While Pride month (June) is the most significant LGBTQ commemoration, there are several opportunities in the fall to celebrate the rights of this still-marginalized community. Bisexual Awareness Week is celebrated September 16-22, October is LGBTQ History Month (with National Coming Out Day on the 11th), and November is Transgender Awareness Month.
As we approach these milestones, most of which are sadly linked to violent actions against gay people and businesses (like the Stonewall Uprising of 1969), Digital Journal reached out to Tommy Greco, co-owner of The Ritz Bar & Lounge, a popular gay venue on Restaurant Row in New York that is celebrating its own milestone with its 17th year in business next month.
While not the oldest continually operated gay bar in NYC (that would be Julius in Greenwich Village) nor in America (Café Lafitte in Exile in New Orleans’ French Quarter opened in 1933), it is still impressive that the bar has survived nearly 2 decades in mid-town Manhattan.
Digital Journal: How did you get started in the nightclub business?
Tommy Greco: I’ve been a bartender since college in the early 90s. I was friends with the owners of some clubs and restaurants who were always looking to get college kids to come to their venues for things like holiday parties. I started to help them promote parties on campus. I was their “Hartford guy.” I did this for a few years while I pursued my career in finance.
DJ: You had a career in finance?
Greco: Yeah, that’s what I studied in college. I ended up getting a job as an equities trader in NY. So that was my day job, but I would be out bartending and promoting and attending parties at night and on weekends.
DJ: So how does an equities trading bartender end up owning a gay bar in midtown Manhattan?
Greco: When I was in Hartford, I used to bartend at a club called Velvet, and the best shift to have was Sunday night – because in New England, Sunday night was the big “gay” night. Great tippers! So, I made a bunch of gay friends over the years, and would go to parties with them at Twilo, and would help them promote parties as well.
DJ: You were doing all this while trading stocks during the day?
Greco: For a while, yes, but after the dot-com bubble burst and then September 11, I just didn’t want to do the equity trading anymore. So, I went to help my brother run a gay bar he owned on 51st street called Posh, which wasn’t doing well at all.
DJ: How did you do?
Greco: I literally turned it into one of the hottest local gay bars in Hell’s Kitchen. When I convinced Javier Azula, who was super popular, to come tend bar for me, we started turning it around. When he eventually started DJing for me, we started catering to the off-duty Broadway actors and dancers who don’t work Monday nights – offering $2 Margaritas. Soon after, Posh was named Get Out! Magazine’s “Best late-night bar in NYC.”
DJ: So how did the Ritz come about?
Greco: I found this place on 46th street – a comedy club. It was a bit of an eyesore, so, with help from my friend, Jimmy Glenn, who’s an attorney, I took it over and started renovating it. I was a 29-year-old kid and when the other tenants on Restaurant Row found out it was going to be a gay bar, they lost their minds! The building inspector was at the site daily, trying to find a reason to shut down construction. But I fought and got it done in 2 and a half months.
DJ: How did the local restaurants react after you opened?
Greco: It’s amazing how quickly they turned around when – all of a sudden – hundreds of beautiful, wealthy gay men were hitting their restaurants before going to The Ritz. It got so popular, we had lines 7 days a week. They went from hating me, to stopping me on the street – offering ice, and anything I needed.
DJ: You’re married with two kids. So how does that play into all this?
Greco: I met my wife when I was running Posh. But I really didn’t get to know her until I started building the Ritz. Her family owned the restaurant next door. We dated on and off for a while…but because she was in the restaurant business, and she also had relatives who were LGBT, she understood what I was doing – a lot better than someone else could.
She knew I’d sometimes be bringing people through our apartment (which was above the Ritz) so they could go to the club without being “outed.” And she also knew I was coming home at 5 a.m. most nights. Then, when we had kids, they lived with us above the club, and they knew what it was about too, and we taught them to be ok with all of it.
DJ: If someone were to open a bar or nightclub in the city today, what advice would you give them?
Greco: My advice is – you can’t be cookie-cutter. Don’t offer just one thing. If you want to succeed, mix up who you have in the club on different nights – switch up the DJ, make one night for Latin music, one night for college kids, one night for 80s Pop. Whatever. You can’t always be all things to all people, but you can certainly attract all people if you offer them a little bit of what they like at least some of the time.
