Beloved Trunks Bar West Hollywood is NOW open!

The wait is finally over. Beloved Trunks Bar West Hollywood finally opened today. The neighborhood watering hole located at 8809 Santa Monica Blvd set up this morning and officially opened at 1 p.m. after been shut down for well over a year.

“I feel excited,” Omar Duarte who owns the bar with his brother, told WEHO TIMES. “It’s been a very long year. It’s been very hard for every single business in town, not just here, but across the country. To be able to be back in business today is amazing. Every month we were hoping we’d be allowed to open and finally our time is here. We’re thrilled to be open again.”

Trunks Bar was one of the few bars that was eager to open back in June of last year, but they were only able to operate for nine days before Los Angeles County shut bars down again. They have been closed since.

With Flaming Saddles next door going out of business due to the pandemic, and legendary gay bars like Rage Nightclub and the Gold Coast also shuttering, Omar expressed he was happy and eager to open. He posted a rainbow heart on their Facebook page with the good news—“ALL OF US HERE AT TRUNKS HAVE MISSED U AND HAPPY TO SAY WE’RE OPEN!”

Omar says his loyal customers are thrilled to be back at Trunks. “We didn’t want to make a scene prior to opening today,” he said. “We’ve been holding everybody back, telling them we didn’t know when we’ve be open. We started setting up and within 20 minutes people started coming. Our phone was going off and it is just amazing to get so much positive feedback.”

The bar has some upgrades. They applied and were approved for an OUT Zone with the city of West Hollywood. This allows them have seating on the sidewalk. Now they are able to serve more of their customers outdoors.

Omar said he never imagined he’d be serving his customers on the street. He didn’t think that would be possible, but he says he is grateful for the extra space. “We love the new setup. The city has been great. They helped us get the application through. We’re happy to be able to serve more than just the 25 percent capacity. We hope people come to West Hollywood and support, not just us, but all the businesses on the Boulevard. We are happy to be back and can’t wait to see everybody.”

Omar and his brother have owned Trunks for seven years. He says the bar has been around for 35 years.

For more info on Trunks Bar visit their website at http://west.hollywood.trunksbar.com.