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"We are at full capacity and no longer limit how many guests are in here," Rowe said. June 21 that the restrictions that remained then - such as a mask requirement in the play space, and a 25% capacity limit - went by the wayside on June 16, one day after the great California reopening. In San Francisco, Market Street's Eros has been open since May 20, as the B.A.R. Similarly, a standard room is $31 until the same time, when it rises to $36. Other prices have not gone up: a locker is $18 until Friday night, when the price increases to $23. "You can bring a card, a photo of it on the phone, or a photocopy," Jensen said. The normal membership fee is being waived "for the time being," Jensen said, assuring that the bathhouse will not be keeping a record of anyone's vaccination information once a patron obtains the membership for which it is required. Steamworks will be asking for proof of vaccination on a patron's first visit back as a requirement for receiving a membership. Because of that, the corporate office is also working part-time, Jensen said. a lack of sufficient staff is preventing it from returning to its previous 24/7/365 schedule. The bathhouse will only be open Thursdays at 8 a.m. "We were a little nervous because we'd been closed for a year and a half, but we are relieved people are coming back." "I'm excited that our men were excited to have us back," Jensen said. Jensen said he is happy that patrons haven't permanently changed their habits during Steamworks' temporary closure due to the lockdown. "There's nothing like a real human being, face-to-face." "Apps may seem convenient, but they're not terribly human," Jensen said. Steamworks and San Francisco's Eros are the last gay sex venues that were left to reopen when California Governor Gavin Newsom gave the all-clear last week San Francisco's Blow Buddies and San Jose's the Watergarden were forced to shutter permanently due to the COVID-19 pandemic.īut something that gay bathhouses and sex clubs offer that apps like Grindr lack is the in-person experience, Jensen said, a difference that mirrors how much of society has lived for the past year and their reentry into physical interaction now. "I know for sure on Thursday we had one for over 12 hours," Curtis Jensen, Steamworks' marketing and graphics coordinator, told the Bay Area Reporter June 21. Added bonus: the drinks are cheap, and the lighting is very flattering.Patrons showing up to take a dip in the hot tub or sweat in the saunas of Steamworks Baths in Berkeley last weekend may have seen something they haven't witnessed in a while - long lines of men stretching out the door. And they mean it about the tipping, working the aisle multiple times, and you damn well better tip, or get out. It's also home to the famed Hot Boxxx Girls, a rotating cast of totally unironic drag queens who perform a host of classic pop numbers on Fridays and Saturdays for tips. These days, Aunt Charlie's plays host to several weeknight parties for fashionable alterna-homos, including the long-running Tubesteak Connexxxion on Thursdays, and the newer, karaoke-friendly High Fantasy on Tuesdays. This down and dingy Tenderloin dive is one of the last vestiges of gaydom in a neighborhood that was once full of gay bars, especially over toward Polk Street which was the original gay ghetto back in the 60s and 70s, before the Castro gained its bars and gay reputation. Speaking of San Francisco Pride and newfound marriage legality, the city (in)famous for being gay rights ground zero also has some of the greatest LGBT bars in the world.