Longtime drinking spot The Gold Dust Lounge is reopening Friday afternoon at San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf with much fanfare–a covered wagon procession and appearances from a famous cowboy actor and plenty of local dignitaries are just part of the festivities.
The Gold Dust Lounge grand reopening will begin near the original Union Square location at 3:15 p.m. with bar owners from the Bovis family saluting the old spot at 247 Powell St. from a motorized cable car, according to bar publicist Lee Houskeeper.
The cable car is part of a procession starting on Powell Street and making its way to 165 Jefferson St., the new locale of the bar that was shut down last spring after the owners lost the lease after nearly 80 years near Union Square.
The procession will be headed by a horse-drawn covered wagon carrying San Francisco local actor Stuart Whitman, who will be celebrating his 85th birthday on Friday at the bar reopening.
Whitman is known for his role as Jim Crown on the western television series Cimarron Strip in the 1960s.
The processional is expected to arrive at Fisherman’s Wharf by 4 p.m. where San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, Supervisors David Chiu, Jane Kim, Scott Weiner, Carmen Chu, London Breed, Norman Yee and police and fire chiefs Greg Suhr and Joanne Hayes-White, and District Attorney George Gascon and state Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, will cut the ribbon at the new 2,700-square-foot space that has recreated the well-known, albeit somewhat smaller, Powell Street bar.
Details from the marquee, bar stools and wall murals have been replicated in the new location–along with the same affordable prices for drinks, Houskeeper said.
The bar’s stalwart band, Johnny Z and the Camaros, will be entertaining patrons inside the bar, while a brass band will play during the procession leading up to the opening, Houskeeper said.
By 7 p.m. the bar will be open to the public if there is any room among the specially-invited longtime supporters that led a campaign last year to “Save the Gold Dust Lounge” building and ultimately followed the watering hole to its new digs.
On Saturday, patrons can stop by after 7 p.m. after an afternoon private opening weekend celebration, Houskeeper said.
A full house is expect Sunday to cheer on the 49ers at a Super Bowl viewing party at the new location.
On Sunday doors open at 8 a.m.
Sasha Lekach, Bay City News
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