The Lexington Club

19th and Lexington, between Mission and Valencia

The truth is that I love this place because the first time I went there I met this girl named Sarah, and she was with her posse and she was totally drunk and she kicked my ass at pool anyway and I fell in love. I can't say that this is a reason to go to the Lexington Club, mostly because I haven't seen her there since, but I've had a good experience with the Lex from the start and continue to enjoy every night at this place.

It's a one-room corner bar with a pool table, pinball machine, chairs and tables in the dark spots and an amazing jukebox -- I'm talking Aretha, De La, Tribe and Prince. This is the kind of place to go to hang with your people. Don't expect anything more than its perfection as a neighborhood bar -- Lexington is not a club. Pull up to the bar on high stools and order from a wide range of draft beers, and if Moira is working when you order a Guiness, she'll pour it over a spoon and let it sit.

The easiest way to spot this place, besides the pink neon sign, is by all the lovely smokers outside the front doors. This is where I was standing the night we heard gun shots a block away, and then saw a couple who had just left the Lexington running back toward the bar. Exciting! All the 5-0's zoomed up in silence, too late to be effective, and those of us who hadn't met had something to talk about. The Mission's kind of sketchy in places, and although friendly fire in the neighborhood is not exactly a selling point for my favorite bar, it only happened once, and nobody got hurt, and you know this doesn't happen near the Royal Oak, so it really makes the place more interesting.

The coolest thing about the Lexington is the atmosphere, a direct result of the people who work and go there. I've never met a bartender here I didn't dig, and they divide their time serving drinks to the people they haven't met and hanging with the people they have who sit at the bar. Although a fair amount of customers journey from the Bay Area to come here for the night, the feel is always low-key. It gets packed on the weekends, but the place is equally satisfying on a weeknight. It's a good place to start out or to close, and if you close, you'll meet the tamales lady. She comes in around 2 a.m. with a cooler of steaming, home-made tamales for around two bucks a pop, and until she arrives you don't realize how hungry you are, and how much you wanted exactly what she's selling. So from beginning to end, a night out at the Lexington Club makes a person happy, and happy to be a dyke. What more can you ask for from a neighborhood pub?

Jenny Pritchett

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