In the small Ohio city of Ashtabula, a plaque in the Harbor District commemorates bygone establishments, including the Leeward Lounge, a gay bar.
Today, two queer-owned businesses occupy the Leeward Lounge space: Harbor Gardens, a local health-food market, and Three Sisters Cafe. LGBTQ+ flags are displayed in Harbor Gardens’ front window.
The businesses are owned by a couple: T. Gallo, a nurse and native of Ashtabula County who runs Harbor Gardens, and their wife, Sarah Brower, who runs Three Sisters. Feeling a strong connection to the city’s economically depressed Harbor District and the surrounding area, they hope to help improve health outcomes and build community in a place that hasn’t always been welcoming to the LGBTQ+ population.
“If you could imagine the American dream, like ‘Oh, run your own business and be your own boss,’ I feel like you can still do that in Ashtabula County,” Gallo said.
There and back again
Gallo had a painful experience growing up queer in Orwell, a village of around 1,000 in “South County” Ashtabula, in the 1980s. At that time, gay students were afraid to come out. The only one Gallo knew that was out was routinely “beat up” by other students.
“We were all pretty happy to leave,” Gallo said.
Upon graduating, they went to University of Cincinnati to pursue nursing. Midway through, Gallo switched majors to graduate in English literature and move west to California, where they pursued a singer-songwriter career.
They later became a nurse and were able to buy a house in California. In 2016, Gallo moved back home when their mother got sick and needed rehabilitation. They planned to stay for a year. Then it turned into two.
“This is like Little San Francisco,” Gallo recalled thinking after seeing downtown again for the first time in years. “I’m like, ‘Okay, if I ever move back to Ohio, this is where I’d want to live.’”
A friend told them about the Leeward Lounge, a gay bar in the harbor that had been around since his grandmother’s time. Gallo couldn’t believe what he was saying — a gay bar in downtown Ashtabula? He wasn’t sure if it was still around — and Gallo couldn’t find it.
In the meantime, Gallo went between San Francisco and Ashtabula for a couple of years. They met their wife, Sarah Brower, during a skill-sharing retreat and decided to settle down in Ashtabula together.
The district itself was showing signs of bouncing back from the 2008 recession despite being past its heyday as a key port of call. Sarah’s sister wanted to start a cafe on Bridge Street, so Gallo helped scout for a location. One storefront felt just right to Gallo.
“I just loved the energy from the moment I had seen [the space],” Gallo said.
In the meantime, Gallo suggested a storefront that would later turn into Harbor Gardens. Their sister-in-law was interested, but they didn’t start the business in part due to the pandemic in 2020. In 2021, Gallo bought the space for themselves, but didn’t yet know what they would do with it.
“I love this area, and I just wanted to be part of it,” Gallo said.
A neighbor who learned about Gallo buying the storefront provided the missing pieces to solve Gallo’s multi-year mystery.
“‘Did you know that used to be the Leeward Lounge?’” Gallo remembers the woman informing her. “And I’m like, ‘What? Are you kidding?’”
They bought one-half of what was originally the Leeward Lounge’s space. A year later, Gallo opened their business, Harbor Gardens, in 2022. Three years later, Brower opened Three Sisters Cafe in the second half of the old gay bar.
Ambitious goals for Harbor Gardens
Local farm-grown goods are on display where the dancefloor used to be. In the right light, visitors can still see the silhouette of a door that connected to the other side of the Leeward Lounge.
Harbor Gardens offers fresh ingredients, health foods and locally made handicrafts. The same grocery items go into Three Sisters’ menu offerings. Anything left over is used as compost.
“It’s actually full-circle here, which is pretty fun,” Gallo said.
While the mystery of the Leeward Lounge is concluded, Gallo hopes that Harbor Gardens can be the beginning of achieving an ambitious goal: changing Ashtabula’s health outcomes from some of the worst in the nation to some of the best, like in neighboring Geauga County.
“It’s an achievable goal,” Gallo said. “We could grow our own food and be as healthy as can be.”
Visitors to Harbor Gardens are pleasantly surprised at the Pride displays, Gallo said. Their reactions mirror what Gallo thought when they first heard about the Leeward Lounge: “‘If there’s a gay bar on Bridge Street, then Ashtabula has gotta be cool enough for me to be there.’ That was a big deal knowing that it already existed.”
Gallo hopes more LGBTQ+ people can see potential in Ashtabula. Gallo was involved in Ashtabula Pride before they opened Harbor Gardens. Since then, the wider business community is supportive of the summer celebration through sponsorships.
Alongside Harbor Gardens, Gallo was even able to get back into nursing with a private practice centered on a more holistic approach through culinary medicine. Gallo thinks Ashtabula delivers on the “American dream” for the average person.
“Do you want to be free of all the systems that are burdening us and make your own community? This would be the place to do it,” Gallo said. “People have been gracious and kind and wonderful, just like you would anticipate anyone would be.” 🔥
IGNITE ACTION
- Do you have memories or information you’d like to share about the Leeward Lounge? Email reporter Ben Jodway at ben@thebuckeyeflame.com for a possible future story.
- To learn more about Harbor Gardens, visit its website or Facebook page.
- To learn more about Three Sisters Cafe, visit its Facebook page here.
Know an LGBTQ+ Ohio story we should cover? TELL US!
Submit a story!
