The Den Nightclub of Somerset, NJ
The Den Nightclub
The Den Nightclub, originally named Manny’s Den, opened its doors in 1944 on Albany Street in New Brunswick, NJ by then owner Manny Mac. The Den has stayed in the Mac family for 65 years, as Manny left the business to his son Dick who currently jointly owns the club with his son Peter. When it first opened as a bar, its patrons were typically soldiers coming back from World War II or stationed in and around the New Brunswick area. About a decade after the bar was established, another bar opened in the area that was specifically geared toward a gay and lesbian crowd. Because of the club’s close proximity to The Den, many patrons of both bars tended to go back and forth between the two. Not too long after it opened, the gay club closed down. Dick and Peter, who had once resided in Greenwich Village in New York City, were very open and welcoming toward the new LGBT-identified customers. Despite the fact that The Den was not initially created as a gay club, Dick and Peter decided that because of this influx of new patrons, they would begin to market their bar as a gay bar. In the beginning, it was kept quiet that this club was in fact catering to the LGBT community. It was known throughout the local gay community, but the bar never faced any discrimination until a few years later. The Den encountered their first battle with the city around 1960, when New Brunswick decided to condemn the block to build an office building, forcing the club to move to a new location.
The Den moved over to Hiram Street in New Brunswick, about a half a mile from its original venue. It was here that the bar was forced to fight for their rights and for the rights of their LGBT patrons. In 1967 the Alcoholic Beverage Commission came in and attempted to close down the club. According to the ABC, no establishment in possession of a liquor license is to allow any sort of “lewd or immoral activity.” While this law is still around today, the standards have changed drastically, citing such behavior as anything sexually explicit. At the time of the conflict, however, there were regulations stating that any place with a liquor license must present themselves in a respectable manner. These regulations were the grounds for which the ABC tried to shut down The Den and a few other gay bars in New Jersey.
David Morris, a Den patron at the time and a recent law school graduate decided to assist The Den in taking on the state in order to protect the bar. The Den put much time and money into this suit, and Morris risked his career to defend The Den, as he had to publicly out himself in order to take on the case. Morris took on several suits in an effort to overturn certain rulings preventing the continuation of the club. While not all cases were won, in the end The Den, assisted by David Morris, was victorious. The court ruled against the Alcoholic Beverage Commission, changing the law in order to keep the ABC from having any say in who is allowed to congregate in public in the state of New Jersey. This was the first time in America that a gay bar had won a lawsuit against a state in favor of LGBT rights. Scott Silver, current club promoter, explains:
“It became nationwide news. People in San Francisco were talking about it, people in New York were talking about it, people were talking all over the country… A number of people had speculated that it was the victory The Den had that sparked the rise-up in New York City in the Stonewall Riots, which would happen two years later” (Silver).
The club continued to thrive at its Hiram Street location for about ten years when the city decided to, once again, condemn the block, forcing them to search for a new location for a second time.
After New Brunswick forced them to move twice, club owners Dick and Peter decided that they had had enough with the city and found a new location on Hamilton Street in Somerset, NJ. This location was just outside of New Brunswick, only about a mile away from the Rutgers campus, and was therefore convenient and close enough to New Brunswick, without having any affiliation with the city that had given them so much trouble. The new venue also had something the others did not; a dance floor. It was at this location that the club gained acknowledgment as a bar for gay men, as it was now located near Escape, a lesbian bar in the area. Despite the fact that the club’s new location was less urban than the previous space, the club still managed to thrive, gaining an excellent reputation throughout the gay community. Scott Silver recounts his first experience with The Den:
“I was introduced to The Den about six years after it opened [on Hamilton Street]… When I walked in there… it was all done with bright, bright colors. The furniture was bright red, and bright yellow, and bright blue, and it was very artsy looking on the inside. They actually had an interior designer come in and decorate the club. When I walked in I saw all these young people and that it was a really nice establishment. One of the things I always loved about The Den was that there were always fresh cut flowers there and there was always trendy music playing. When you walked into the martini lounge there was always European-style music playing, and they really mixed it up. There were always all different types of parties happening… I ended up leaving that night thinking ‘I want to go back to that place. That place is really cool.’ Probably within two months of first going there, me and my friend, James, both had a job there” (Silver).
Scott Silver has worked at The Den now for twenty years now and has held several positions there including his current position as a club promoter. According to Silver, the club had a great run for about seven years until they hit a bump in the road due to some competition. The club quickly rebounded, as many patrons were loyal to the club and enjoyed The Den more so than other clubs in the area. Promoters of The Den eventually began to market the club to college-age individuals in the area, including those of Rutgers University, Princeton University, and Middlesex County College. Today, the club is still going strong with a patronage of locals, including Rutgers students and many others, and has forged an alliance with LGBT organizations of the university, including the coed fraternity Gamma Sigma. The club is still a family-owned business, just as it was when it first began many years ago, and to some who have been involved there, they too feel like part of the family. After twenty years of employment with the club, Scott Silver states:
“The place is a legacy. It’s got a history to it that no other gay bar can claim. It is one of the founding blocks of the gay community in the state of New Jersey. I could work for any number of other places, but the reality of it is, this place means something to me… it’s the place where I feel like I’m at home. There is a very strong family atmosphere between all of us, especially those who have been there as long as I have” (Silver).
Over the past sixty five years, The Den has accomplished more than any club has throughout history. They have gone from a straight bar to a gay bar, they’ve battled discrimination from the city of New Brunswick, they’ve fought and won the first successful lawsuit against a state allowing gays and lesbians to congregate freely, they’ve held onto a strong patronage over a substantial amount of time, they’ve created a safe space for the surrounding LGBT community to go and have fun, and in doing all of this they have created a legacy for themselves that anyone would be proud of.
