Photo by Lex Light Studio
Audio By Carbonatix
Sabina Palermo has high hopes for a sapphic bar scene in Denver after two predecessors shuttered amid controversy, blame, and financial mismanagement.
Palermo worked as a bartender and event planner at The Pearl, which closed in April after months of financial woes from the bar’s owners.
Now she’s days away from signing a lease at 1209 E. 13th Ave. in Capitol Hill and prepping the building to be Denver’s newest (and currently only) sapphic bar: Wild Tulips.
Days after The Pearl’s closure, Palermo says an “anonymous angel investor” messaged her on Instagram and offered to invest in a new sapphic space. She spent the next several months searching for an available venue, but faced skepticism and backlash due to The Pearl’s poor reputation. Eventually, she landed on the space between Thump Coffee and Wild Corgi Pub (formerly Ritual Social House), in Denver’s historic gayborhood, ironically just blocks away from the original Pearl Divers.
Palermo cherished what The Pearl represented – a space for sapphic folks, trans people, and BIPOC community members who may not feel safe or welcomed at Denver’s plethora of gay male-centric spaces to find their people.
“We do have plenty of other gay spaces in the city, but none of them center BIPOC, trans and nonbinary people,” Palermo says. “And that’s what we feel our community desperately needs right now.”
She hopes to hold a soft opening on Oct. 11, with a grand opening the following Saturday.
Since The Pearl’s closure in April, Palermo and other former Pearl staff have thrown parties around town catered toward the sapphic community, and Palermo hopes to take what she’s learned and keep the momentum going at Wild Tulips.
“I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to not just uplift ourselves but also uplift our neighbors and other members of the community,” she said.
Palermo is the sole owner of Wild Tulips, a lesson she said she learned from The Pearl’s ownership model, which once included five people. She’s bringing on three Pearl alumni: Emma Rosenfeld as general manager, Lennon Dogget as kitchen and operations manager, and Lexy (also known as sailorkrat0m) to throw featured parties every Saturday.
The team is hoping for a ’70s-style theme, with vintage decor, velvet furniture and dark, moody lighting.
“With just the right amount of tackiness,” Palermo says.
Rosenfeld and Palermo hope to rebuild trust with community members who may be skeptical about sapphic bars after a decade of controversy in the community. First with Blush N Blu, which closed in 2024. Owner Jody Bouffard shut the joint down after 12 years in business and three years of public scuffles. In 2021, three employees sued, alleging racial discrimination and wage theft. Then in 2024, a prominent bartender took to social media to complain of similar behaviors, prompting a boycott of the bar.
Later in 2024, Ashlee Cassity and Dom Garcia opened Pearl Divers on 13th Street before outgrowing that space and relocating to the former Mercury Cafe. On April 11 of this year, Cassity created a GoFundMe with a $50,000 goal to keep The Pearl open. Donors quickly surpassed that goal, but the bar permanently shuttered later that month after mounting debt, unpaid property taxes, and questions around transparency of finances.
As a bartender at The Pearl, Rosenfeld says the owners often shared too much about finances, putting unnecessary stress on staff and community members and, at times, prompting bartenders to pay performers with their own money just to ensure performers could be paid on time.
“That’s one thing I think we learned to be careful with moving forward,” Rosenfeld says. “I definitely want to make sure we’re transparent with the community, but The Pearl shared info that didn’t need to be shared, and it scared people.”
Rosenfeld also hopes Wild Tulips feels every bit as special as The Pearl did, but remains a healthy chunk of staff members’ full lives, rather than dominating their schedules and stress levels.
“This space is going to be so special, but we don’t expect people to give everything that they have, and we know people have lives outside of the job,” Rosenfeld said. “This is going to be a job, and you shouldn’t have to worry about it when you’re not at work.”
If opened, Wild Tulips will be one of 36 designed lesbian bars in the United States, and the only one in Colorado.
“We definitely would welcome more sapphic spaces in the city, and we would see them as partner opportunities,” Palermo says. “The more spaces for us there are, the more people can express themselves and find their niche and their community without fear of judgment.”
Learn more at Wild Tulips Denver.
