Big Mike and Friends
Big Mike Phillips
—Big Mike Phillips is an activist, fundraiser, bartender and photographer who has lived in San Diego for 30 years. He has helped create two nonprofits and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for charity. He has been a photographer for more than 25 years and has recorded our LGBTQ history not only in San Diego but around the country, including three LGBTQ marches on Washington D.C. Contact Big Mike at 619-807-7324, or [email protected].
Every week, I get the pleasure of introducing my friends to our amazing community; it’s rare that you find individuals that stand out by just using one name like Cher and Ellen, for example. Yet we have the great honor to have Moe from Gossip Grill as one of our leading ladies in San Diego. Loved by so many, she has proven herself as a champion in so many ways.
Moe Girton-Stultz lived all over Southern California until she discovered San Diego, which now has become her forever home. I met Moe through my then-roommate and dearest friend Joey Arruda back when Baja Betty’s first opened. We were all so young then. Moe was at one time my next-door neighbor. We used to talk to each other over the fence that divided our homes. As the years flew by, we grew to know each other better, even taking a trip with her, Joey Arruda and Chris Barone to Las Vegas together. All I remember is the four of us laughing the entire trip. As the saying goes, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas — but I do still have the pictures.
Moe’s earned so much respect in our community by the kind and generous ways she treats the people she serves and works with, while working in the many MO’s Universe bars and restaurants. Moe got her start in the bar business here in San Diego at The Flame in 2000 starting as a door girl and bar back, working her way up to a bartender and then the manager. She also worked at Flicks for their girls night for a few years. It was after The Flame sold in 2004 that she applied at Baja Betty’s and was hired for their opening crew as a bartender. Being the only girl behind the bar, she had to get creative in marketing herself and building a business within a business. Using a variety of tools from Myspace to email blasts, she was able to build her business and get the attention of Stefan Chilcote and Chris Shaw of Hamburger Mary’s restaurant and bar fame. They then offered Moe a chance to open a woman’s bar as their third restaurant. Gossip Grill was born.
Ten years ago, Moe was given the opportunity of a lifetime by becoming co-owner and general manager of Gossip Grill on Oct. 10, 2009, the only women’s bar in the entire state of California. Since then, with her leadership and an amazing group of employees, they have grown as a major hot spot in our LGBTQ community — even being named one of the top nine women’s bars in the world by Fodor’s Travel in 2018. Moe and Gossip Grill concentrate on charities that raise funds for either the LGBTQ community, or women’s needs. They hold close to 50 fundraisers a year to everything from The Center to Think Dignity and have raised and donated about $1 million in the last 10 years. Moe continues to support our community whether it’s by donating food, or offering a free space to hold a meet, Q&A panel, or fundraisers. Giving back is something that just comes naturally with Gossip Grill.
Moe met the fabulous Dawn Stultz almost nine years ago in 2011 at Gossip Grill. They agreed to go on a date to grab a drink which turned into dinner, then a night cap. It went so well that their second date was a Stevie Nicks concert in Las Vegas. They have been inseparable ever since. They got married five years ago on Oct. 21, 2014, in a beautiful wedding at Wilson’s Creek, Temecula (very LGBTQ+ friendly for weddings). Miss “B” (Chris Barone) officiated the wedding in drag. Together they are quite the team! She is her partner in life and the gardener of her soul. They both share their life and their home with their two dogs Frank and Howard Beans.
Moe works hard, but she also knows how to live life and stop and smell the roses. When she can get a bit of free time, she enjoys traveling with her wife and two best friends Joey and Chris. They have been on more than 60 trips together in the last 15 years ranging from Napa, New York City, Hawaii, Tennessee, Seattle and Mexico just to name a few. Moe also likes to take time to go for a motorcycle ride on her Harley or spend time shark snorkeling in La Jolla. Surprisingly, it relaxes her. That’s what she told me! Oh, not to forget — she really enjoys her wine.
I asked Moe, “What is something you would like people to know about you?” She said, “I love this community and everyone in it! I am full of gratitude that I get to spend every day with amazing fun people. I also can talk all day about Stevie Nicks, wine and sharks.”
I always say, “We live in the best city in the world with the best people in it.” With beautiful, kind and generous women like Moe in our community, I think we will always stand out as the best.
