WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Five years ago to the day, H.G. Rooster's caught fire and had to close its doors. Since then, the city of West Palm Beach granted the bar a historic designation, naming it the oldest gay bar in the Sunshine State.
The bar is now officially re-open for business and for the patrons who have been waiting half a decade, it couldn’t come sooner.
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“We couldn't wait for it to return,” said Michael Ceruzzi. “Because it's very hard to survive with just one gay bar in West Palm Beach.”
“We've been waiting a long time for this to happen,” said Lee Edmondson. "We've had so many things throw us back every time we were making progress with it. This is our home."
Co-owners A.J. Wassom and Randy Christensen say a part of them was lost when the bar caught fire. Fire investigators ruled the blaze to be an accident after they said a range of chemicals suddenly ignited.
Images from that night show the devastation left behind. It’s an image that the employees who were there say is ingrained into their memories
“It didn't really hit me until the next day of what had happened when we came in and saw everything all burnt up and destroyed,” said Manager David Hazen. “Everything was destroyed.”
Ever since then, the team has been on a mission to bring it back.
The fire left almost nothing but the skeleton of the building behind.
“It's been a long time coming,” said Christensen. “One of our customers wrote on Facebook,” added Wassom. “And he wrote this, and I keep thinking about it, because he says, ‘Roosters is a place where masks come off, walls come down, and you can be your true self.’
“Everyone's welcome here,” added Hazen. “Doesn't matter who you are. Just come in and have a good time, leave all the problems outside.”
