Clarence a popular choice

If there was any doubt the community had missed Manacle, Friday night’s opening at The Clarence Hotel swept it away.

Crowds flocked to the newest gay bar, on Parramatta Rd, Petersham, to show their support for the venture.

Co-owner Andrew Clarke said the night drew around 1000 people, many of whom were old friends and all of whom were patient and understanding about first night teething problems.

It was absolutely fantastic. I swear it was almost like all of Sydney turned up, Clarke said.

We did have a few teething problems with a few staff pulling out at the last minute, but people seemed understanding. Apart from that it was really good.

There was no trouble from anyone and we saw a lot of people we hadn’t seen in a while who were locals. Everything seems set to go ahead as we had planned.