An application has been filed for the transfer of the liquor license of now-defunct lesbian bar Sisters to a new owner.
The license-transfer notice was posted on the door of the Chancellor Street property last week. The signage indicates that the transfer request was made by a company called Justaplumber, Inc., which, according to Liquor Control Board records, was founded Sept. 26 and is headquartered at 1318-20 Chancellor St., Sisters’ address.
Sisters abruptly shut down Aug. 12. Longtime building owner Mel Heifetz repeatedly declined to indicate why the venue, the city’s only and longest-running lesbian bar, closed.
According to LCB records, Justaplumber is helmed by Thomas S. Bee and Mark J. Bee, who owns Silk City Diner and N. 3rd in Northern Liberties. The LCB application lists Thomas as vice president and Mark as manager/president/secretary/treasurer.
City property records indicate that Heifetz sold 1322 Chancellor St. — the site of the adjacent and also-defunct Key West Bar — in April 2012 to Lord Chancellor, Inc., a company listed at 435 Spring Garden St., the site of Silk City. The Sisters address is still listed under Heifetz’s name.
Attorney Edward Taraskus is handling the license-transfer request.
A representative for Taraskus said PGN’s request for more information was referred to the transfer-request applicant, but PGN did not receive a call back.
Heifetz also did not respond to PGN’s request for comment.
In addition to the license transfer, the posting indicated that Justaplumber is also requesting an amusement permit. According to LCB guidelines, an amusement permit sanctions a licensee to offer “entertainment such as dancing, theatricals or floor shows of any sort, or moving pictures other than television or such as are exhibited through coin-operated machines.”
Sisters opened in 1996 and, for the ensuing 17 years, was the city’s only full-time lesbian bar. Its closing marks the first time since the 1940s that Philadelphia does not have a lesbian bar.
