Fifteen years ago, Sandy Sachs never dreamed that she would become the powerhouse club promoter and DJ that she is now. “I wanted to be a movie star,” she admits. But soon after she moved to Los Angeles to be an actor, she found herself co-hosting (with partner Robin Gans) a small women’s night at a gay men’s video bar — an event that grew into the weekly Friday night lesbian dance club Girl Bar in West Hollywood. Since then the club has expanded to Las Vegas with plans to expand into Phoenix, and Girl Bar is producing its very own package of parties at Dinah Shore Weekend this month. And in case that’s not enough, Sachs DJs every weekend at the Friday night Girl Bar in Los Angeles and manages her own state-of-the-art gym. We caught up with her between gigs for an insider’s look at what makes Girl Bar tick, and which celebrities have partied with the posh L.A. lesbian crowd.

Your Dinah Shore lineup looks great this year.
The entertainment is great but the biggest entertainment that we have are the girls themselves. The girls are going for the girls.

Do you go to all the parties?
Every one of them.

Oh my goodness.
You know, [at] 29 and 30, it was OK. Now, it’s like oh my God. … Last Dinah Shore, Robin was like, ‘I’m sorry, I can’t go. I’m so dead, I can’t make it.’ Passed out on the couch. … Oh my God, we were so tired.

Do you have any plans to go to the golf tournament while you’re at Dinah Shore?
No, God no. I went once. One year out of all the years that we’ve been out there, I went because … a college buddy of mine was dating Rosie Jones. I have to say that was just an interesting experience. I never did so much walking in my life. Walk, walk, walk, walk, walk — [that’s] all you do. They hit a ball, walk a mile, hit a ball, walk a mile. So I said, “You know, it’s the kind of thing I’d rather watch on TV.” So I don’t have to do so much walking.

So you’re much more of a party girl than a golfer.
Yeah, hate to say it. Yeah.

Well, it makes sense. How do you and Robin divvy up the responsibilities of producing Girl Bar?
We do it very well actually. I tell you, out of all the partners that I’ve had, she’s my favorite. We’re just really good at identifying what she’s good at, what she takes care of, what I take care of, and then we have a lot of managers under us who we get to delegate to.

I wanted to go back a little bit. I haven’t read too much about the early days of Girl Bar and I’m interested to know what motivated you to open it in the first place.
It was sort of a thing where we were thrown into it, you know? It wasn’t … [as if] we ever said, “Hey, let’s move to Los Angeles and let’s do a Girl Bar.” It wasn’t like that. Robin was down here for the restaurant business, and I came out here to be an actor. I wanted to be a movie star.

That’s why everyone goes to L.A.
Exactly. That’s the only reason to go to L.A. So I did move and I was in the acting scene for a while. I was [also] managing a men’s video bar called Revolver. And I hired Robin. … She was working for a really big restaurant group, and they wanted her to move to Chicago, and I said, “I am not moving to Chicago. Get it? The weather sucks. Not moving to Chicago.” I was the G.M. of this men’s video bar, so I hired her to work with me … and the weirdest thing started happening: Women just started showing up.

And this was a gay men’s video store?
Gay men’s video bar.

Oh, it was a bar.
Yeah, it was really weird. I wasn’t hired as the G.M., trust me. I had to pound that pavement and push my way through to get an assistant to the manager’s job. And within three weeks I became the general manager, which is kind of wild, because it was all gay guys and me. That’s pretty much always the story. So with the Robin and me there, it’s like the word got out that there are these lesbians running this men’s video bar, and women just started showing up. … The bar was split up into a back bar area and then the much bigger front area, and we said, “Why don’t we do Thursday nights in the little back bar for women, since they all seem to be showing up and that way it would seem more organized?” And we called it the “Girl Bar.” That’s how it started. And then from that we took over the whole place on Wednesdays once a month, and then the owner of the big club Studio One came and saw what we were doing, and he said, “Why don’t you come and do this in the back lot?” You know, the smaller part of Studio One on Friday nights. We were like, “Oh, I don’t know, it’s so big.” In 1990 we had our grand opening and you know, we did it. We’ve been in this building ever since. Now I own the building. Now I own the club.

Wow. And now you’ve expanded to Las Vegas, as well.
Oh my God, yeah. It’s killing us, but we’re having a good time in Vegas. We’re here every Friday, and we’re in Las Vegas every Saturday, so it’s a long haul. Mind you, we’re not there every single Saturday; we couldn’t do it. We hired a manager in Las Vegas, who’s great. So I’ve been there like twice a month. We do Mega Girl Bar, which is the big Girl Bar where we bring dancers in from Los Angeles. As far as DJs go, we’ve got an L.A. DJ in there every weekend who they absolutely love. Love. Our DJs have got the formula down for girls. They’re just the toughest market, musically.

What kind of music do you play?
The key is to play a little bit of everything. We don’t play a great deal of anything in particular. We play hip-hop, but we don’t play all hip-hop. We play house, but we don’t play all house. We’ll do some retro, we’ll play some ’70s, we’ll play a little bit of ’80s, dance stuff. At the beginning of the night we play lounge music. We really give the girls a wide variety because we have a wide variety of people. The only thing we don’t play is country. We’ll throw in punk music, we’ll throw in a little Latin set here and there. We just play a wide variety and we just have found that keeps our crowd the most diverse and keeps everybody coming.

In Las Vegas I guess you must get a predominantly tourist crowd.
It’s a tourist crowd; it gets women from all over. Last weekend I was there, we had a table of 10; they were all NYPD. All these women were NYPD cops and detectives. They’re all coming to Dinah Shore. And the next table was a gal I knew from Los Angeles, and she was celebrating her birthday, so we had a table of 10 there. And then next to that booth was a table of six from the U.K. And then another group there was from Phoenix. It’s very interesting; we’ve really been having a lot of fun in Vegas.

So with all these different women coming from all over the world, what do you think the common denominator is? What do they want from their nightclub experience?
I think they want to be entertained. They want to hear music they like, and they want to be around other women. I think that the toughest part for our community is that there are just — even today — so few lesbian bars and lesbian places to go. Where are you going to go to get a room full of lesbians? Not smatterings of [lesbians], but a whole club full of lesbians. And you know, we’re the only place, practically, that has that. You think of San Francisco [as the gay mecca] … but they’re only once a month.

I feel like in San Francisco the lesbian club scene kind of goes in cycles. Like for awhile there’s stuff all the time, and then there’s a dry spell for months. I feel like San Francisco is coming out of that down period now. Do you feel like you get that kind of cycling in L.A.?
No, we’ve been pretty consistent. We’ve been every Friday night for 15 years. If nothing else — there are other events that pop up and come and go — but at least you’ve got Girl Bar on Friday nights. I think moving into 2006 — I’m in the planning stages now — I think I’m going to do once-a-month Saturdays, and do live entertainment and hire bands. You know, call it Girl Bar Live or something. A lot of people are just too tired on Fridays.

So you definitely have plans for expansion.
Yeah, at least to once a month on Saturdays here in Los Angeles. People are always like, “Why don’t you do Saturday?” I know we could get more people from greater distances because they have time to drive and they’re not tired, so I think that that’s going to be in the plan. Dinah Shore’s got us so wrapped up busy right now, though, that it’s kind of hard to focus on that. Plus I have the club on a regular basis so I have to keep that going … plus I own a gym called Fitness Factory downstairs — that’s a 15,000-square-foot gym. Plus I’ve got Vegas, plus we’ve got a restaurant that we are in construction with now that we’re hoping to open right up after Dinah Shore.

Will that be in L.A.?
Yeah, right around the corner, right on Melrose.

You’ve got a lot on your plate. I read that you are planning on or thinking about expanding to Phoenix as well?
Yeah, we’re looking at doing a monthly to start, which is how we started in Vegas. It’s kind of nice to test the waters to see if there is a market there. Even all the local girls were [saying], “Don’t go to every Saturday; you’ll never make it.” I said, “I understand from a local perspective you guys aren’t going to come out every Saturday. But what we’re finding from our clientele all over the country is that the once-a-month … they can’t make it that one time, and then they have to wait another three weeks.” I said, “I think there’s enough traffic here, and I think there’s enough people coming in from out of town that if we’re consistent — if we’re every Saturday — then we’re liable to be able to just scoop up everybody on a regular basis, as opposed to people [asking], ‘When are you? Once a month? Is it the first?” Every Saturday, you can’t miss. So it doesn’t matter when they show up; they hit us.” And sure enough, it worked. We opened up … [in Las Vegas] in November, so we did November, December, January, February, March — five months of once a month in Vegas — then in April we started every Saturday night, and it’s just been hugely successful.

Wow.
We’re busier now than we were when we first started every Saturday. It’s like it’s all catching on and everybody’s getting to know it.

How many women do you think show up every Saturday in Vegas?
We have anywhere between about three to four hundred. … And here in L.A., we have about 500. When we do our special events or scene parties every six weeks, or we have a performer, that bumps us up to six or seven hundred.

We get photos of celebrities at Girl Bar all the time, like Christina Aguilera and Paris Hilton. What do you think draws them to Girl Bar?
I think it’s the lipstick aspect — [that’s] certainly at least an image that we have — that you find lipstick lesbians here — but you find a lot of everybody else too. I think it’s that we do draw an upscale crowd, and … all these little celebs, it’s amusing. You have to figure: The life of a celebrity — what aren’t they privy to? One of our biggest fans, who’s here all the time, almost every other weekend, is Linda Perry. We reserve her the first couch … and it’s great, she brought Alicia Silverstone.

Did she ever bring Pink there?
No, not yet. But, she’s coming, I feel it: 2006, she’ll be here.

So you must have seen it all. Who’s one of the more interesting celebrities who has stopped by?
Madonna. Madonna’s been to Girl Bar a few times.

Does she bring a little entourage?
She’s actually quite shy. She actually was quite quiet when she came. One time she came and just [recruited] one of our go-go dancers. We have really, really great go-go dancers. You know, 95 percent of [our] dancers are professional dancers; they dance for shows and MTV and music videos, [and the] Janet Jackson tour and Madonna. And one of [the dancers] that she picked up —

For her tour?
Yeah, for her tour. [It’s a] pain in the ass; they take them [and we have to hire more].

That’s funny.
We’ve had a lot of celebrities come in. Pretty much, through the years, you name somebody, I bet they’ve been here. Name anybody.

Jodie Foster.
[Pause.] I heard rumors that she was here once, but I never saw her myself.

Have Ellen and Portia showed up there?
Ellen’s been here, but not with Portia. One of my most fond memories of Ellen was dancing with her out on the dance floor — and this was before she came out — telling me that she was jealous of my lifestyle because I was able to be myself and be out in what I do, because I am a lesbian club promoter. I’ll never forget that conversation. Now look at her! I was actually at her going away party in New Orleans in 1983 when she left New Orleans with her girlfriend, when she moved to San Francisco to first start being a comedian. I used to be a fan and know her brother Vance in college. … I actually knew Vance before I knew Ellen.

See, it just goes to show that all lesbians know each other.
Yeah, there’s like six degrees of separation.

There’s less. There are like three degrees.
Yeah. And then Melissa [Etheridge] — actually we did Melissa’s 40th birthday party here. … It was the only time we’ve ever cancelled Girl Bar.

Really, for Melissa Etheridge’s birthday?
Yep, she just insisted. I’m like, can’t you do it Thursday? Can’t you do it Saturday? I said, “I’ll give you a better price, anything! Does it have to be Girl Bar Friday?” She said, “Yes, it has to be Girl Bar Friday.” So we cancelled Girl Bar for her 40th birthday here.

So has Angelina Jolie ever shown up there?
No. Trust me, if she had, she’d never leave here. I just love her.

Did you hear all the tabloid gossip about her and Jenny Shimizu last December?
Yeah, that’s ridiculous. I see Jenny all the time; she comes to Girl Bar all the time, and it’s just stuff to start up gossip.

I wanted to come down for your 15th anniversary last November, but I wasn’t able to. How was it?
Oh my God, what a freaking zoo that was. We had over 1,000 people here. You couldn’t move. It was a Tokyo subway. We had women coming in from all over. I had this couple grab me … and they said, “We wanted you to know that we came all the way down from Seattle to come and celebrate with you because we’re so proud of what you and Robin have done for our community that we wanted to come support you.” I almost cried. It was really nice. I said, “Thank you so much,” and I bought ’em a drink, and God, just thought that was so touching.

That is great. Well, there aren’t very many clubs that last for 15 years, you know.
No, exactly. Exactly. And that — wait, here’s the best part — in our 15th year, we’re expanding.

Congratulations on 15 years.
Thank you. It’s gone by so fast. Except you get reminded of it. Like, OK, I could be everybody’s mother in here. We call our friends, we’re like, “Come down! We need some older people.” The good news about us is that we have some really good trouper friends of ours who are all our age who have been supporting us for 15 years, coming to the club, that we still drag out. They still come out, thank God, which is really nice because then not only do we have a whole ethnic mix of people, but we have an age group mix of people, which makes it interesting. I think it’s very cool for the 22-year-olds to meet somebody in their late 30s or early 40s hanging out, having a drink, dancing. You know, life doesn’t have to end after 25.

Search Curve    All Categories travelstoriescommerceabout   
search our shop and forums, too!