Reversal of Fortune in the River Market?

Was it just a couple of weeks ago that I had a very good — great even — lunch at the Italian restaurant Vivace in the River Market? You know, the one with the ice bar?

Well, it already closed and was officially re-born, this past Friday, as The Red Head Lounge, which I’m assuming, just assuming now, is a gay-friendly club and not just because the club’s Web site features a tiny little rainbow (I mean, that could be a tribute to gay icon Judy Garland, who was a redhead in Meet Me in St. Louis or to Broadway legend Gwen Verdon, above).

Back in the 1960s and ’70s, there was another Kansas City lounge called The Red Head. It was in Westport, at 4048 Broadway, where very heterosexual Riot Room is located today. Back then, it was the hottest homo hangout in town. My friend Truman remembers it well: “The place had a back door with a buzzer. That’s where schoolteachers could sneak in — they could lose their jobs in those days if they were caught in a gay bar. Ditto married men. The place had flocked red wallpaper and a dance floor that was tinier than a postage stamp. There was a bleached-blonde cocktail waitress named Sally who used to work there. She had a limp. It was an interesting limp, because at the end of the night, after she had counted all her tips, the limp would magically disappear.”

No word on whether the new Red Head has a back door — or a buzzer. But for nostalgia sake, it might be a good idea. — By Charles Ferruzza