistency — a place where regulars held court, newcomers found their footing, and conversations mattered just as much as the music. In a city where queer spaces came and went, Clementine’s endured, quietly doing the work of community building.
When it closed in 2014, it marked the loss of one of St. Louis’s longtime gay bars — not flashy, not loud, but deeply woven into the fabric of everyday queer life in the city.
