No More Cheers as Little Shrimp Faces Last Call : Landmark: Monday’s closing of Laguna Beach’s longtime gay hangout saddens its customers.

To some, the Little Shrimp is the gay community’s answer to Cheers, that comfy, inviting bar on the television show--a place, as the song goes, where everybody knows your name.

Or, for those who prefer namelessness--well, that’s OK too.

But after three decades in business, the aging landmark at South Coast Highway and Cress Street will close Monday night, partly because of a dispute between the business and property owners over who should pay to repair a sagging kitchen floor.

Bartender Joe Paschke said the regulars are taking the news hard. Even he is “in denial,” Paschke said.

“There were a lot of people celebrating birthdays and anniversaries and everything else in here for 31 years,” he said. “It’s their Cheers.”

“It’s a very regular crowd,” said Darrin, a waiter. “It feels like home to a lot of people.”

One afternoon last week, as hazy sunshine filtered through a window overlooking the Pacific, longtime customers lamented about how they will miss the cozy, clubby environment.

Don Dulcich, who co-owns the business, said the Little Shrimp has also been a stopover for many out-of-towners, who are likewise stunned at the news.

“I was in San Diego over the weekend with a whole group of people, and everybody’s just in shock,” he said. “We’ve had people calling from London saying, ‘What’s going on?’ ”

The Shrimp, as locals call it, is set apart from two other nearby bars also popular with gays by the fact that it has a restaurant. Featuring a piano bar, it draws an older crowd than the disco-boasting Boom Boom Room a block away.

Customers say the Shrimp attracts more women and heterosexuals now than in the early years.

“It’s like there’s no bar like this one to go to for older people who like to party and carry on,” said Ron, a female impersonator also known as Lorna.

At 56, Ron, who chose not to give a last name, said he is both a performer at the Shrimp and a fixture on the bar seat between 4 and 8 p.m. each day.

“I’m gonna miss it a lot,” he said. “I can’t think of one place that would be much like it.”

The aging building also has historical significance for some residents.

In the 1970s, when gays were becoming more active politically, the Little Shrimp was the place to meet and plot strategy, said Robert F. Gentry, the city’s former mayor and the first openly gay elected official in Orange County.

“It was like a community center . . . very popular, very smoky, very bar-like, but very close-knit,” Gentry said. “Lots of business was conducted there and referrals made. It was a real social network that was very important to the gay community.”

In the 1960s--before local gays and city police forged more cooperative ties--Gentry said customers kept their antenna raised for undercover officers who would come “spying on our lives.”

“The intrigue was fascinating to me,” he said. “It was like you were in an underground society in a sense.”

Over the years, the bar has also been the target of anti-gay sentiment.

Many an egg has been hurled at the blue-gray fence that separates passing motorists from restaurant’s outdoor eating area. And on some days, the bartender has needed three hands to answer crank phone calls while trying to mix drinks.

For some reason, regulars say, such annoyances have died down in the past couple of years.

No one, it seems, knows what will happen after Monday.

“There are a lot of options,” said Susan H. Crawford, president of Romarco Realty Corp. in San Juan Capistrano, which owns the property.

“There’s really no way of knowing what type of business will locate there,” said Paul Lawrence, whose Laguna Niguel firm, Lawrence Commercial Real Estate, is seeking a new tenant for the site.

First, something must be done about the sagging kitchen floor, which city building official John Gustafson said appears to be rotting. Gaps in the wood provide access for insects and rodents, he said, adding that the Orange County Health Department notified the city of the problem.

For customers who have streamed into the business this week, it’s hard to imagine not having a Little Shrimp to go to--to no longer be able to slide onto that familiar bar stool, or linger late near the piano.

“No one’s happy about it, I’ll tell you that,” said one regular, who nursed a Budweiser at the end of the bar. “It’s a home away from home. Where are we going to go?”