By Gary Metzker

Contributing writer

Club Ripples, an iconic Long Beach gay bar that’s been part of the fabric of the LGBT community for more than 40 years, will say a final goodbye this weekend.

The legendary joint, 5101 E. Ocean Blvd., will offer free food to all patrons Friday and Saturday night, and host a VIP-only party Sunday, Dec. 1. Then, it will close forever.

“We’re going out on top,” said Larry Hebert, 67, one of the two longtime owners. “I’m so happy the way things are going. We’re having big parties and we’re going to enjoy ourselves.”

In Ripples’ wake, the Burger & Beer Joint restaurant will rise up on the 5,000 square-foot lot.

Still, to John Garcia — Hebert’s 45-year business and personal partner — Ripples will remain a part of Long Beach.

“We did everything right in running the place,” Garcia, 74, said. “We are leaving a legacy behind us.”

The building, though, also had a pretty long history before it became Ripples. In the 1940s, the building was an ice cream parlor. It became a gay bar in the 1950s, though that closed in 1968. Later, Shirley Temple’s first husband, John Agar, bought the property and called his restaurant Land’s Inn.

“It was a restaurant and an iconic gay place,” Garcia said, “and it never went straight and he sold it to Mary Azar.”

Azar turned it into Mary’s Celebrity House.

Garcia worked for her as a waiter from 1968 to 1969. Then Azar sold it to a group of 12 Orange County business people, who changed the name to Great Expectations.

After a series of renovations, they re-opened and changed the name again, this time to Ripples.

Garcia stayed employed there through it all.

Then, on a hot August night in 1974, he met Hebert.

It was Hebert’s first time going to gay bars. After a stop at the Diamond Horseshoe, in Wilmington, he stepped inside Ripples. But he didn’t run into Garcia there.

Later that night, however, Hebert went to Victor Hugo’s (now Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles) — and Garcia was there too. They’ve been together ever since. Garcia even helped Hebert get a job at Ripples.

“It was very successful,” Hebert said. “There were lines out the door seven nights a week.”

At least superficially.

Garcia, who had been a business major at Cal State Long Beach, helped the owners reconstruct the books after a firebombing there — and noticed massive financial mismanagement. The dozen owners, he said, could not understand why they had to keep putting money into the club while people lined up to get in.

So Garcia and Hebert started taking control.

“Little by little, one by one, we bought them out and in 1980 we owned all 12 shares plus the property,” Hebert said. “We took over the liquor store (also on the property) in 1994.”

And the two have kept Club Ripples going ever since. Even when it wasn’t easy.

The men lost hundreds of employees, friends and customers to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, for example.

“This bar was spotless during the AIDS crisis and people knew it and would come to the bar,” Hebert said. “My mother taught me how to clean. We even switched to using plastic glasses for drinks. But still, we used to go to funerals more than once a week.”

Eight years ago, Ripples went through a financial downturn. Tabatha Coffey, from the reality TV show “Tabatha Takes Over,” entered the picture.

“It was scary, but fun,” Hebert said. “I’ve watched that show before she even contacted us. I did what I had to do to fix my bar because things were slow.

“She was tough, but we ended up friends,” he added. “She’s a lovely person; she’s real and she works very hard. She really worked us over. But I took it because I knew in the long run, it was going to be worth my while.”

But through it all, Ripples has remained a Long Beach institution.

And Hebert and Garcia are proud of what they’ve done– not only operating the longest-running gay bar in Long Beach, but also being activists in the community. In 1992, for example, Garcia started the Gay Chamber of Commerce.

They also did the Pet Walk with the annual AIDS Walk, Hebert said, and in the first year, Garcia raised $55,000.

“I’m not a big shot, but we are public servants,” Hebert said. “That’s what we are. People don’t realize what we have done for the community. We are talking years. We’ve raised millions of dollars.”

Former Long Beach Mayor Beverly O’Neill is one of the few politicians to go to the club. She said she remembers the men for their warmth and contributions.

“When I think of Ripples, I think of good things,” she said. “At the time, I was mayor. I can remember we had good vibrations. They made a good contribution to the city.”

Celebrities have been a part of the Club Ripples scene, too.

“We’ve met Barbra Streisand; her sister (Roslyn Kind) sang here three times,” Hebert said. “The famous impersonator Jim Bailey has been here, Rock Hudson even came here before we owned the place.”

Hebert’s list went on.

While both men look back at their years of ownership with fondness, they said, it is time to move on. After escrow closes with the new owners, the men will take a well-deserved vacation.

“I haven’t had a vacation since 1996,” Garcia said with a sigh.

Hebert, for his part, said he’ll miss a lot of “lovely folks” — but he and Garcia are also tired.

“We’ve had our day in the sun,” Hebert said. “We’ve done it for years and it’s time to move on.”