When Bear Dive opened in 2020, it quickly became an iconic queer bar in Sacramento.
Even so, its name — which is a reference to a type of gay man — sometimes caused confusion.
Caroline Sailor, who saw the bar go up for sale in 2023 and took over in 2024, says she often encountered people assuming the space was directed to a more specific part of the queer community: “People who would come in here for their first time ever would ask, ‘Where are all the bears, and why is this called Bear Dive if it's not a bear bar?”
Sailor would usually explain that in the years since its opening, Bear Dive had become a more expansive space, attracting all parts of the local queer community. But with time, she decided she wanted that evolution to be a bigger part of the space’s outward appearance.
That’s why Sailor decided to close Bear Dive, located at 1330 H Street in Mansion Flats, at the end of last year. After putting it to rest, she opened a new queer restaurant and cocktail bar in the same building called Radclyffe’s.
The restaurant and cocktail bar takes its name from Radclyffe Hall, author of the 1928 novel "The Well of Loneliness," a groundbreaking work of lesbian literature.Manola Secaira/CapRadio
With that new name came a new logo: A green carnation. Overall, Sailor says she wants the new space to move away from the dive-bar aesthetic of its predecessor and offer a more upscale experience for locals.
CapRadio’s Manola Secaira spoke with Sailor about the mission behind the transformation.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Interview highlights
How did you make the decision to bring Bear Dive to a close and open Radclyffe’s?
When I took over, I really wanted the community to get a chance to get to know me and for me to get to know the community better. I didn't want to come in and just instantly make a bunch of changes because I think in queer spaces especially, that can be really scary. People feel like they're losing a space that we already don't have enough of, and I didn't want to do that.
So, I came in and I cleaned things up, but I left things generally the same. And as I got to know the community that was using the space, I found that it wasn't primarily a bear bar. It was used by the entire queer community and the branding didn't fit the people who were coming and utilizing this space, the people who called the space a home. So I decided to close Bear Dive and reopen as something that was more representative of everybody who used the space. What the space was called and what the space looked like needed to transform with that.
Can you tell me what inspired the new name and logo?
Yeah, Radclyffe Hall is an author from the 1920s who wrote an iconic lesbian novel “The Well of Loneliness.” She was a gender non-conforming lesbian in a time where that was not accepted. To me, her non-gender conforming identity was a really important message for the queer community, as well as her novel. That novel was really valuable to me when I was young and I was trying to find my identity.
I felt like Radclyffe Hall was representative of not just the femme portion of the community, but the non-binary and the transgender community members as well — which have been underrepresented in Sacramento.
[And] in the late 1800s, Oscar Wilde was a gay man who would wear a green carnation on his lapel for queer identity. His friends would also wear a green carnation on their lapel to either identify as queer or their support for the queer community.
And so, it was important to me that our name and our logo are also queer history.
The restaurant and cocktail bar takes its name from Radclyffe Hall, author of the 1928 novel "The Well of Loneliness," a groundbreaking work of lesbian literature.Manola Secaira/CapRadio
Yeah, I can see how you’ve tied in queer history into the space’s new identity. Why was that important to you?
Queer history is really important. It's important to understand where we used to be and how far we've come, and the people throughout history who have made it possible for us to be here … and for us to have spaces that we can call our own, and for us to be able to use the pronouns that we want and be with the people that we love.
We intend to continue to spotlight additional queer icons throughout history and talk about what they contributed to queerness over time. All our or our table numbers are going to have different historical queer icons and a little bit of info about them.
Over the years, I've generally noticed that there are more queer spaces opening up, like this one, that aren’t really targeting one specific part of the LGBTQ+ community. Have you noticed that shift toward more open-ended labeling too? And if you have, what do you make of that?
I think it’s great. I think that people are realizing that there are a lot of different types of community members within the queer community and if you make your space a space for everybody, it's not only better for the business but it's better for the community.
Because we have such a few spaces where we can go and we can feel safe and we can just be undeniably ourselves. So, seeing more spaces like that open up, I think, is really, really important.
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