Eagle Beer Bust Benefit For Tenderloin Tessie at The Eagle in San Francisco CA
Events. At SF Eagle , 398 12th Street, San Francisco, CA. United states.
Sunday September 1 2024, 3:00pm
Eagle Beer Bust Benefit For Tenderloin Tessie at The Eagle in San Francisco CA
Sunday, September 1, 2024 - 3:00PM to 7:00PM PST
$20 for all the Beer, Juice, or Soda you can drink between 3-7 pm and it includes Food.
For those not wanting to do the BB, you can have just Food for $5.
Raffle: 1st Place $50 Gift Card, 2nd Place $25 Gift Card
(Or prizes of equal value or more)
Possible Auction
Possible Jell-O Shots > $2 each or 3 for $5
All proceeds go to Tenderloin Tessie Holiday Dinners.
To Donate ahead or after the Event go to TenderloinTessie.com
About Tenderloin Tessie:
For over 50 years, Tenderloin Tessie Holiday Dinners, an all-volunteer organization, has fed the community of San Francisco on Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. They work hard to prepare a bountiful meal, a smile, and a gift to all of our patrons in a welcoming environment.
Their dinners average a thousand people each holiday and take place at the First Unitarian Church at the corner of Franklin Street and Geary Boulevard.
Tessie was the drag name of Perry Spink, a local performer/bartender who was very familiar with the people and characters of the Tenderloin District in San Francisco during the 60s and 70s. Legend has it that on Thanksgiving in 1974, he received several turkeys and was inspired to cook and serve them to the local Tenderloin residents (with the help of less-than-sober bar buddies). It was a gesture that showed the San Francisco Community that no matter who you were; there was someone who cared.
The dinners continued on a monthly basis for a while. It was a Godsend for the little blue-haired women of the neighborhood who were trying to live off meager social security checks. These dinners, served on the last Thursdays of the month, garnered Tessie many honors and she earned the title of Empress 15 in 1980.
Along with the dinners, Tessie started the tradition of giving gift bags along with the meals, a tradition that lives on today. These bags contain donated items such as toiletries, socks, gloves, and an assortment of non-perishable food.
Sadly, Tessie died in 1984 but the meals continued on an uneven basis. Three years later, the name Tenderloin Tessie Holiday Dinners was created and the meals became a holiday tradition on Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. They were served at a church on the corner of Eddy and Gough and began focusing on the needs of those suffering from AID’s and the growing number of homeless throughout the city.
The meals were a very satisfying way to help the community but were becoming very large and were a great deal of work and stress for the few volunteers who loosely made up the board at the time. The program suffered a severe blow when the church burned to the ground in 1995. With the board in limbo and no place to stage the meals, many members felt it was time to move on.
A new board came together and the meals were moved to the present location, the First Unitarian Universalist Church on Franklin and Geary. Since that time, the organization has become a non-profit and is stronger than ever and always mindful of the original mission of Tenderloin Tessie to help anyone in need.
In 2004 a new board took over with Michael Gagne as the board president. He added clothing from St. Anthony's and live entertainment, by the songstress of Tenderloin Tessie, Vanessa Bousay. Various other things have been added throughout the 20 years Michael has been involved: Free showers by Lava Mae, an Open House coming to see if any LGBT seniors need housing, free phones given away, people to check if clients needed help with Medicare and to this day - free haircuts by Love Cuts ~ a pop-up barber shop.
About The Eagle SF:
The SF Eagle is a brand that has grown to embody the heritage of the venue it supports. Established in 1981 as one of the first “Leather” bars, the SF Eagle caters to the local LGBTQ+ community. The SF Eagle gained a reputation for its ultra-masculine patronage, initially a stark contrast to popular conceptions of gay men in the early 1980’s.
Through remarkable periods of exuberance, revolutions in cultural expression, and the profound hardship of the AIDS epidemic, the SF Eagle remains an enduring symbol of pride to the LGBTQ+ community in San Francisco’s West SoMa district.
Over the past 40 years, the SF Eagle has emerged as a rallying point, and community hub, attracting a vibrant and evolving patronage that makes the venue an integral part of San Francisco’s diverse character on the frontier of human social expression.
There are a number of clubs, in cities across America that take on the Eagle name. Borrowing from the strength and inherent affection for a classically American symbol, the Eagle brand is a spiritual franchise, prominent in the cultural awareness of the community it serves, with each bar in their respective cities remaining independently operated establishments.
The SF Eagle has played a major part in Pride celebrations, the Leather Pride Parade, and the emergence of the Folsom Street Fair and the Dore Alley Fair, including the largest community gatherings in San Francisco, drawing millions of tourists to the city annually. Many local fraternal organizations rely on the venue as a meeting place, both formally and informally, to raise contributions at charitable events, recruit membership, and communicate their mission, values, and function.
The club also sponsors local amateur sports teams and holds an annual contest to elect “Mr. SF Eagle Leather” as a participant in the International Mr. Leather (“IML”) competition.
These efforts along with many other spontaneous and seasonal expressions of joy, underscore the substantial influence the SF Eagle has had in shaping local traditions, the tourist trade, and the regional economy.
The SF Eagle is a counterpoint to mainstream culture while sharing many of the same ideals supporting strength in the community. We value diversity and hold a commitment to enabling the expression of joy, improving the quality of life for those identifying as LGBTQ+ and the people who care about them, wherever they may be.
The SF Eagle’s mission is to preserve the legacy, history, and traditions of the LGBTQ+ and Leather communities it was created to serve and to provide and protect a safe and supportive environment allowing its patronage the freedom to be exactly who they are. The bar has transitioned through changes of ownership in its forty-year history while retaining its central role as a focal point for the local community.
In 2012, the bar was acquired by Mike Leon and Lex Montiel, both major proponents of the Leather community in San Francisco. Rekindling the spirit of the SF Eagle was no easy task, and Mike and Lex worked tirelessly to make necessary improvements to the venue.
In 2019, Mike Leon was taken from us, and not long after, the bar once again faced the challenge of survival during the year-long lockdown of the CV-19 pandemic.
Though the going has been tough, Lex Montiel carries on the traditions and values that contribute to the venue’s loyal patronage. Honoring Mike’s legacy has been a major source of strength and resolve for the entire SF Eagle Family.
In 2019, the City of San Francisco authorized the establishment of a new city park, the Eagle Plaza, adjacent to the legendary bar, in honor of the SF Eagle’s proud history.
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