When I think of Fleet Week, my mind goes to topless bars. Only because they offer free entry for sailors and Marines during the seven-day military takeover of San Francisco.
So I was surprised Thursday night to find eight uniformed Navy officers not at the Condor Club or the Crazy Horse in North Beach, but at Kilowatt in the Mission, a divey live-music venue. I was there on a reconnaissance mission: find out where the sailors party during Fleet Week so The Standard’s readers can hang with them. The answer? The strip clubs, yes, but also bars all over the city.
I asked the Kilowatt sailors for their plans in San Francisco.
“Drink,” shrugged Anthony Bustamante, an enlisted sailor staying on the USS Tripoli, an aircraft carrier that arrived this week at the Golden Gate carrying hundreds of armed forces members for the annual festivities of air shows, brass bands, acts of service like feeding the homeless, and debaucherous partying.
“We went to the strip clubs the last two nights,” said Bustamante, gesturing with a Modelo in his hand. “I was surprised to see a lot of the officers and higher-ups there.”
‘They’ve been on a boat for six months. They want to see the opposite sex, and they want to be treated like a VIP.’
Condor Club floor manager Joe Felder
The row of strip clubs on Broadway at the confluence of North Beach and Chinatown — the former Barbary Coast neighborhood — has long been a favorite for men in uniform. “The upper part of Pacific Street, after dark, is crowded by thieves, gamblers, low women, drunken sailors, and similar characters,” reads a 1933 San Francisco Herald clipping on the Barbary Coast. “Unsuspecting sailors and miners are entrapped by the dexterous thieves and swindlers that are always on the lookout, into these dens, where they are filled with liquor — drugged if necessary, until insensibility coming upon them, they fall an easy victim to their tempters.”
As the sun set Thursday and the aurora borealis rose over the city, a horde of seamen and jarheads jammed Grant Avenue for drinks, smokes, and live music. Shots were taken; vomit was scrubbed from pant legs. By the time the music was starting up at Tupelo, civilians were calling Waymos to take home their uniform-wearing catch of the evening. By 9 p.m., most civilian activity was on hold, and Grant Avenue was all but commandeered by enlisted men and women.
Amid the sea of service members, Michael Tello, an enlisted sailor also staying on Tripoli, said he had hit every bar on Grant. “Out of nowhere, a flood of sailors and Marines came through,” he said. “We don’t really get to do this in San Diego.”
In most port cities, enlisted personnel are required to be paired with a “buddy” and have a midnight curfew, but for San Francisco Fleet Week, the rules are but jetsam over the stern.
“Here, what really motivates us to go out is wearing our uniform,” said Tello, an enlisted sailor. “In San Diego, when we go out, it’s just a regular civilian night. But here, when everyone’s in uniform, we see our brothers, and when other people see us, they’re like, ‘Oh, shit, sailors!’”
Joe Carouba, owner of the Condor Club in North Beach, which opened in 1958 and is dubbed “the world’s first topless bar,” gives free entry to sailors and Marines during Fleet Week. Several of the floor managers are ex-Marines. Dozens of sailors packed the club Thursday around 10 p.m.
A Condor Club bouncer who identified herself as Faith S. said she sees the same faces return each year.
“You see them, and it’s like, ‘Oh, I remember you!’ When they’re here, they’re trying to enjoy life as much as possible,” she said. “They feel like they’re free for a little while. They’re rowdy, and they like to dance all night long, and they’re very respectful.”
Some are less charmed. A dancer named Dallas said it’s her second Fleet Week at the Condor Club, but she’s already over the tradition, and not because of the ear-piercing noise of the jets.
“Sometimes they’re annoying; sometimes they’re not. We can just manipulate them and say ‘Get a dance!’ Sometimes they lie and say they don’t have money, but like, they work for the government,” she said. “They don’t be tipping as much, but the sales go way up, because they drink a ton.”
After the pandemic, sailors were slow to come back to the Condor, according to floor manager Joe Felder, but this year feels like a comeback. “What we sell is fantasy,” Felder said. “We treat the men in uniform very well. We get them in for free and thank them for their service. They’ve been on a boat for six months. They want to see the opposite sex, and they want to be treated like a VIP.”
Felder said the club has seen everyone from enlisted sailors and Marines to officers and even the mechanics for the Blue Angels’ Super Hornet jets. For service members letting loose, it’s a welcome, and rare, chance for free range.
“It’s unusual for us to have this much freedom,” Tello said. “But here, we’re out all night, every night. It’s San Francisco. What’s the worst that could happen?”
