‘Remarkable persistence’: Mobile LGBTQ nightclub, B-Bob’s, celebrates 30th anniversary

Brand Leege will celebrate the 100th anniversary of his family’s shoe repair business this weekend by doing absolutely nothing.

He wouldn’t want it any other way.

“I’m going home,” said Leege, owner of the Dauphine Shoeteria. “Putting my feet up.”

But directly across the street – at B-Bob’s – the party will just be getting started as one of the oldest and continuously operating LGBTQ night clubs in Alabama celebrates its 30th anniversary.

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Advertised for tonight is Las Vegas drag performer, Derrick Berry of Ru Paul’s Drag Race. Also on tap is the unveiling of one of Mobile’s first roof top bars, the Nxt LvL Skybar, atop B-Bob’s.

Leege might not be at the party, but he is proud of B-Bob’s anniversary that will be – ironically – celebrated at the same time as his business.

“I couldn’t have better neighbors,” said Leege, proudly.

While the two establishments have nothing in common, and their businesses are separated by 70 years, they share an area of downtown Mobile that could soon receive historical recognition for the significance to Alabama’s LGBTQ community.

Said Carol Hunter, spokesperson of the Downtown Mobile Alliance, “We don’t just welcome, we seek diversity not only with the uses of our buildings but also in the customers for those businesses and the residents who come downtown. That’s a real strength of downtown is its inclusivity.”

It’s a recognition that comes at a time when Mobile is bucking a trend in Alabama and beyond amid a growing number of LGBTQ bar and night club closures. Of the eight so-called “gay bars” in Alabama listed in 2021, five are in Mobile.

In 1992, when B-Bob’s first opened, there were 17 gay bars in Alabama, with six of them being in Mobile, according to numbers gathered by the Damron Guide, the online resource to LGBTQ-friendly establishments worldwide.

Some cities in this Bible Belt state do not have any LGBTQ night clubs or bars on the list: Montgomery, Florence, Anniston, and Auburn, to name a few.

“For Mobile, that’s remarkable persistence,” said Greggor Mattson, a professor of Sociology at Oberlin College in Ohio, who researchers the declining trend of LGBTQ bars in the U.S.

“The country saw a 51% decline in gay bar business listings during that time, but Mobile only lost one bar,” said Mattson. “The state of Alabama lost about half its bars, which is what we would expect. But Mobile has retained a remarkable percentage of its bars.”

West Mobile roots

Mattson credits much of that success to Jerry Ehlen, the mild-mannered, 63-year-old owner of B-Bob’s and Flip Side Bar & Patio on Conception Street.

Ehlen has been the sole proprietor of B-Bob’s for almost all the venue’s 30-year history. B-Bob’s is the second oldest continuously operating LGBTQ bar in Mobile, trailing only Gabriel’s Downtown – located less than one block away on Joachim Street – by a few months.

Carl Eccles, who has been the owner of Gabriel’s for the past 25 years, said the historic occasions for both venues is something he is proud of.

“Absolutely fabulous,” said Eccles, whose establishment celebrated its 30th anniversary on April 26. He started as a bartender at Gabriel’s in 1992, before eventually taking it over. Gabriel’s, which is listed online as “Alabama’s oldest alternative bar” is a more laid-back establishment that can also be a popular hangout on weekends.

Ehlen, whose venue attracts entertainers around the country, said he often has to describe the city’s vibrant LGBTQ nightlife scene to them when they arrive.

“I will get entertainers who come here, and they will tell me, ‘I’ve never been to Alabama before,’” said Ehlen. “I’ll tell them, ‘you’re not the first person to say this.’ Alabama has this reputation. But I also feel that the coastal cities have a different level of acceptance that is more moderate. They have a different mindset than those other areas of the state.”

Ehlen moved to Mobile in 1992 from Chicago with the hopes of operating a restaurant and bar catering to the LGBTQ community.

B-Bob’s opened in October that year in west Mobile and became the only LGBTQ bar west of Interstate 65.

The struggles were immediate, Ehlen said.

“When I first opened, I had a partner but after three months, there were a lot of struggles and I signed off and bought off his part right before Mardi Gras hit,” Ehlen recalled.

During those early months, no one was showing up to the new establishment that opened within the Plaza de Malaga along Airport Boulevard, across from a Texas Roadhouse restaurant.

“The of February (1993) was crickets,” said Ehlen. “I did $500 for the entire month as far as sales just because everyone was downtown with parades. I had no idea what was going on. It was just a lot of struggles.”

Ehlen made some connections with people familiar with the LGBTQ bar scene at the time and was able to slowly grow the business. It eventually became the go-to establishment in for the LGBTQ community within the western part of the city that was far removed from the city’s downtown.

In the late 90s, Ehlen said he had to deal with a pattern of harassment and vandalism. Flattened tires and sprayed-painted cars became a headache, and police would often get called out for violations to the city’s noise ordinance.

“A neighbor would call the police four to five times a week and the guy had me arrested once saying that I violated the noise ordinance,” said Ehlen. “Case was dropped because he didn’t show up.”

Downtown renaissance

Ehlen decided to move his venue downtown not so much because of the growing problems, but because he wanted to purchase his own building.

He ended up buying a newly renovated building along Conti Street that once housed The Mixx and reopened it as B-Bob’s in 2002. The purchase turned out to be a wise investment. At the time, downtown was suffering from vacant properties and less of an attractive nightlife than it currently features.

“I was in the right place at the right time,” Ehlen said. “I built relationships with the people who were downtown. It was welcoming, but at the same time, it’s friendly competition. We had become successful in west Mobile, but I was in west Mobile, and my competitors were downtown. All of a sudden, I was their neighbor. I think people were happy to see me come downtown, but they were also like, ‘What’s he going to do?’”

Over the years, B-Bob’s became a rollicking night club that drew entertainers far and wide. The venue is still a popular stop for touring drag performers, some of whom are among the best within the industry.

“We bring the headliners from Ru Paul’s Drag Race, and we’re the only place on the coast other than Panama City Beach (that attracts the performers),’ Ehlen said. “I’ve had good rapport with the management who represent the different entertainers.”

Ehlen also has maintained good relations with local drag performers who called B-Bob’s home.

“He just came from nowhere and fell in love with Mobile and moved here and decided to open a bar,” said Cie Rogers, otherwise known by her stage name as “Miss Cie.” Rogers performs every Friday and Saturday night at B-Bob’s and has been performing in drag in Mobile for the past 41 years.

“We are very, very happy for Jerry,” said Rogers.

Rooftop expansion

The 30th anniversary also coincides with an expansion.

Ehlen said he paid off the building in 2020 and was able to begin saving for the construction of a rooftop bar. While rooftop bars are common in large cities, they are almost non-existent in Mobile.

Nxt LvL Skybar will have its soft opening this weekend, and a grand opening in November.

“Initially, I would go up there to do maintenance and would look around and think, ‘this would be a great view,’” said Ehlen. “In Chicago, there are rooftop bars in the city at different places. I saw them popping up in Nashville. They were in Savannah. I was like, ‘well, this is probably a thing I should pursue.’”

Hunter said aside from Greer’s Market on St. Louis Street, which has a rooftop patio, no other venue in Mobile has a rooftop bar. GRACE on Dauphin, once it opens, will also have a rooftop bar.

“We’ll go from no rooftop bars to three in the course of 12 months and that is exciting,” she said.

B-Bob’s is also embracing a trend that is illustrative of the mix of crowds LGBTQ night clubs have attracted over the past five years, Ehlen said. He said his venue will draw, on weekends, a “50-50 mix” of LGBTQ and straight couples. That mix comes as the LGBTQ lifestyles and culture become more mainstream in the aftermath of the landmark 2015 U.S. Supreme Court case, Obergefell v. Hodges, which permitted same-sex couples the right to marry.

“I think what is happening right now is that there is a certain amount of mainstreaming of the LGBTQ identity happening because of popular culture,” said Joshua Burford, co-founder of the Invisible Histories Project in Birmingham, which is coordinating on a project to establish a historic marker commemorating the LGBTQ social scene along Conti Street.

“You are seeing straight people in queer bars now more than ever because (LGBTQ) bars are more open and interesting than the spaces they are in,” Burford said. “It does feel different now. It’s a delicate mix. If you go into a gay bar anywhere in the world, you are not being asked to self-identify as straight or gay. No one is asking for your identity at the door. Those are spaces that are open to everyone.”

Increased visibility

B-Bob’s is also one of the more visible bars in downtown Mobile thanks to a mural, created by artist Hannah Legg, which serves as a “symbol of progress” for the community in Mobile, according to former Rainbow Mobile president Bryan Fuenmayor. The mural is a multi-colored rainbow with the inscription “Love Wins in Mobile.” The city’s downtown skyline is also featured on it.

“I would say 15 years ago, maybe 10 years ago, no one would have done it,” he said, noting that the mural has been included in City of Mobile publications. “It’s a sign that much progress has been made.”

Ehlen said he was initially weary of having he mural on the exterior wall and fretted over the same worries of decades ago.

“I wanted to do it, but I was having flashbacks to west Mobile, and I was like, ‘they are going to burn my building down right when I’ve paid it off,’” said Ehlen.

Aside from a few social media posts, there was no backlash, he said.

Mobile city leaders, themselves, have taken to increasing LGBTQ visibility and Ehlen’s establishments – B-Bob’s and Flip Side Bar & Patio – have been at the center of hosting them.

The city, in February, hired two LGBTQ liaisons who are focused on increasing the community’s visibility throughout Mobile. The liaisons recently held a town hall meeting at Flip Side, which is located near B-Bob’s.

The hiring of the two liaisons, however, was not without controversy. The Mobile Baptist Association’s executive committee, earlier this fall, met with Mayor Sandy Stimpson to express their concerns about the appointments and urged the city consider a “religious liberty” ordinance. That is currently not under consideration.

The liaisons are also charged with improving Mobile’s Equality Index rating published each year by the Human Rights Campaign. Mobile scored a 19 out of 100 last year, a rating considered failing. Birmingham, by comparison, is at 100.

But despite the advancements in Mobile, Burford said it’s becoming a “scary” time for the LGBTQ community as political backlash arises over as the community’s visibility has increased.

He said an LGBTQ bar in Birmingham recently suffered vandalism, and that political blowback on health care rights for transgender youths, among other issues, is resurrecting fears shared by previous generations.

“It would be a misstatement to say things have changed,” Burford said. “Things are scary now and scary in a way I haven’t felt since I was kid.”

Ehlen, though, is hopeful the increase the community’s visibility more in downtown Mobile with a historic marker that would recognize the Conti Street area’s contribution to the LGBTQ community in Alabama.

He said that there is over 50 years of history involving LGBTQ bars and businesses within the area, which would make the district eligible for a historic marker.

Ehlen, Burford and others are working to see that one can get installed. And it could be information provided by Leege, at the Dauphine Shoeteria, who could make it all happen.

Leege said he can recall when Stein and Still operated as a LGBTQ friendly bar more than 50 years ago at 217 Conti St., which would have been right next door to B-Bob’s.

Leege, himself, has been at the family shoe business since a stint in the U.S. Navy in 1968.

“Jerry runs a good business over there,” said Leege. “They watch me at night, and I watch them during the daytime.”

Regarding the 30th anniversary, he added, “I think it’s a good thing.”