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. 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.
