Title: The Dirty Dive Bar Isn’t Going Anywhere

Walking up Mendocino Avenue through downtown Santa Rosa, you pass a long line of permanently closed businesses from the pandemic period, many marked with messages of gratitude to the community on their windows for the good years they each had. When you reach the edge of downtown, one of the remaining open businesses is our little neighborhood dive bar, The Dirty.

We managed to beat the odds as an independent business, and survived the pandemic. When Covid hit, the Dirty hadn’t been open under our new ownership long enough to qualify for a PPP loan. This stung us even more as we watched multi-million dollar corporations and franchises qualify for the program’s 800 billion dollars in relief, and even worse-so reading the stories of people using roughly 80 billion dollars of ill-gotten PPP money to buy things like luxury cars and mansions. Our only option was going into debt for two years in order to survive. We furthermore had to float the cost of tens of thousands of dollars of urgent maintenance for the ancient building we inhabit and other unexpected major expenses this winter which have put us over the edge.

The good news is, the community rallied behind us during that period, turning things around. On paper, The Dirty is doing well again. At least, we would be if we weren’t now shackled with crushing debt payments from getting through the pandemic period.

The debt-chickens have come home to debt-roost, or something.

Despite our present state of profitability, we are not yet earning enough to cover both our daily expenses AND our debt payments from the pandemic. Today we are dangerously close to imminent eviction from our building and closing down permanently. Meanwhile, we’re fighting off human vultures who are actively doing their best to see us taken down while we are vulnerable. We have an urgent need for a big cash inflow to get our head above water. Like “right now” urgent.

Of course we are all hurting financially right now, the economy isn’t exactly thriving, so we know it’s a hard sell asking for money for anything at the moment. Even if you’re unable to help out financially, we would appreciate you spreading the word so this fundraiser can be seen by those who have the means.

After a hundred years of dive bars inhabiting the space at 616 Mendocino Avenue, we are now on the verge of seeing that tradition finally auctioned off into little pieces and turned into yet another beige corporate franchise. Our building has been a gathering point for free minds for an entire century. The Dirty is a place where ugly people can get laid without the help of photo filters. You’re allowed to be wrong at the Dirty, and maybe even learn a thing from it. Keep this place open so you can keep dancing like an idiot, singing off-key karaoke, speaking unpopular opinions, and being the version of yourself your social media followers will never know. The world is running out of venues for free-range humans, don’t let this one pass in the night.