Jacques Cabaret

In 1967 Vara opened The Other Side across the street, taking over the liquor license of the Punch Bowl, another gay bar that had closed down.

In 1965, city council member Frederick Langone proposed that the area be "revitalized" and the bars bulldozed, stating, “We will be better off without these incubators of homosexuality and indecency.

We are effectively ghettoized, since dancing between members of the same sex and other behavior, which the law deems to call lewd and lascivious, are illegal.”[7]As the Bay Village neighborhood grew into an affluent residential area, residents complained of the noise and rowdy bar patrons.

In the early 1970s, Jacques and The Other Side were the subjects of many police reports of prostitution, drugs, and violent crime in the area.

[3] Following a number of police reports, in 1975, Henry Vara and Frank Cashman, the operators of Jacques and The Other Side, appeared in hearings of the licensing board.

[8] Facing threats to the bars' licenses, Cashman alleged under oath that Deputy Mayor Robert Kiley had attempted to solicit a $50,000 donation to Mayor Kevin White's campaign in exchange for using his political sway to ensure the licenses would remain intact, a claim which Kiley denied.

[12] The bar's alternative drag show #NoFilter was listed as a 2018 Boston's Best winner by The Improper Bostonian.