She says San Diego lesbians in those days were “spoiled” with three venues to choose from: Club Bombay (later renamed Six Degrees), The Flame, and another called Patti’s Bar. Girton settled in San Diego in 1999-a time when, she remembers, women weren’t welcome at boys bars. Gossip, the block’s sole dive intended for women, stands out among them. We’re in San Diego’s historic gayborhood, as the locals call it, on a stretch of University Avenue that is home to at least six gay bars (boys bars, as Girton calls them). We sit at a high-top table on the perimeter of the dance floor, chatting about how she opened this bar 12 years ago the doors are open to the patio and I can feel the velvet sun, ubiquitous over Hillcrest, warming my legs. She’s sporting loud paisley prints in all shades of blue-a party of one at 3 p.m. Moe Girton’s white-blonde faux-hawk floods cotton-candy pink under Gossip Grill’s disco balls and neon lights.
