An interesting note:

My friend Eric was co-owner of the Gemini Lounge after it was no longer the Gemini Lounge.

Yep, this is absolutely true.

He and another man had the place for a couple of years back circa 1990. I can't remember the partner's name, but he had a wonky eye and always had either a parrot or a large iguana on his shoulder. (I can't remember precisely.) The bar had been renamed Justin's Pub (after Eric's infant son) and the late Signora V. (the First) and I went there for a Halloween bash in 1990. I won first prize, dressed as Beetlejuice (see photo below), lip-synching "Monster Mash." Won a bottle of champagne. Signora V. dressed as a Lady Vampire.

At that time, Eric and I had been friends for around nine years, and he absolutely hated it when people came in looking for traces of the bar's Mafia roots. He claimed he didn't know anything about the place's history, and he and his partner ran a clean, Mob-free establishment.

They only had the place a couple of years, at most. He later relocated and, last I heard, became a prison guard in another state (I will not divulge where). Haven't seen him or heard from him in many years. Probably retired.

Anyway, I can actually claim to have been in the Gemini Lounge - albeit after all the notoriety!

We came out alive.


Signor V.