TheHeidelberg

Heidelberg postcard, undated. The back reads: ''Heidelberg Diningroom & Lounge. 1479 Dresden Row. German Specialties: schnitzel, sauer braten, schwarzwalder tarte, haxe rotkraut, etc. Weekly noon cold & hot buffet at family prices in the lounge. Catering for private office parties & social functions. Party trays: sandwiches, cold treats.''

The Heidelberg

Gay hangout in the mid to late '70s.

The entrance on Birmingham St, with the restaurant one flight of stairs up. Had a jukebox.

1970s

Stories

NilsClausson writes: I think it was a lounge frequented by gays and not a club. Until the Turret opened, there were no gay bars or lounges in Halifax, and so gays frequented sraight bars to drink, and the Heidelberg was one of them. John Marr tells me that the the Heidleberg Restaurant and Lounge, owned by Heinze Morstadt, was located on Dresden Row on block south of the Dresden Arms Hotel, but on the opposite side of Spring Garden Road. I recall going to it either just before I left Halifax in 1976 or during my visit later that year (at Christmas) or in the summer of 1977. JohnMarr wrote to me in an email, "It has a history of deciding to be a gay bar, then changing quickly to having bouncers telling us to go away, then changing back when the money looked good."

NorvalCollins tells a story of one person who would perch on a stool with his face apparently reading a newspaper -- with eye holes cut out so he could scan the scenery.

John Jayne writes: Well the rumours were true, the Maitre'D there was gay and all the servers and bus boys. Now here's a story about the Maitre'd the kitchen where I worked. He had to come down a flight of stairs to report to the owners and give them the paperwork. One day he came down and one of the Chef's, who was Hungarian, told him he had a gift for his birthday. Then the Chef goes to the bread oven opens the door and pulls out a large aluminum tray and on it was an enormous loaf of bread in the shape of a penis, complete with poppy seed pubic hair and some red food colour at the end of it. He smiled and said "thank you so much it's what I always wanted." The cooks I worked with, myself included, laughed so hard we had to take a break.1

RandyKennedy: This was the first "Gay bar" I ever went to and is where I heard about The Turret. I was under age but managed to pass and it became a regular haunt. William MacKinnon AKA MissIris and I performed there on the closing night in drag . Iris played the piano and we both sang Those Were The Days. Many fun nights were spent there. My drinks of the day were either a Keiths with tomato juice or a Sinapore Sling.

AlexYoung? writes: There was a time when Lynn Grant was a DJ and we danced there. She was also known as Lara Foxx. It was fun but then bye bye. Then we went up windsor street across from the to a resturant called Le Stockage with a dance room was open for us to dance again Lara Foxx was the DJ. Michael Bona used to go there on Thursday nights….

This page is in the GayBars section of the HistoryProject.