(20) Tales of the Rustler Basement

This is a story Jan Suter told of cruising at the Rustler, Toledo's alleged leather/S&M bar.

Toledo also had a bar called the Open Closet. Hence the name of my fictional leather bar, The Cowboy Closet.


Note the use of the word "alleged." Some gossip in the 1980s had it that the Rustler was not the rough S&M joint it was made out to be, but just a friendly social club for gay  guys who liked denim and leather. Reputedly there was a dark back room for anonymous sex. Others held it was a joke. When I posted this on Facebook one commentator stated that sex in the Rustler basement was very real, and no joke. I guess it depended on what time of day (or night) you went there, what you were looking for, and how you let bar patrons know what you wanted.


The Rustler quiche anecdote was told to me by Jan himself (the recipe was mine). Jan liked leather and denim and probably visited the Rustler basement. Today the building is a laundromat.




Murphy's Manor #20 is another strip I redrew for reprint, 7 years later.