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The closure of Toasted Walnut marks a trend in the disappearance of queer lady-centric bars in the U.S. It was also very diverse for the trans community.” The diversity of the bar reflected the diversity of the staff Cohen hired a woman of color and a transgender person as managers, as well as trans bartenders.Ībove all, Cohen said that she was proudest when “an employee or customer would bring a family member or old friend to and they would be so proud to show, ‘hey, look we have such a cool, safe, welcoming space.’” “If you came to Philadelphia that was the bar you went to. “Denise’s whole marketing was, it’s lesbian-owned and operated,” Young said. On the heels of establishing a business plan, taking out a loan, sorting out permit issues with L&I and remodeling the building at 1316 Walnut Street, Cohen opened Toasted Walnut in late 2016. “We got hits coming from Germany, India and Japan.” “When we finally got onto the internet, we could see that people were logging in from foreign countries to check out the website,” Cohen said. “There was a great splash that happened with Hepburn’s.”Īfter Hepburn’s closed in 1995, Cohen spent nearly two decades managing the iconic lesbian bar Sisters, Philly’s go-to nightclub for queer women until the recession caused it to shut down in 2013. “That was the days of Melissa and Indigo Girls,” Cohen said. Hepburn’s hosted musical acts in the 90s, when the songwriter scene was saturated with women and female-centric bands. “You could do a country night, an oldies night, you could do live entertainment that wasn’t crammed into a small corner of a bar. “It brought something different to Philly - there was a women’s scene, but we had more variety,” Cohen added. The place drew some 900 women on Saturday nights, she said. She began as a barback at the bar Hepburn’s in 1989, and quickly rose through the ranks to general manager. She deserves respect all around.”Ĭohen indeed has a long legacy in the Philadelphia lesbian nightclub scene. She is a legend in the community, and I don’t think everybody knows that. “It’s just a lot at once happening,” Young said.
She met Cohen in the early 2000s when the former worked as a barback at Sisters.
Cohen’s wife has been working long hours to make ends meet, and friends have been cooking meals for the couple, said Drea Young, who worked as head bartender at Toasted Walnut and played a big role in organizing the fundraiser. “With us wrapping up the bar, this has absolutely been a godsend,” she said. Toasted Walnut staff put together a GoFundMe campaign to help Cohen pay her medical bills. In 2019, her diabetes caused blindness in one eye. On top of the bar closing, Cohen was diagnosed with stage three uterine cancer in November, which spread to her lymph nodes. “What transpired with them was legal - it is their space to rent.” “I don’t want to do battle with the landlords in a court of public opinion,” Cohen said. “I think we joked around and we figured out we had to sell 3,000 tacos and a beer just to be able to make the rent.”Īlthough the building’s landlords were patient and open to negotiation, Cohen was unable to make the $11,000 monthly rent that they ultimately demanded. “When your concept is a nightclub and you can no longer be that - people weren’t sitting at home going, ‘I’m going to drive into center city and have tacos at Toasted Walnut,’” Cohen said. Even when the bar was able to run at 25% capacity, she was struggling.
The bar essentially closed in November, 2020 when indoor dining was temporarily suspended. Denise Cohen has been running lesbian bars in Philly for upwards of 30 years, so losing Toasted Walnut to the pandemic was a particularly harsh blow.