Turning a Little Slice of Midtown into a Mecca

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By David M. Drucker

Myron “Terry” Sidie is building a gay and lesbian entertainment mecca in the heart of midtown Sacramento, and he’s not shy about telling anyone.
     “We’re not just a hole-in-the-wall bar anymore. We’re a resort,” says the 60-year-old owner of Faces, in the midst of a $3 million construction project that will double the capacity of his 20-year-old night-club at the corner of K Street and 20th Street. The project includes the opening of three new establishments directly across the street from Sacramento’s premier gay and les-bian entertainment venue.
     “We’re famous for being the night-club in town, and that means 11 p.m. ’til 2 a.m. What about the other 21 hours in the day? What a big waste. Hopefully we’ll have people coming and going all day long.”
     To keep his customers occupied, he’s pushing out the south wall of Faces, sinking the dance ? oor into the ground and add-ing a second story with a VIP lounge and a balcony overlooking the action below. But perhaps the crown jewel of the project that Sidie will use to lure customers during daylight hours is the swimming pool he’s putting in on the southwest edge of the Faces lot, complete with outdoor bar and lounge chairs.
     He hopes to be up and running by Christmas to take advantage of the partying that always accompanies the New Year’s Eve holiday.
     The expansion will double Faces’ capacity from its current maximum of 528 people, and Sidie’s projects across the street — including Headhunters Restaurant and Video Lounge (for the crowd that’s outgrown the noisy nightclub scene) and Pickup’s coffee-house and bar — are projected to triple his company’s annual gross revenue of about $2.5 million and add to a payroll that is already 47 employees deep.
     Sidie also owns Club 21, a mid-town lesbian bar, and Verona Village, which he hopes to transform into the region’s largest gay resort by the end of the decade.

Continued...

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