![]() It’s last incarnation was as the Letto Deli, which closed in early 2009 after the rent was hiked. ![]() The space became The Pyramids, a Middle Eastern restaurant with Egyptian owners. In 1981, Les and his partner Larry changed the name twice, first to The New Pirate Ship, in honor of an old, long gone gay bar called the Pirate Ship on Camac near Locust Street, then to The Captain’s Quarters. The 13th Street location was purchased by Lester Ketters, who opened the gay friendly restaurant The Ranch there in 1979. In the late 1970s, competition from national fast food chains pushed Dewey’s out of business. This marked an important step in the struggle for LGBT people to lay claim to the right to public space in 1960s Philadelphia. The management agreed to end the discrimination and the protestors left, having staged the first successful gay rights sit-in in the country. This time, when the police were called, officers spoke with the protestors and simply left, declining to take any action at all. On Sunday, May 2, they staged a second sit-in. Journalist and activist Clark Polak and the Janus Society, a local gay rights group, distributed some 1,500 leaflets outside the restaurant in support of the protestors. Image courtesy John J Wilcox Jr LGBT Archives
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