Lesbian bar opens in Greenfield: Last Ditch is the new space for the Valley’s queer community

Western Massachusetts has a new lesbian bar and performance venue.

Last Ditch opened in the basement of 10 Fiske Ave. in Greenfield (the former 10 Forward space) on Thursday night, with a mission to serve “Dykes, Transexuals, Gender Freaks, Workers, and their friends,” according to their Instagram.

The ownership team, Asa Rosario, Jackie Matellian, and Sage Territo, are not only co-owners; they’re also housemates. Last year, they learned that Northampton’s former queer bar and performance venue, The Majestic Saloon, was going to close, and they originally debated purchasing it to keep it open for the community. Not long after, though, 10 Forward also went up for sale, and reopening that seemed even more appealing — they knew the space because they’d patronized it themselves, and a larger space would mean more room for performances and community events.

“There’s something unique and cool about Greenfield,” Territo said. “It fell into place because we were dreaming of the idea of opening a venue and how we could make it a fun place and supportive of the arts, and we just got lucky that a really great opportunity arose.”

It was a sizable ambition, too, since only Rosario had experience running a business, albeit not a bar – rather, farm stands, stalls at farmers markets, and other small-scale agricultural ventures. Still, the team was determined to make it work.

“I thought, ‘Somebody has to do it,’ and we didn’t know of anybody else who was going to save one of the two places,” Matellian said. “So we were like, ‘Okay, I guess we have to do it.’”

“Across the country, we’re seeing more and more lesbian bars pop up again as people are realizing that connecting to larger community is really important, and we knew that there were people in this area who were really craving that sort of space,” Rosario said.

The Pioneer Valley has been home to a number of queer bars and spaces in its history, including The North Star and The Grotto, which is fitting – the 2024 U.S. Census said Hampshire County had more same-sex female couple households than any other county in America. And a 1992 National Enquirer story called Northampton “Lesbianville, U.S.A.”

However, as the number of lesbian bars has declined nationwide from an estimated 200 to 34, according to the Lesbian Bar Project, the number of dedicated lesbian bars in the Valley has likewise followed suit. Two queer bars in Northampton, Diva’s and The Majestic Saloon, closed in 2016 and 2024, respectively.

The team at Last Ditch purchased the bar from a friend of a friend, thanks to a loan from the Franklin County Community Development Corporation. Their original plan was to open on New Year’s Eve last year, but bureaucratic issues got in the way while they were in the process of transferring the previous owners’ liquor license, which pushed back the opening until April.

Now, though, they’re open and ready to bring the community together. Their first event was an abridged drag adaptation of “Wicked”; upcoming events include a punk show and two other drag shows. In the future, they intend to host karaoke, burlesque, film screenings, DJ nights, line dancing, and more.

As one might expect for a queer bar in western Massachusetts, the venue has a quirky hodgepodge of decor: atop a chessboard floor are plastic chairs from a church; a collection of mismatched chairs and tables sits behind them by the cozy lounge. Near a window is what they call “ATM Girl,” a fake ATM purportedly made for a local TV show and decorated in pink and with fake eyelashes. Various knick-knacks dot the space. (Where did that stuff even come from? For the most part, “Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, side of the road,” said Matellian. “That’s how we furnish our house,” Territo added. “We were like, ‘Why can’t we do it again?’”)

Inside the bathroom near the stage is a collage of historical lesbian photos, slogans, and media: “Lesbians Unite!” “Out Of Your Closet And Into The Streets!” “Gay Liberation Now!”

The venue has a number of house rules, the first of which is “Be kind, have fun, build community!” Other than that: consent is mandatory; non-lesbians are welcome as long as they’re respectful; forms of discrimination like racism, ableism, homophobia, and transmisogyny are not allowed; no one will be turned away for lack of funds; and no one under the allowed age of an event will be admitted, nor will minors be served alcohol.

Another key rule: masks are required for everyone, unless they are actively eating, drinking, or performing. In fact, the venue supplies multiple types of masks at each entrance.

Between the bar and the elevator is what the team calls their “free store,” a space where guests can take free clothing, COVID prevention supplies, safe sex supplies, lesbian magazines, tea, information about harm reduction, and other resources. Beyond that, they’re open in the afternoons to let community groups gather, and Tuesday nights are designated as “Quiet Nites” on their weekly schedule, with softer music and lighting for community members who want to gather without the typical high-energy atmosphere of a club.

“Anyone can come and drink water, use the bathroom, use our resources, regardless of access to funds,” Territo said, “and it’s because we want to care for people as they have cared for us.”

So why would a positive, fun community space name itself Last Ditch?

It’s actually somewhat indirectly related to the bar’s lesbian identity. While Territo and Rosario were on a trip to New York City, they listened to a podcast about the history and significance of lesbian bars. Around that time, Territo was also reading the book “Stone Butch Blues” and was “thinking about the differentiation between a gay nightlife space and a queer space that has political intention and more of an interest in building community and creating a comfortable, supportive space than making money or just getting people to buy a lot of drinks.”

The team had floated the idea of using the name of a lesbian bar that no longer existed, but older lesbians who had known those spaces firsthand pushed back on those ideas. Choosing a name that worked became a last-minute decision – a “last-ditch effort,” Matellian said.

Still, they had parameters: they wanted a name that was two words and felt “dive-y.” Bonus points if it was also a pun – and, as Matellian noted, the word “ditch” is a synonym of the literal meaning of the word “dyke.” With that, Last Ditch was the right choice.

“Across the board, we all feel really excited to open our doors and have been really grateful to the positive response that we’ve gotten from the community at large,” Rosario added. “[We] really cherish the opportunity to try and be leaders in this space and in this community, and really just want to do everyone proud.”

Last Ditch is open Tuesday to Thursday from 4 p.m. to midnight and Friday and Saturday from 4 p.m. to 1 a.m.

Carolyn Brown can be reached at [email protected].