30 Days of Pride: 135 Pearl

135 Pearl

Iconic Burlington LGBTQ+ bar and queer performing arts space

A white house located at 135 Pearl Street in Burlington was a hub for LGBTQ+ people from 1983 into the millennium.

In 1983, a restaurant and gay bar named Pearls was opened by Nancy Barnett, Jim Moyer, Ed Packen, and Barbara Volz. Ten years into business, in 1993, a young Robert Toms moved to Vermont saw an advert in the paper for a bartending job at Pearls. He lived just a short ways from the establishment and had some experience from working at a Red Lobster restaurant, so he figured it was worth a shot. Toms recalls feeling a bit foolish when he wore a suit to the interview. “I don’t know, I just thought I should wear a shirt and tie and go in for the interview,” Toms told North Country Public Radio in 2012. “And I show up for the interview, and Jim had a Beefeater and tonic, Nancy had a drink, and Eddy had a beer in his hand and I’m sitting there in my suit. And they’re just looking at me like, ‘What the heck just walked in the door here?’”

23-year-old Toms got the job. Two weeks later he could sense the place was in a state of transition and the owners announced they were looking to sell the establishment. Toms asked if they would consider letting him become manager. With his theatre background, he saw such potential for the space that was beyond anything he could provide from behind the bar. 

Pearls was a gay club but not assimilated in the way Toms could envision it. In 1995, Toms with Craig Mitchell, the house DJ at Pearls, got together and formed a partnership to make an offer on the real estate and business. They re-branded the establishment as 135 Pearl and  started changing the guard with new staff and making it “more bohemian, more queer-centric, outside the box.”

One of the first things Toms did was draft a new mission statement, which he placed in the front entryway. Our mission is to create a place where people of every race, gender and orientation can come together in an environment that is free from discrimination, segregation and separatism to celebrate and become part of a collective consciousness, a safe space, a place we all can call home. It was this mindset that Toms credits to the assimilation the bar created for queer people in the community. “We were ahead of ourselves on so many levels because of that philosophy – it wasn’t just about beer.”

That assimilation came with its fair share of backlash. Toms remembers a large resistance from the gay community when the bar became a place for allies too. He recalls the older generation especially really wanting that affinity space. But he felt that there was pride in our community and bringing in other folks into the circle was “honoring our chapter and really taking it further.”

Toms brought on an ‘amazing team’ of DJs, bartenders, and committed staff, created one of the first true black box theatres in the city, and grew the space into one of the best dance clubs in the state. Artists were never charged rent, but instead the business took a portion of the door sales so that the performing arts had a chance to thrive – even on slower nights or during snow storms. 

Drag shows (Lipliner was perhaps the first regularly-occurring drag show in town), Lady Zeno’s bingo, plays, women’s dances, leather nights, and karaoke were just a few of the activities that took place there. Cherie Tartt hosted a cabaret show of standards that Toms would do set design for. The House of LeMay, DJs Llu, Chia, Craig Mitchell, and Eve (to name just a few), Queen City Rock, Steph Pappas, Antara, Karen Grenier – “everyone had a piece,” Toms said, recalling the cast of characters who frequented the events calendar. The bar roped off the large parking lot between their building and the John J. Zampieri State Building during Pride for massive tented block-party style celebrations. Youth were allowed at the establishment during certain times downstairs where a juice bar was created. Non-profit organizations were always allowed to table to spread awareness of their causes. 

Despite establishing the bar as a safe space with a strong mission centered on love and continuously progressing rights for LGBTQ+ people, especially in Vermont, there were of course occasional fights that broke out from bigots. “The police were always there to assist in positive ways,” Toms said. He even remembers leaving the club at 10am to go to the post office across the street and remembers being called “faggot” by a passerby as soon as he stepped out of the bar. The hate from outside the community helped shape Toms philosophy surrounding in-fighting within the queer community. “If I ever saw the discrimination, especially within the community, it infuriated me, because it’s hypocritical.” 

After nearly 15 years, Toms found himself burnt out and tired and needing to pass the torch. “Burlington became so friendly and so open,” he said. He placed the real estate on the market without the business component and the first bid was for a Papa John’s. That was in  2005 and he remembers saying there would be no way would he sell to a Papa John’s but after three years, he came to the stark realization it needed to go.

On June 3, 2006, 135 Pearl celebrated its last night, an emotional gathering of the queer community where both levels were jammed with people. 

Toms did his best to find new homes for long-standing 135 Pearl programs and events. Poof migrated to Metronome. Burly Bear to Red Square. First Friday to Higher Ground.

“It’s so revered and loved by many, and not just the LGBTQ+ community,” Toms said. “It’s Burlington. It’s an icon because it wasn’t just about me, but it was about the mission.”