You're no longer Welcome Home

The little diner-cum-restaurant on Castro Street is suddenly kaput -- kicking off a wave of nostalgia for Ray at Castro Shopper. Ten years ago, when he first moved to the 'hood, Welcome Home was one of a small group of restaurants with a "particularly homey, anachronistic feel to them,'' Ray says. "Married to the midwestern menu were distinctly gay touches -- The Cove's walls of beefcake(-ish) photos, Little Orphan Andy's draggy name, Hot & Hunky's bawdy name, and most of all, Welcome Home's hand-painted rainbow over its entrance." Hot & Hunky! There's a place I'd forgotten about. And if Little Orphan Andy carries a draggy name, get ready for that new Asian restaurant s-l-o-w-l-y getting built on 18th Street. There's gonna be a line of queens waiting to adopt its name: Brandy Ho's!