The Bay Area is a center of artistic expression, attracting artists, writers and musicians from around the world to live, work and create. We present some of the offers here.

Christmas dances (with boa): One of the Bay Area's most beloved holiday dance traditions returns this week for a five-week run at multiple venues across the region. We're talking about Smuin Contemporary Ballet's annual “Christmas Ballet” program, a joyful mix of works that range from elegant to sassy and silly, touching on styles such as traditional and contemporary ballet, jazz, tap, swing and more. This year's show includes world premieres by Amy Seiwert, the company's artistic director, and former Smuin choreographer Nicole Haskins. Also on the program are classic dance favorites by the company's late founder Michael Smuin, including “Bach Magnificat,” “Gloucestershire Wassail” and “Licht bensh'n,” as well as some of Michael Smuin's more playful works, including “Christmas Island,” “Droopy Little Christmas Tree.” and of course “Santa Baby,” a work that features the company’s “longest feather boa in the world.” The program lands at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek with performances Saturday at 2 and 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Future performances include Dec. 1 and 2 at the Sunset Center in Carmel; 7th–10th December at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts; and 14-24. December at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. An LGBTQ+ Night performance on December 19th at the YBCA will feature popular San Francisco drag queen Lady Camden (a star of Season 14 of RuPaul's Drag Race). Tickets are $25-$119. For a complete schedule, tickets and more information, visit www.smuinballet.org.

Charming, goofy chimney sweep Jim Chimney is among the many characters who populate the Great Dickens Christmas Fair & Victorian Holiday Party, taking place Saturday through December 17 at the Cow Palace in Daly City. (Courtesy of Zoart Photography/Great Dickens Christmas Fair)

The Dickens, they say: We have a hunch that living in a Dickens novel probably wouldn't be nearly as fun as hanging out at the annual holiday event in Daly City that the legendary author inspired. The Great Dickens Christmas Fair & Victorian Holiday Party, as the event's full name is, returns to the Cow Palace this weekend with its large and bustling recreation of Victorian London. It is packed with attractions for adults and children. The older group can enjoy port and chocolate tastings, enjoy afternoon tea, tackle a Sherlock Holmes Experience mystery, have a pint or two at the Jekyll and Hyde pub or the slightly cheekier Mad Sal's Dockside Ale House and admire the Grand Spectrum of performances on seven stages, from Irish singers to Bedouin belly dancers, comedians and jugglers to actors portraying numerous Dickens characters. For little ones, there's a self-guided children's tour of London, as well as the chance to meet Santa Claus and the popular Punch and Judy puppet shows. Most of the entertainment and interactive content is suitable for both children and adults. Of course there are all sorts of British delicacies to sample, from fish and chips and bangers and mash to meat pies and all sorts of biscuits, chocolate and other sweet treats, as well as a wide range of liquid refreshments. And yes, there are knick-knacks and other items for sale for holiday shoppers. The fair opens Saturday and runs Saturdays and Sundays (and the Friday after Thanksgiving) from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. through Dec. 17 at the Cow Palace, 2600 Geneva Ave., Daly City. Day passes are $25-45 ($18-30 after 3 p.m.), with children under 5 admitted free. A full pass costs $160. Go to dickensfair.com.

Los Cenzontles recently released “Son Con Son, En el Suelo Americano,” a collaboration with Grupo Mono Blanco. (Courtesy of Los Cenzontles)

Freebie of the week: Los Cenzontles, the nationally known East Bay band that specializes in performing and recording traditional and original Mexican roots music, has been busy lately. (Of course, this is nothing new for the group, which is affiliated with the San Pablo Cultural Arts Center and the school of the same name.) You can stream the fruits of their labor online. Last month, a new album was released that marked a reunion with Grupo Mono Blanco, the famous band from Veracruz, Mexico. The two began working together in the late 1980s, when Los Cenzontles (“cenzontles” means “mockingbirds”) started out as a youth band made up of cultural academy students. Their findings helped spark a revival of Mexican folk music called son jarocho. Earlier this year, Los Cenzontles, which has forged musical connections with iconic artists from Linda Ronstadt to Los Lobos and many others, teamed up again with Grupo Mono Blanco and hired acclaimed Cuban musician Kika Valera, a master of the cuatro, a guitar, which the band uses a variety of Latin music styles. The result was the album “Son Con Son, En el Suelo Americano,” which is streaming on Spotify, YouTube and other sites. If you'd like to purchase it (we're sure Los Cenzontles would appreciate it), it's selling for $12 on the group's website. Meanwhile, Los Cenzontles continues to release songs, music videos and musical films that you can enjoy for free on its website as well as on YouTube and Vimeo. Go to www.loscenzontles.com.

The Silkwood Ensemble, including artistic director Rhiannon Giddens, brings the tour of its “American Railroad” project to Berkeley on Friday evening. (Courtesy of Adam Gurczak)

To the west, ho! – in music: What an outstanding convergence of musical forces is taking place on the stage of Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley on Friday evening! As part of its “Illuminations: 'Individual and Community'” series, Cal Performances presents the Grammy-winning Silkroad Ensemble and its current artistic director, Pulitzer Prize-winning singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist Rhiannon Giddens, now touring with their project “American Railroad”. The program is designed to illuminate the diverse communities and cultures that contributed to westward expansion with the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad. It includes African American, Chinese, Native American, American folk and Irish traditional music, including a piece commissioned by Grammy-award winning composer and singer Cécile McLorin Savant. Participating members of the Silkroad Ensemble include Giddens on banjo and vocals; Mazz Swift, violin and vocals; Wu Man on pipa, Sandeep Das on tabla; Haruka Fujii, drums; Shawn Conley on bass; Karen Ouzounian, cello and vocals; Kaoru Watanabe on Japanese flutes and percussion and Michi Wiancko on violin. They will be joined by guest artists Francesco Turrisi, frame drum and accordion; Niwel Tsumbu on guitar; Pura Fé Crescioni, lap steel guitar and vocals and Yazhi Guo on Suona. Performance time is 8:00 p.m., with a panel discussion taking place first on the mezzanine at 6:30 p.m. and a community conversation following the program. For tickets, $38-$90, go to calperformances.org and (510) 642-9988.

The Jupiter String Quartet plays music reminiscent of major civil unrest at a concert Sunday evening at the Kohl Mansion in Burlingame. (Courtesy of Todd Rosenberg)

Turmoil in the strings: “Upheaval” is the theme the Illinois-based Jupiter String Quartet chose for Sunday night's concert at the Kohl Mansion in Burlingame because most of the pieces to be played were composed during times of great unrest. Beethoven's powerful Quartet No. 8 in E minor, one of the famous “Rasumovsky” quartets, forms the core of the program, and is preceded by Irish-English composer Elizabeth Maconchy's Quartet No. 3, inspired by her support of the struggling Republicans Francisco Franco's forces in 1930s Spain. Guggenheim fellow Nathan Shields' new quartet “Medusa” follows, with references to Caravaggio's disturbing paintings that evoke themes of social and political violence. Carlos Simon's “Elegy” is a tribute to black American victims of police violence, and the first half of the program ends with William Bolcom's wistful piece “The Graceful Ghost,” originally written for piano in the 1970s in memory of the composer's father became. Show time is 7:00 p.m. at 2750 Adeline Drive in Burlingame. Find tickets. $25-$58, at musicatkohl.org.

The post Finest Bets: Smuin’s ‘Christmas Ballet,’ Dickens Honest, Los Cenzontles, Silkroad Ensemble, Jupiter String Quartet   appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

The Bay Area is a hub of artistic expression, attracting artists, writers and musicians from around the globe to live, work and create. We highlight some of the offerings here.

Christmas dances (with boa): One of the Bay Area’s most beloved Christmas dance traditions returns this week for a five-week run at several area venues. We’re talking about Smuin Contemporary Ballet’s annual “Christmas Ballet” program, a joyous mix of works ranging from elegant to sassy and silly and touching on styles including traditional and contemporary ballet, jazz, tap, swing and more. This year’s show includes world premiere numbers by company artistic director Amy Seiwert and former Smuin choreographer Nicole Haskins. Also in the program are classical dance favorites by company founder, the late Michael Smuin, including “Bach Magnificat,” “Gloucestershire Wassail,” and “Licht bensh’n,” as well as some of Michael Smuin more playful works, including “Christmas Island,” “Droopy Little Christmas Tree” and, of course, “Santa Baby,” a work that features what the company bills as the “world’s longest feather boa.” The program lands at Walnut Creek’s Lesher Center for the Arts for performances at 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Future performances include Dec. 1-2 at the Sunset Center in Carmel; Dec. 7-10 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts; and Dec. 14-24 at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. A LGBTQ+ Night performance on Dec. 19 at YBCA features popular San Francisco drag queen Lady Camden (a star of Season 14 of “RuPaul’s Drag Race”). Tickets are $25-$119. Find a complete schedule, tickets and more information at www.smuinballet.org.

The charmingly silly chimney sweep, Jim Chimney, is among the large cast of characters populating The Great Dickens Christmas Fair & Victorian Holiday Party running Saturday through Dec. 17 at the Cow Palace in Daly City. (Courtesy Zoart Photography/Great Dickens Christmas Fair)

The Dickens, you say: We have a hunch that living in a Dickens novel would probably be nowhere near as fun as hanging out at the annual Daly City holiday event the legendary author has inspired. The Great Dickens Christmas Fair & Victorian Holiday Party, to use the event’s proper full name, returns to the Cow Palace this weekend, with its large and bustling re-creation of Victorian-era London. It’s chock full of attractions for adults and kids. The older set can enjoy port and chocolate tastings, sip their way through a high tea, tackle a Sherlock Holmes Experience mystery, knock back a pint or two at the Jekyll and Hyde Pub or somewhat naughtier Mad Sal’s Dockside Ale House, and marvel at the wide array of performances on seven stages, from Irish singers to Bedouin belly dancers to comedians and jugglers to actors portraying scores of Dickens’ characters. For the young ‘uns, there is a self-guided Children’s Tour of London, as well as opportunities to meet Father Christmas and the popular Punch and Judy puppet shows. Most of the entertainment and interactive stuff, for that matter, is suitable for both kids and adults. Of course, there are all kinds of British delicacies to sample, from fish and chips and bangers and mash to meat pies and all manner of cookies, chocolate and other sweet treats, as well as a full range of liquid refreshments. And, yes, there are knickknacks and other items for sale for holiday shoppers. The fair opens Saturday and runs 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays (plus the Friday after Thanksgiving) through Dec. 17 at the Cow Palace, 2600 Geneva Ave., Daly City. Daily tickets run $25-$45 ($18-$30 after 3 p.m.), with kids under 5 admitted free. A full-run pass runs $160. Go to dickensfair.com.

Los Cenzontles recently released “Son Con Son, En el Suelo Americano,” a collaboration with Grupo Mono Blanco. (Courtesy Los Cenzontles) 

Freebie of the week: Los Cenzontles, the nationally renowned East Bay band that specializes in performing and recording traditional and original Mexican roots music, has been busy of late. (Of course, that’s nothing new for the group associated with the San Pablo cultural arts center and school of the same name.) You can enjoy the fruits of their labor streaming online. Last month, it released a new album that marked a reunion with Grupo Mono Blanco, the famed band from Veracruz, Mexico. The two began collaborating in the late 1980s when Los Cenzontles (“cenzontles” translates to mockingbirds) was getting its start as a youth band composed of students at the cultural academy. Their results helped spark a revival of the Mexican folkloric music known as son Jarocho. Earlier this year, Los Cenzontles, which has forged musical bonds with iconic artists ranging from Linda Ronstadt to Los Lobos and many more, reunited with Grupo Mono Blanco and brought in acclaimed Cuban musician Kika Valera, a master of the cuatro, a guitar used in a variety of Latin music styles. The result was the album “Son Con Son, En el Suelo Americano,” which is streaming on Spotify, YouTube and other sites. If you want to buy it (we’re sure Los Cenzontles would appreciate it), it sells for $12 on the group’s website. Meanwhile, Los Cenzontles continues to post songs, music videos and music films that you can enjoy for free on its site, as well as on YouTube and Vimeo. Go to www.loscenzontles.com.

Silkwood Ensemble, including artistic director Rhiannon Giddens, brings the tour of its “American Railroad” project to Berkeley on Friday night. (Courtesy Adam Gurczak)

Westward, ho! – in music: What a stellar convergence of musical forces is taking place Friday night on stage at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley!  Cal Performances, as part of its series “Illuminations: ‘Individual and Community,’” is presenting the Grammy-winning Silkroad Ensemble and its current artistic director, the Pulitzer Prize-winning singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist Rhiannon Giddens, now on tour with their “American Railroad” project. Conceived as a way to illuminate the multiple communities and cultures that contributed to the westward expansion with the building of the Transcontinental Railroad, the program features African-American, Chinese, American Indian, American folk and Irish traditional music, including a piece commissioned from Grammy-winning composer and vocalist Cécile McLorin Savant. Participating Silkroad Ensemble members are Giddens, on banjo and voice; Mazz Swift, violin and vocals; Wu Man on pipa, Sandeep Das on tabla;  Haruka Fujii, percussion; Shawn Conley on bass; Karen Ouzounian, cello and vocals; Kaoru Watanabe, on Japanese flutes and percussion and Michi Wiancko on violin. Joining them are guest artists Francesco Turrisi, frame drums and accordion; Niwel Tsumbu on guitar; Pura Fé Crescioni, lap-steel guitar and vocals and Yazhi Guo on suona. Performance time is 8 p.m., with a panel discussion taking place in the mezzanine lobby first at 6:30 p.m. and a community conversation following the program. Find tickets, $38-$90, at calperformances.org and (510) 642-9988.

The Jupiter String Quartet plays music reminiscent of great unrest at a recital Sunday evening at the Kohl Mansion in Burlingame. (Courtesy Todd Rosenberg)

Turmoil in the strings: “Upheaval” is the theme the Illinois-based Jupiter String Quartet has chosen for Sunday night’s recital at the Kohl Mansion in Burlingame, as most of the pieces to be played were composed in times of great unrest. Beethoven’s powerful Quartet No. 8 in E minor, one of the famed “Razumovsky” quartets, anchors the program, and it will be preceded by the Quartet No. 3 by Irish-English composer Elizabeth Maconchy, inspired by her support of the Republicans fighting off Francisco Franco’s forces in 1930s Spain. Guggenheim Fellow Nathan Shields’ new quartet, “Medusa,” follows, with references to the unsettling paintings by Caravaggio that evoke themes of social and political violence. Carlos Simon’s “Elegy” pays homage to the Black American victims of police violence, and the first half of the program concludes with William Bolcom’s wistful rag, “The Graceful Ghost,” originally written for piano in the 1970s in memory of the composer’s father. Performance time is 7 p.m. at 2750 Adeline Drive in Burlingame. Find tickets. $25-$58, at musicatkohl.org.

The post Best Bets: Smuin’s ‘Christmas Ballet,’ Dickens Fair, Los Cenzontles, Silkroad Ensemble, Jupiter String Quartet   appeared first on Local News Matters.

The post Greatest Bets: Smuin’s ‘Christmas Ballet,’ Dickens Honest, Los Cenzontles, Silkroad Ensemble, Jupiter String Quartet   appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

The California-based home service company began adding HVAC installation and repair to its existing plumbing services in 2019

LOS ANGELES, May 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Rooter Hero Plumbing & Air, a plumbing and HVAC company serving residential and commercial locations in California and Arizona, announced today that it has expanded its heating, ventilation and air conditioning services to include all of Los Angeles County.

Expanding the Rooter Hero HVAC services brand throughout all of Los Angeles has been a priority for the home services company and they have now met this goal.

Rooter Hero started as a California-based plumbing service company in 2011 but began moving into the HVAC installation and repair industry after it acquired an HVAC company in Phoenix in 2019.

“Expanding the Rooter Hero HVAC services brand throughout all of Los Angeles has been a priority for us, and we’re thrilled that we have met that goal,” said Rooter Hero co-founder and CEO John Akhoian. “We have offered the residents of Los Angeles County exceptional plumbing and drain cleaning services for more than a decade now, and it was a natural next step to add HVAC repair and maintenance to our roster of services, as well.”

In addition to standard HVAC repair and maintenance service, the company also provides 24-hour emergency services in the markets where its HVAC repair is available. The company’s plumbing division provides new installation, repair and maintenance solutions and emergency services for both residential and commercial customers.

The company currently services 13 metro areas in California and Arizona, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and Phoenix. Akhoian said the company plans to expand its HVAC services in several other California counties throughout the year.

For more information about Rooter Here, please visit https://rooterhero.com/.

About Rooter Hero Plumbing & Air

Since 2011, Rooter Hero has been committed to providing the best in plumbing and drain services. With more than 90 years of plumbing experience, the Rooter Hero team prides themselves on creating a memorable experience for each customer.

Story continues

The company provides solutions for both residential and commercial needs and offers 24/7 emergency service. Operating in service area locations throughout California and Arizona, Rooter Hero offers options such as HVAC service and installation in select areas. For more information, please visit https://rooterhero.com or call 844-219-2215.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Heather Ripley
Ripley PR
(865) 977-1973
hripley@ripleypr.com

Cision

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SOURCE Rooter Hero

The post Rooter Hero Plumbing & Air expands HVAC companies all through Los Angeles County appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

This post is sponsored and contributed by Thumbtack, a Patch Brand Partner.

As a homeowner, plumbing probably doesn’t cross your mind much until there’s a problem. But when your faucet won’t stop dripping, your toilet is clogged or a burst pipe causes flooding, finding a plumber to come to the rescue quickly is an absolute necessity. Fortunately, Thumbtack, a home services app used by millions, has Los Altos residents covered.

Thumbtack connects homeowners with local professionals, including top-rated plumbers. When you need a plumbing professional to repair faulty fixtures, clear drain blockages, replace damaged pipes, or handle any other plumbing need, Thumbtack makes it simple to find and hire a plumber in the Los Altos area.

Whether the result of a natural disaster or a burst pipe, an emergency plumbing situation can occur at any time. Because of both the danger of standing water and the cost of cleaning up a flood, it’s important to immediately attend to your situation — and fortunately, there are plumbers who are available to handle your emergency plumbing needs. The average cost of emergency plumbing services in San Francisco is $220.1, according to data obtained by Thumbtack.*

Find out what’s happening in Los Altoswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Stubborn clogs in sinks, toilets, or showers can eventually lead to pipe and drain issues. Plumbers have specialized tools to repair drains, clear blockages and ensure water flows freely. The average cost of plumbing drain repair in San Francisco is $208.53, according to data obtained by Thumbtack.*

There are also several reasons you might need new pipes. Old water pipes can wear out and spring a leak, causing thousands of dollars of damage to your home. You also might need new pipes as part of a remodel or an addition to your house. The average cost of plumbing pipe installation or replacement in San Francisco is $422.03, according to data obtained by Thumbtack.*

Find out what’s happening in Los Altoswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Once your plumbing needs are handled, you can use Thumbtack to connect with other pros in the Los Altos area to complete virtually any home task. You can hire a house cleaner, electrician, landscaper, and more to help you tackle that to-do list.

Each professional on Thumbtack has a profile, allowing you to read reviews, see how many times they’ve been hired by others, and see how long they’ve been in business. You can contact pros and request free cost estimates, allowing you to compare prices and choose the professional that best fits your budget.

Whether you need services from a plumber or any other professional in the Los Altos area, Thumbtack is the way to go.

Need something done in Los Altos? Thumbtack can help you find and hire the pro for the job!

*Pricing data is based on projects requested on Thumbtack in the past 24 months as reported directly by the independent service professional or individual consumer. These figures are provided for educational purposes only and are subject to change at any time due to various factors. Details about your specific project and local rates can impact costs.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

This post is sponsored and contributed by Thumbtack, a Patch Brand Partner.

The post How A lot Does Hiring A Plumber Value In Los Altos? appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

INTRODUCTION

In 2018, I made a map of Los Angeles’s oldest restaurants and wrote a bit about them. It proved relatively easy because there was lots already written on the subject. When I started writing about Los Angeles’s oldest bars, it proved much more difficult. Not only could I find no serious effort to draw upon, most of the flimsy listicles out there were a jumble of misinformation copy-and-paste jobs from equally terrible listicles served with a side of rehashed clickbait. An endless, Ouroboros-like circle of content creators eating their own necrotic tails. And so I actually had to spend a lot of time and effort on this piece. If you like it, please consider tipping yours truly by becoming a patron. The more I get in tips, the less I have to find money elsewhere and the less worthless “content” you’ll find clogging your news feed. We all win, in other words.

Un bar aux Folies Bergère by Edouard Manet (1881-1882)

I began with a seemingly obvious question, namely, what is a bar? One dictionary definition states that a bar is “an establishment where alcohol and sometimes other refreshments are served.” By that definition, though, Outback Steakhouse is a bar. I’m not even sure Outback Steakhouse is a restaurant although I ate a bloomin’ onion (an Australian delicacy) at one in Oklahoma in 1998. To wash it down, I drank an ancient can of Guinness, served without a glass, that I had to wipe dust from the top of before joylessly consuming. I don’t have a better definition of what a bar is but, like United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, who when asked to define obscenity stated “I know it when I see it,” I reckon I know a bar when I see one. A bar is a place that serves alcohol and sometimes other refreshments but that’s not all it is. If that’s all it was, we bar lovers would happily save some money by buying alcohol from a convenience store, pour it into styrofoam cup, and get drunk it in the parking lot or alley.

A bar is also a third place — the sort of place we differentiate from first places (our homes) and second places (our jobs). A bar, in that way, is like a bookstore, a church, a coffee shop, a donut shop, an arcade, a pool parlor, a social club, a park, a bowling alley, a post office, or a library. In the past, pharmacies were also third places but most independent pharmacies have been replaced by soulless CVSes and Sav-Ons… and you’d have to be a real sicko to want to hang out an either of those any longer than is absolutely necessary. Chain pharmacies are Hell — and Hell is a second place. There are still exceptions here and there. Fair Oaks Pharmacy is a delight. At bars, you don’t choose who else is there. You might sit at a bar with people from different economic classes, with different political views, and of different faiths — and if they’re sitting at a bar, any, ideally, might happily discuss those topics we’re told to avoid in polite company — namely money, politics, and religion. Or, conversely, you can grab a quiet booth, crack open a book, and enjoy a drink or two. There are few things better than reading in a quiet bar.

BAR HISTORY

The oldest bar in continuous operation is San Francisco‘s Old Ship Saloon, established in 1851. California is, supposedly, home to more historic bars than any other state. I don’t have a source nor do I know by what metric the bars’ historicity was measured for that but I read it somewhere and so I’m repeating it as fact. That sort of reasoning happens a lot at bars. Most bars, in my experience, has their Cliff Clavin. “It’s a little known fact that this bar was owned by Charlie Chaplin… and it was a speakeasy… and it was the last place the Black Dahlia was seen…. and she was with Charles Bukowski!” At bars, tall tales well-told are valued at least as much as actual facts, which is probably why there’s so much BS repeated over and over until it becomes accepted bar lore. Here, though, are some facts.

The city (but not county) of Los Angeles officially went dry in 1917. Prohibition was enacted on 17 January 1920. Beer was legalized on 7 April 1933. Prohibition was entirely repealed on 5 December 1933. Los Angeles never truly went dry, though, and both City Hall and the Los Angeles Police Department were intimately involved in bootlegging. Some bars survived Prohibition by selling near beers, bitters, and sarsaparillas. Others went underground, sometimes literally. For the purposes of this piece, I’m focusing on bars that have been open since the 1930s or earlier. There are surely some that I’ve missed but others, that you may expect to see here, are more often than not newer than they’re usually claimed to be. For example, The Continental Room in Fullerton is marketed as the oldest bar in Orange County and one that has been in operation since 1925. The building may be that old but the bar itself opened in 2002. For that reason, I’ve included newer bars that make similar claims on the map. If you know of any other heritage bars, however, let me know in the comments.

Here are the pre-1950 bars that I know of…

THE AIRLINER (1946)

The building in which The Airliner is located was constructed in 1923. Before that, there was a house there.  John Yutronich and Jack Vojkovich operated the Lincoln Cafe there from at least 1932 until 1934, when they retired… for the first time. In 1934, Charles Paglia was charged with running a fictitious business there, Star Tent & Awning Co. In reality, it was Spaghettiville Inn that opened there in 1934. Spaghettiville Inn was shortlived, though, and in 1937, Yutronich and Vojkovich re-opened the Lincoln Cafe. In 1938, it was still the Lincoln Cafe when convicted rapist, Dick Walton, was shot in the arm and arrested by a police officer after he a attacked a fellow patron with a blackjack.

The Airliner Steak House & Cocktail Lounge opened there on 7 February 1946 with Dom Palermo and Jack Lima at the helm. It was robbed on 1 April 1946. The bandits made off with $1,000 in cash and $100 worth of liquor. In October 1948, Samuel L. Leonard reported that a locker containing his wallet and exactly $189.53 was robbed. Meanwhile, Yutronich and Vojkovich, unable to stay retired,  opened Jack & John’s Restaurant in El Sereno in 1950. Palermo was still the proprietor of the Airliner at least as late as 1978. Lima died on 19 December 1985. Palermo died in 1986.

The Airliner continued on as a bar after that. In 2006, Daddy Kev, DJ Nobody, Gaslamp Killer, and edIT founded the famed Low-End Theory there. Monica Blair and Sean Kelly took over the bar around 2019 and shut it down in 2023.

Hopefully, it will re-open under new ownership.

THE ALHAMBRA COCKTAIL LOUNGE (1936)

The origins of the Alhambra Cocktail Lounge, like those of many old bars, are a bit blurry. According to a probably unpaid intern writing for Timeout, it opened in 1904. This is dubious since the County Assessor‘s office claims that the building in which it’s located was only built in 1912. Even more daming is a sign hung outside the Alhambra that says “since 1936.” Bars claiming to have opened at a later date than they actually did is pretty much unheard of. I haven’t yet gone to the Alhambra, though although once, when I was having a pint at the Whale & Ale, however, a salty dog named Tim regaled my friend Mike and I with many colorful tales. One involved his days of “shanghaiing” unsuspecting dupes at the Alhambra and then somehow conveying them to and leaving them in the old San Pedro jail. He then invited us to accompany him to his favorite haunt. We passed.

GETTING THERE

The Alhambra is served by LADOT‘s DASH San Pedro Line and Commuter Express 142. It’s also near The Port of Los Angeles Waterfront Red Car Line, assuming that it re-opens someday.

THE BLUE ROOM (1947)

The Blue Room is located inside a building that was constructed in 1928. Located near the Glendale-Burbank border, it was known as The Glen-Bur Cafe until 1947, when it was taken over by Augustine J. Grafi and Frederick B. Haddix. That May, they opened Augie & Bucks Blue Room. The cocktail bar had (and has) an appropriately blue color scheme, down to the booths and lights. In addition to serving drinks, they served steaks and chops.

The Blue Room was in the news quite a lot for a cocktail bar in the years since it opened. In 1949, L. Leo Morgan sued the owners when a rat climbed up his pant leg and bit him whilst he occupied the phone booth. In 1955, it was raided for running bookkeeping businesses concurrent with the Hollywood Park racing season. In 1954, the lifeless body of Mary Von Elm (wife of golfer George Von Elm) was discovered in the front seat of a car in the parking lot, near an empty bottle of insecticide. With her was a younger golfer, Roy Ford, who lived with the Von Elms and claimed he dated his protege’s wife. Her death was ruled a suicide.

In April 1956, a fire broke out and a man who identified himself to firefighters as the owner asked that they chop a hole in the wall through which he retrieved a sack of money before vanishing. He was not one of the owners, who by then were Bermeice and John Samarjian. In 1957, two gunmen (Dale G. Kempf and Lambert Fontenot) held up the bar, robbing both a bartender and customers. Patrons and a bartender were again robbed at gunpoint in 1964. Augied died in 1992.

GETTING THERE

The Blue Room is served by Metro‘s 94 and 96 lines, and the Glendale Beeline‘s 7 Line.

CLUB TEE GEE (1946)

In 1946, two World War II veterans and brothers-in-law, Neil W. Tracy and Joe Grzybowski, opened Club Tee Gee. The “Tee” and Gee” were references to the owners’ respective family names. They remodeled an old bank, applying a flagstone façade and a neon “cocktails” sign. Tracy died in 1961. Grzybowski met a transplant from New York City named Betty Barlotta, who took over ownership of the bar in 1981. Grzybowski died of a heart attack in 1984. Barlotta continued to run the bar, with new partner Bob Kick. On 1 September 2017, ownership was transferred to Greg Dulli. To read more, click here.

GETTING THERE

Club Tee Gee is served by Metro’s 92 and 201 lines.

COLE’S (1908)

On 8 December 1908, Harry M. Cole opened Cole’s P. E. Buffet in the basement of the Pacific Electric Building. His son, Rawland, was born the following year. Although the main claim of Cole‘s is that they invented the French dip sandwich, that culinary distinction is almost certainly owned by Philippe. The claim is seemingly based entirely on the fact that they opened before Philippe’s but conveniently ignores that it didn’t appear on the menu of either establishment until the 1930s. Not that it matters to me. I like animals and so the idea of eating cow flesh stuffed between pieces of soggy bread is no temptation The only sandwiches I routinely get excited about are bánh mì (with thịt chay, natch)… and sometimes I get a bit wistful about the lack of Reubens in my life if I’m honest.

I’m not trying to paint a picture of Cole’s or Cole as dishonest then but Harry Cole was arrested for fraud on charges unrelated to sandwiches in 1942. That probably had to do with Cole’s check-cashing service, Cole’s Check Service Inc., which first Harry Cole launched from the bar in 1920, and which with Rawland ultimately took over. Harry died in January 1945. The state of California shut it down the check service in 1955.

In 1974, Cole’s was designated Historical-Cultural Landmark No. 104. In 1988, bartender Jimmy Barela, who was hired in 1925, finally retired. By 1993, it was owned by Gitti and Madhi “Martin” Beheshti. They sold Cole’s to the 213 Hospitality in 2007. 213 has since rebranded as Pouring With Heart. It re-opened in 2008 with a second bar, Varnish, inside a converted storage closet. I’ve been to Cole’s a few times with friends, including my friend Matt and Karen Lee Williams — despite the fact that my ex lived across the street — because it’s a great bar and a few picklebacks heal all wounds.

GETTING THERE

Cole’s is served by Metro‘s 20, 60, 720 lines; and LADOT‘s DASH D Line.

COOK’S CORNER (1926, bar added in 1933)

In 1883, a merchant named Andrew Jackson Cook acquired 77 hectares in what was then still Los Angeles County. The following year, he constructed a structure or two at the corner of Live Oak and Santiago Canyon. In 1926, Cook’s son, Earl Jack (or “EJ”) began selling food at a food stand across the street from where the bar is situated, basically the starting point for the Cook’s Corner restaurant. In 1933, right after Prohibition was repealed, Cook began selling booze across the street from inside a honey hut borrowed from Asbury Jackson Shaw. The operation moved into its current location after a building from a World War II airfield was moved there in 1946.

On 19 December 1968, The Tustin News reported that Cook’s Corner was burglarized when burglars climbed through a window broken in a previous burglary. According to Paul Dale Burger, they made off with $25 worth of pottery, $21 worth of beer, and $3.50 worth of meat along with the change from a cigarette machine and a jukebox. Not that that’s much of a story but I found it amusing.

In 1975, the Cook family moved to Montana and sold Cook’s Corner to Victor Villa and Volker Streicek, of Santa Ana-based motorcycle accessories company Cheat’ah Engineering. At that point, it became popular with motorcyclists. Villa and Streicek sold the bar in the early 1980s. In 1988, Cook’s Corner was purchased by Frank de Luna. De Luna spent another $90,000 on upgrades, adding a compact disc jukebox, a big-screen television, and a cocktail bar. As a result, the bar began to cater less to outlaws (the traditional clientele) and increasingly to “rubs” or “rubbies” (rich urban bikers).

At that point, it began to change hands so often that it’s a bit dizzying… or merely disinteresting. In 1999, faced with permitting issues, de Luna announced his intention to sell the bar for $2.7 million. Pete Katelaris and Costas Papacharalambous bought it in 2005. At some point, Pete Burback bought it and announced it was shutting down in 2017. I’m not sure who owns it now but last I checked it was still open. I still haven’t been to Cook’s Corner but Mike and I once headed there and (lacking cell reception) ended up in Silverado Canyon, which is a really magical place.

GETTING THERE

Cook’s Corner isn’t served by mass transit. Most visitors, it seems, arrive by motorcycle.

1881 (1946)

The 1881 Cocktail Bar is often said to have opened in 1936. However, it was Al’s Place until 1946. Al’s Place was owned by Albert P. and Bessie R. Nowlin. In 1946, they sold it to Pietro and Marianna Milana, who opened the 1881 Club. It was run by Santo P. Milano.

GETTING THERE

The 1881 is served by Metro’s 31, 32, 256, and 686 lines.

EL PASEO INN (1930)

El Paseo Inn opened in 1930, the year Olvera Street was given a tourist-friendly makeover spearheaded by Christine Sterling, who wished to play up Southern California‘s pre-Mexican Spanish period. It was founded by Maria Elena Peluffo and Frank Webb and originally served both Mexican and Italian dishes. When Prohibition was repealed, in 1933, it secured the fourth liquor license given out that year.

It was originally located at the end of the street in a smaller location. In 1953, Andy M. Camacho bought it moved it to a larger location on Olvera, one previously inhabited by Café Caliente. Its former spot was taken over by Cielito Lindo. The building in which El Paseo Inn has been located since then was built around 1870 and used in wine production. It may surprise modern-day readers that Olvera Street was formerly known as Calle de los Vignes and Los Angeles was the wine-making capital of the entire country.

GETTING THERE

El Paseo Inn is located across the street from Union Station so there are two many transit options to mention.

ERCOLE’S (c. 1936)

The neon sign at Ercole’s proclaimes that it was was established in 1927. I’m not sure where that year was arrived at. In 1918, the building in which Ercole’s is located was constructed but in the 1920s, it was home to Notion’s. The Manhattan Cafe opened there on 29 June 1929. Its founers were Grace Ullery and Giuseppe “Joe” Ercole, an immigrant from Quattordio, Italy. Ercole had been busted for bootlegging in 1921 but the Manhattan Cafe seems to have been a legitimate sandwich and ice cream parlor. Ercole remained in 1933 and his new wife, Blanche, also helped run the establishement, which remained in business until at least lat 1935.

By 1937, the Ercoles had closed the cafe and opened, in its place, Ercole’s Cafe. Ercole’s offered steak, chicken, and Italian dinners. The chef was Frank Brusasco. There was also a cocktail bar. In 1945, Joe Ercole was joined behind the bar by his son, Alexander “Al” Jerry Ercole, who’d just returned from World War II. In 1948, Al took over the establishement with his sister, Marguerite, and Marguerite’s husband, Robert E. Morrison. It was remodeled with a western theme by George “Red” Jones. An ad from that year proclaimed that Ercole’s was celebrating its 25th anniversary, which would’ve meant that it had opened in 1923 — which it didn’t.

In 1950, Al began running the establishment with Roland M. Polsley and Hal E. Bachmann. Al cashed out in 1957, after which it continued to be run by Bachmann and Polsley. It was later owned by Louis and Ellen Underwood. It was bought by Gary Keith Moore on 16 March 1972. Joe Ercoled died in 1983. Al Ercole died in 1994. Gary Moore died in 2015.

GETTING THERE

Ercole‘s is served by Metro‘s 438 Line and Beach Cites Transit‘s 109 Line

FOOTSIE’S (1948)

In 1932 or ’33, Howard Hardware closed and was replaced by Cliff’s Inn, a tavern run by expert marksman (and member of both the L.A.-Santa Monica Gun Club and the Red Lion Skeet Team) Major R. Slater and “Pete.” Cliff’s Inn was still in business as late as 1946, however, and still run by Slater although Pete seems to have been replaced by Fred Seney. Major Slater retired in 1948 and Cliff’s Inn was bought by Ferdinand “Footsie” Gioia, who opened Footsie’s. Footsie died in April 1963. Its next owner was Pietro Ferro. It was purchased by Greg Dulli in 2003 and given a New Orleans-theme makeover. To read more about the history of Footsie’s, click here.

GETTING THERE

Footsie’s is served by Metro‘s 81 and 251 lines.

THE FORMOSA CAFE (1939)

The Red Post Cafe was in operation as early as 1915. Around 1939, nightclub owner Max Goldie acquired it, added a dining room, kitchen, and bar, and it re-opened as The Formosa Cafe. The cross street is Formosa Avenue but, of course, Formosa is also the name the Portuguese named the island of Taiwan and the Formosa Cafe had an Orientalist aesthetic. A retired Pacific Electric Railway car (800 series) was repurposed as the Star Dining Room.

Goldie was murdered in 1947 — shot in the back whilst using a payphone on Santa Monica Boulevard. A bookie named Jimmy Bernstein took over operations. According to a memoir written by Lindy Brewerton, a bartender at the Formosa for 48 years, chef Lem Quon came on board in 1948 or ’49. Quon was from Hong Kong, not Formosa/Taiwan, and so, appropriately, the cuisine he made was mostly Cantonese and American Chinese (although there was and maybe still is Mongolia BBQ — which is essentially Taiwanese teppanyaki). When Bernstein died in 1973, Quon became the sole owner. Quon’s stepson, William Jung, took over operations before Quon’s death in 1993. In 2015, it was given a disastrous makeover, with the autographed headshots of Classic Hollywood Era movie stars removed, and newly blank walls painted a depressing gray. After an outcry, it was mostly restored but then closed in 2016. It re-opened in 2017 with new owners 1933 Group at the helm.

GETTING THERE

The Formosa Cafe is served by Metro‘s 4 Line, as well as the WeHo CityLine and the Pick-Up Line.

THE FROLIC ROOM (c. 1946)

The building in which both the Frolic Room and the Pantages are located was completed in 1930. The theater was originally a cinema and part of the Fox West Coast Theatres chain. It opened on 4 June 1930. The space occupied by the Frolic Room appears in photos from the cinema’s opening as “for rent.” By 1936, they had a tenant — the Fountain Cafe — which advertised beer and wine — as well as steak and chicken dinners. In 1939, it was for sale. I haven’t been able to pinpoint exactly when the Frolic Room moved in but the slang, “frolic room,” seems to have first begun to appear in American English in the second half of the 1940s.

The first dated image I’ve seen of the Frolic Room is from a photograph dated 29 January 1947. Although it is very difficult to make out what is purportedly the Frolic Room, it probably is at least from that year, as Song of the South is playing at the Pantages and that film was released in 1946. That suggests to me that unless the Frolic Room had just opened, it had probably been there at least since 1946. The first written mention of the Frolic Room that I’ve found is in the 1948 city directory. There are also numerous advertisements in that year’s Hollywood-Citizen News proclaiming that the bar’s speciality, in addition to cocktails, is Boston baked beans and brown bread. There is also an attempt to placate patron panic over potential pandemonium in the form of a proclamation stating “no orchestral din.” In 1949, Howard Hughes bought the building and renamed the Pantages the RKO Pantages.

GETTING THERE

The Frolic Room is located across the street from Metro‘s Hollywood/Vine Station, which is served by the B Line. It’s also served by Metro‘s 180, 210, 212, 217, and 222 lines; and LADOT‘s DASH Beachwood Canyon and Hollywood lines.

THE GALLEY (c. 1945)

Most sources claim that the Galley opened in 1934. I’m not saying that they’re all wrong, but the County Assessor says that the building in which it’s located was constructed in 1936 and an ad from 1937 lists it as for sale. In 1945, Guiseppe Gallo was running a business there called the Gallo Cafe with his business partner, Clifford Stephens, and it was that year that they acquired a liquor license. It was known as The Galley at least as early as 1948. By 1956, Stephens’s son, Ralph, had taken over. That year, whenever mentioned, the story was that it as more 35 years old — meaning it had opened in 1921 or so — fifteen years before the building had been constructed. In 1966, the Evening Vanguard reported that it was 30 years old. Ron Schur took over in 1989.

The Galley is served by Big Blue Bus‘s 1 and 8 lines.

THE GOLDEN GOPHER (1939)

The Golden Gopher‘s official origin story is that it was founded in 1905 as the Golden Sun Saloon and that it was secretly owned by none other than Theodore Roosevelt, who was president of the United States until 1909. If that seems unbelievable to you, then you are not alone. Roosevelt was practically a teetotaler and a litigious one at that. He once said a man for libel because he claimed that Roosevelt drank booze. Roosevelt proclaimed in court “I have never been drunk or in the slightest degree under the influence of liquor.” Not that there haven’t been hypocrites in office, before, but that no one in the press would’ve discovered that he was, while president, also a secret saloon keeper, well.

The truth is that the building in which the Golden Gopher is located was, in fact, constructed in 1905. The floors above were run as a boarding house and the groundfloor’s first tenant, apparently, was the Broadway Skirt Manufacturing Company. In 1906, Misses Setzleff and Nordby moved their “health and beauty sanitarium’ into the space. They offered ladies electric light baths, magnetic massage, manicures, and treatments for rheumatism, colds, constipation, and nervous troubles. It’s hard to imagine a less Rooseveltian operation. Roosevelt grew up a sickly, asthmatic, home-schooled New York blue blood. He laboriously constructed an image of a macho rugged cowboy and big-game hunter. I doubt his fragile grasp on masculinity would’ve allowed for “Swedish manipulation” at the hands of a masseuse, even though the parlor eventually opened its doors to gentlemen. It remained there until at least 1910.

By 1916, however, it was home to Edward O’Neil Retail Liquors. The space was for lease again in 1919 — the same year that Roosevelt died at the age of 60. Coincidence? Probably. In 1922, it was home to the Crystal Grill. In 1938, it was reported in a newspaper that a ten-year lease had been signed by a “Minnesotan concern” who intended to renovate the space and re-open it as a “restaurant and cocktail bar” on 1 January 1939. Not long after, a writer for The Coast wrote a short review of a bar called the Golden Gopher. “This is a brand new downtown drinkery. It is a swell place to drop into after the movies and is very centrally located.” The bar’s name, of course, referred to the mascot of a Minnesotan college football team. It has been the Golden Gopher ever since. I don’t know when the sign was created, but it certainly looks period-appropriate for the Art Deco era.

In 2004, the bar was purchased and renovated by the 213 Hospitality Group. I reckon they did a fine job. I’ve been there a handful of times since, including once, when I went with my brother, and he abandoned me after I fell in with a bunch of charming Atwater hairdressers celebrating their annual holiday party. What would Teddy Roosevelt have thought?

GETTING THERE

The Golden Gopher is served by AVTA‘s 785 Line; LADOT‘s Commuter Express 419 and 439 lines, Metro‘s 4, 10, 14, 48, 66, 70, 76, 78, and 81 lines; as well as many others if you’re able to walk more than a block.

THE IDLE HOUR (1941)

The Idle Hour opened in 1941. It was owned by Universal Studios film technician Michael D. Connolly who commissioned engineer George F. Fordy to build it. In the 1960s, it changed to La Cana Flamenco. An example of programmatic architecture, it was designed to resemble a giant whiskey barrel. In 2010, it was designated Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 977. It was restored and renovated by the 1933 Group.

GETTING THERE

The Idles Hour is served bty Metro‘s B, 224, and Express 501 lines.

JAY DEE CAFE (1944)

Vincent James “Jim” Lima and Edward “Eddie” A. Krall opened the Jay Dee Cafe in 1944. The location was previously home to another bar, Elgin’s. It’s name was an hommage to another San Gabriel Valley bar at which Krall and Lima had been regulars, which shared the initionals “J” and “D.” Locally famed for its burgers, in 1973, they added Chinese food to the menu under the supervision of chef Joe Wong, formerly of George Lim’s. Jim Lima died in 1981 and his son, Frank Lima, rand it. Frank died in 2004. It was taken over by wife-and-husband team, Stephanie Wilkins and Jose Jorge around 2007.

GETTING THERE

Jay Dee Cafe is served by Metro‘s 83 Line.

THE KING EDDY SALOON (1906)

The glamorous King Edward Hotel, designed by the celebrated John Parkinson, opened on 15 March 1906, with an hotel bar, The King Edward Bar, operated by partners D.B. Jerrue and William H. Hevren, who’d made his way from Connecticut to Los Angeles by the mid-1890s. Jerrue was subsequently replaced by Clarence D. Richardson. The partners closed the bar in 1918, as California began to go dry. During Prohibition, it moved to the basement where it operated as a speakeasy nicknamed the King Edward Cellar. The walls of the former speakeasy were decorated with charming Bavarian-themed murals that still exist. Upstairs, the plate-glass windows were removed and filled in in 1923 and a piano store moved into the vacated bar room.

The LAPD were not only aware of bootlegging and speakeasies, but they were also deeply involved. Hevren, in addition to running The King Edward, was the chairman of the police commission in Avalon and a member of that town’s board of trustees. In 1929, he was fined $3,000 (about $49,000 in 2021, adjusted for inflation) for operating a gambling house on his property. In the trial, Hevren was quoted as having bragged to one of his criminal associates, “It is just as easy to run a bootlegging or gambling establishment as a grocery store, if you pay your way. Why don’t you join in the gambling?’

Hevren died in 1931, before the bar reemerged, on Repeal Day in 1933 as The King Edward Grill. The speakeasy reverted to a storage space. Around 1960, parking lot operator Babe Croik and a business partner took over expanded it into a former barbershop. It’s likely that it was at this time that was renamed the King Eddy Saloon — the name it retains today. In 1969, Croik took over sole ownership, afterward run by his son, and afterward by his son, Dustin. It was managed by bartender Bill Roller, who lived upstairs, since around 1982. In 2012, it was purchased by the ACME Hospitality Group. In 2018, the building was purchased by the Healthy Housing Foundation and, around then, the bar was taken over by Chris Kasten.

GETTING THERE

The King Eddy is served by Metro‘s 16, 18, 33, 53, 60, 62, 92, and 720 lines, LADOT‘s DASH Downtown Route D; and the the 460 (Disneyland) bus.

JOE JOST (1924)

Opened in 1924. Joe Jost arrived from the Balkans to New York City at the age of sixteen where he got a job as a barber. From there he continued west until he met his wife, Edith McKean, in Upland. They married in 1917. After returning from World War I, he first established Joe Jost’s in Newport Beach in 1920. Since it was during Prohibition, he sold candy, ice cream, cigarettes, and near beer. In 1924, he relocated to Long Beach, where his establishment was a combination poker and pool hall/barbershop. Then as now, there was food, too, although that old bar staple of pickled eggs are the most popular item on the menu. There’s also the special (Polish sausage, Swiss cheese, pickle, and mustard on rye). When Prohibition was repealed, he began selling beer. It was decided that alcohol and cutting hair don’t mix well and so the barbershop aspect was retired. He later retired, himself, to Desert Hot Springs and later, Leisure World. He passed away in 1975. Joe Jost’s remained a family operation, first with Joe Jr. running it and now Jost Sr.’s grandson, Ken Buck. A second location existed from 1979 until 1991. Add Joe Jost to my list of vintage bars to check out.

GETTING THERE

Joe Jost’s is served by Long Beach Transit‘s 41, 45, and 46 lines. Assuming it’ll still be around in seven years (a safe bet) and that Metro’s Santa Ana Branch Corridor Project is completed according to schedule (a riskier bet), there will be a train line passing by in 2028.

MICELI’S (1949)

Carmen Miceli was born in Chicago on 17 March 1923 to immigrants from Sicily. After serving in World War II, Miceli moved to Los Angeles in 1946, where he first worked as a waiter at Ciro’s. He opened his pizzeria, Miceli’s, in 1949. The wooden booths, stools, and wall panels were purchased from the nearby location of the Pig ‘n Whistle chain, which closed in 1952. A Universal City location opened in 1980. Miceli died in 2015.

GETTING THERE

Miceli’s is served by Metro’s 212 and 217 lines.

MUSSO & FRANK (1917)

The building in which Musso & Frank Grill is located was designed by L. A. Smith and built in 1917. It was opened by Frank Toulet in 1919 as Frank’s French Café. After partnering with Joseph Musso, the name changed to Musso & Frank Grill in 1923. In 1927, it was sold to Joseph Carissimi and John Mosso, who moved next door. The “Back Room” opened in 1934. It was given a Hollywood Regency makeover in 1937. In 1955, after the lease expired, the mahogany bar from the back room was moved to the “new room,” where it remains. In 2019, Ruben Rueda, a Musso & Frank bartending legend since 1970, passed away at the age of 67. He’d worked there even longer, having first been hired as an assistant server at the age of fifteen. Many of the staff at the bar are legendary, though, and I don’t remember who served me the last martini I had there, but I remember the bartender confidently said something like, “Now tell me if that isn’t the best martini you’ve ever had” and I didn’t argue.

GETTING THERE

Musso & Frank Grill is served by Metro‘s B, 212, 217, and 224 lines as well as LADOT‘s DASH Hollywood Line.

THE RENO ROOM

The Reno Room opened in 1945.

GETTING THERE

The Reno Room is served by Long Beach Transit‘s 111, 112, and 131 lines.

THE ROCK INN (1929, bar added at unknown date)

Massachusetts-born army veteran Joel Hurd, Sr. moved with his family to Lake Hughes in 1926. Hurd took a job at B. Brannon‘s market. Meanwhile, from 1927 to 1929, he constructed a striking stone building across the street. Brannon’s market burned down in April 1928 and salvaged merchandise was moved across the road to what opened as The Lake Hughes Trading Post. Over the years, it served as an inn, a bus station, a general store, a post office, and a gas station — although I don’t believe that the gas pumps outside have operated in many years.

Around 1951, Hurd became the town postmaster and his sons Joel Jr. and Chuck took over the inn, living upstairs after the lodging was no longer made available to guests. Adrian and Delores “Dee” Shrout ran the inn after the Hurds retired. Around 1972, German-Canadian character actor Paul Koslo, his brother, and his sister-in-law bought the Trading Post. Koslo’s partner’s lost interest and by 1975 he assumed sole ownership. By then, it was colloquially known as the “Rock Bar” or the “Rock House.” It formally acquired the name, The Rock Inn, in 1983. After completing the filming of his part in Loose Cannons, Koslo finished renovating the guest quarters upstairs and made them available again to lodgers. Koslo died in 2019. It’s now run by Warren St. John.

I’ve been to the Rock Inn quite a few times. I love the Lake Towns of Northeast Los Angeles. And, although I’m normally not a fan of internet jukeboxes, Una once chose Blur and Pulp songs which may or may not’ve been the first time any of their songs played there.

GETTING THERE

The Rock Inn, located on Elizabeth Lake Road, is not served by mass transit. Most visitors arrive by motorcycle. Last time, I went, they had just dropped cinders on the highway to melt the snow. We asked the worker, parked at Three Points, how long we’d have to wait. He ushered us through, philosophically observing “Go ahead. Ain’t nothing gonna change.”

THE STAG BAR

The Stag Bar opened in 1908, as a hotel bar. It acquired a full liquor license in 1914 and at that time debuted its 100-foot-long mahogany bar. It survived Prohibition by operating as a pool hall renamed The Stage Cafe. Sarsaparilla became the house beverage but it was rumored to have also sold bootlegged beer. After Prohibition was repealed, it got an Art Deco makeover. In 2006, owner Mario Marovic changed its name to The District Lounge. It was restored and expanded in 2014, debuting its new kitchen in 2015. When it reopened it was with the name The Stag Bar + Kitchen.

GETTING THERE

The Stag Bar + Hotel is served by OCTA‘s 47 Line.

TAM O’SHANTER (1922, bar since 1950)

In 1922, Joe Montgomery, Lawrence L. Frank, Walter Van de Kamp opened Montgomery’s Country Inn. It was designed by Hollywood set designer, Harry Oliver. The name was changed, in 1923, to Montgomery’s Chanticleer Inn. It was in 1925 that it was again renamed, this time The Tam o’ Shanter Inn although back then, there was no bar.

Lawrence Frank went on to found Lawry’s Restaurant in 1938. Frank’s son, Richard N. Frank, joined the staff in 1950. It was the younger Frank who added the “ale & sandwich bar.” It was also the younger Frank who renamed the restaurant The Great Scott in 1968. It reverted to the Tam o’ Shanter in 1982.

The Tam o’ Shanter has that pre-Disney Southern California simulacra thing going and I highly recommend going there. Naturally, Disney himself was supposedly a huge fan. I’ve been there numerous times, most recently with Jared Cohee of Eat the World Los Angeles.

GETTING THERE

The Tam O’ Shanter is served by Metro‘s 180 Line.

TOM BERGIN’S (1936)

Tom Bergin was born in 1894 in Boston to immigrants from County Kerry. He was an aviator in the Naval Airforce in World War I. With a degree from Boston University, he came to Los Angeles in 1927 and worked as an entertainment lawyer. He was a fan of horse racing and a regular at the Del Mar racetrack. He obtained a liquor license on 11 February 1935 and opened Old Horseshoe Tavern & Thoroughbred Club at the corner of Wilshire and Fairfax in 1936 but it quickly came to be known, popularly, as Tom Bergin’s Tavern. In 1945, with an eye on expansion, Bergin bought a property further south down Fairfax and commissioned the construction of the Tudor Revival structure into which Tom Bergin’s moved his tavern in 1949.

In 1957, regular patron Bud Wiser (apparently his real name) placed a shamrock above the bar with his name on it. Thus began a tradition. Bergin retired in 1973 and sold the tavern to Mike Mandekic and T.K. Vodrey. Bergin died on 25 October 1978, Brandon Boudet and Warner Ebbink bought in 2011 and took it upscale. It closed in 2013 and new owner, Derek Schreck re-opened it in 2014, with a members-only whiskey club called the Vestry upstairs. it closed again in 2018. It was designated an Historical Cultural Monument in 2019. It was sold again not long to Fran and Dave Castagnetti.

Una and I once saw a guy interrupt The Edge‘s dinner to hand him a business card and ask him about scoring his YouTube videos. No matter what you think of U2, the fact that he was gracious and said he’d check it out has to earn him some points with Saint Peter. Another time I popped in for a History Happy Hour and most of the Fellowship of the Ring were there having a reunion.

GETTING THERE

Tom Bergin’s is served by Metro‘s 28 and 217 lines. Wilshire/Fairfax Station is set to open along the D Line in 2023.

Support Eric Brightwell on Patreon

Eric Brightwell is an adventurer, essayist, rambler, explorer, cartographer, and guerrilla gardener who is always seeking paid writing, speaking, traveling, and art opportunities. He is not interested in generating advertorials, cranking out clickbait, or laboring away in a listicle mill “for exposure.”

Brightwell has written for Angels Walk LA, Amoeblog, Boom: A Journal of California, diaCRITICS, Hidden Los Angeles, and KCET Departures. His art has been featured by the American Institute of Architects, the Architecture & Design Museum, the Craft Contemporary, Form Follows Function, Los Angeles County Store, the book Sidewalking, Skid Row Housing Trust, and 1650 Gallery. Brightwell has been featured as subject in The Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Magazine, LAist, CurbedLA, Eastsider LA, Boing Boing, Los Angeles, I’m Yours, and on Notebook on Cities and Culture. He has been a guest speaker on KCRW‘s Which Way, LA?, at Emerson College, and the University of Southern California.

Brightwell is currently writing a book about Los Angeles and you can follow him on Ameba, Duolingo, Facebook, Goodreads, Instagram, Mubi, the StoryGraph, and Twitter.

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The post Swinging Doorways — Los Angeles’s Oldest Bars – Eric Brightwell appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

In West Hollywood, California, industry professionals say something unusual has occurred at a three-decade-old residential complex along La Cienega Boulevard: Parking, laundry rooms and excess storage were overhauled to become a half-dozen new apartments.

LaTerra Development, a Los Angeles-based multifamily owner and developer, converted these non-living spaces at 1121 N. La Cienega Blvd. into studio apartments in what real estate professionals say could be the most expansive use of building more apartment units in a single building using California’s Assembly Bill 68.

The law, signed in 2020, allows for more accessory dwelling unit construction in existing single-family and multifamily properties. The law was an attempt by the state to create incentives for more housing construction to ease an acute shortage of residential properties.

Other states and cities around the country, including Seattle, Chicago and Minneapolis, have adopted similar measures to permit these so-called ADUs in response to soaring housing costs.

In California, single-family homeowners have been the best-known adopters of the law, adding ADUs in their backyards and leasing out the space. However, some apartment owners have just begun looking at how to take advantage of the law, too, which could result in hundreds of new multifamily units added in greater Los Angeles, according to Chris Tourtellotte, managing director of LaTerra.

“We paved the way a little bit,” Tourtellotte said of building the ADUs on the La Cienega Boulevard property.

It’s still not common to see new ADUs built in existing apartment complexes, according to Jeremy Nova, founder of Louisville, Colorado-based Studio Shed, which makes and sells prefabricated ADUs across the United States.

“We’re seeing more ADUs being integrated into new developments” such as so-called microcommunities, a relatively new term — something between urban and suburban living — for a cluster of small residences on the same block, Nova said, as opposed to putting ADUs into existing apartment buildings.

In Los Angeles, ADU construction is growing in popularity. The city issued 100 permits for ADUs in 2016, but by 2022, that number rose to roughly 7,000, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that promotes solutions to a variety of issues facing the United States. A breakdown of what percentage ADU construction has occurred so far at greater Los Angeles apartment complexes wasn’t available to CoStar News.

New studio apartment kitchens at 1121 N. La Cienega Blvd. in West Hollywood, California, feature modern finishes and stainless steel appliances. (Jack Witthaus/CoStar)

Despite LaTerra’s project being the firm’s first ADU attempt, it’s difficult to tell that the units weren’t original to the 33-year-old property. An existing courtyard opens up to three of the studios, which have windows letting in natural light along with modern appliances, cabinets and finishes. A newly created hallway connecting to the courtyard leads to the other three units. Each unit has a doorbell and entryway sconce.

LaTerra created the new units in 15 months between getting plans approved with the city and wrapping up construction, Tourtellotte said. The state law allows apartment owners to skip the entitlement process, which hastens the timeline.

For ground-up apartment construction in West Hollywood, the planning, entitlement and building process would have taken years longer and cost at least $800,000 to build each unit, according to Tourtellotte. For the ADUs on La Cienega Boulevard, LaTerra spent roughly $300,000 for each unit.

The developer bought the property for $29.2 million in late 2021, according to CoStar data. Beyond adding ADUs, LaTerra has been renovating older apartments at the property, including adding washers and dryers after replacing the laundry rooms with living space. Despite the ADUs, the property still has adequate parking, including those serving the new units, Tourtellotte said.

The ADU process wasn’t without challenges. LaTerra needed to move residents’ parking spaces around when construction started, and hooking up mechanical, electrical and plumbing to the new units proved difficult, according to Tourtellotte.

Plus, the developer and architect, Los Angeles-based Urban Architecture Lab, weren’t using a previous design model because it was their first time involved in such a project. They had to work with West Hollywood officials, too, on explaining the state law, Tourtellotte said. The city hadn’t encountered construction like this before.

The roughly 695-square-foot ADU studios have hit the market for $3,100 a month. While that seems pricey and not what affordable housing advocates would support, West Hollywood is among the most desirable apartment markets in greater Los Angeles due to its walkability, nightlife and restaurants and its Westside location, said Ryan Patap, senior director of market analytics for CoStar Group in Los Angeles. Further, few new apartments are built in West Hollywood, meaning that any new construction commands high pricing.

Patap said LaTerra’s ADU pricing is below what a new studio would go for in West Hollywood due to the high demand for living there. The ADUs are the lowest-priced units in the complex, according to Tourtellotte.

Beyond the West Hollywood apartment building, it’s not uncommon for new studios in greater Los Angeles to top $4,000 per month. Figueroa Eight, a newly built apartment tower in downtown Los Angeles, is marketing 625-square-foot studios for $4,105 per month.

This empty space at 1121 N. La Cienega Blvd. could one day be converted into an accessory dwelling unit, or ADU. (Jack Witthaus/CoStar)

California leads the nation with ADU construction after residential owners applied for more than 30,000 permits in 2022, according to San Francisco-based ADU digital marketplace Cottage, which tracks this data. In fact, one in six houses built in 2022 in California was an ADU.

Increasing housing density, especially in areas connected by mass transit, has emerged as a California strategy in recent years. Past policy has favored single-family zoning.

Lawmakers say high housing costs have undermined the state’s economic competitiveness and contributed to many companies and residents moving to more affordable places such as Arizona and Texas. Building ADUs, also known as casitas in California or granny flats elsewhere in the United States, is viewed as one way to address the issue.

However, other states and cities adopting ADU ordinances have seen a mixed amount of demand. Seattle saw 2,254 applications for ADU permits in 2022, which was a 25% year-over-year increase, according to Cottage. But in Minneapolis, only 176 building permits were issued for ADU structures between 2014-2022, according to the Star Tribune.

Looking ahead, LaTerra is interested in adding a few more ADU units at the La Cienega Boulevard property and some of its other California multifamily complexes. Tourtellotte said he looks at apartment properties differently now because of the ADU construction experience. When he tours multifamily sites, he said he finds himself thinking about where to add new ADUs.

Tourtellotte said that the best apartment candidates for ADUs are ones that are low-density, have ample parking and feature storage spaces or laundry rooms. Some California apartment brokers are starting to market multifamily properties with ADU potential, showing that the trend of building these apartment units is catching on, Tourtellotte said.

“It’s a whole new way to add value,” Tourtellotte said.

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If you’re an East Coaster missing the blazing colors of fall here in the Bay Area, look instead for the fiery marigolds and Monarch butterflies that are all over the place this time of year, adorning ofrendas and graves for the Día de los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead.

The Latin American holiday observed Nov. 2 fuses ancient indigenous and Catholic spiritual traditions to commemorate the cosmic connection between the living and the dead. The native Mexican marigold, or cempasúchil, acts as a calling card between the two worlds. 

READ MORE: The Mission District Celebrates Día De Los Muertos: Photos of the Festivities

If you’d like to honor a departed loved one or want to learn more about the meaning of this annual tradition, here are a few ways you can take part.  

Día de los Muertos Mission Lotería Tour

Oct. 27 & Nov. 2, 6-8 p.m. 
2751 Mission St. 
$60
eventbrite.com

An artsy take on the Day of the Dead is this shop-local tour of the Mission District that’s themed after the popular Mexican version of Bingo. Start the evening off making a clay calavera skull keepsake at Artillery Ceramics, then pop into artisanal gift shops to pick up marigolds or sugar skulls, (decorative folk art confections that are not meant to be eaten). Along the way, you’ll also have a chance to stop and admire local murals. 

Alan and Montse of Las Tres Brujas, who create and customize artesaías and flower crowns, hold the Mexican flag high during the procession down 24th Street in the Mission during Dia De Los Muertos 2021. | Source: Camille Cohen/The Standard

Muerto City 

Oct. 28, 3-10 p.m.
428 11th St., SoMa
facebook.com 

Outdoor event space Monarch Gardens hosts a free, family-friendly event featuring live performances by Miss Nana, music by DJ Sektor, dancing, food trucks, face painting and activities for kids.

Día de los Muertos at Sunset Mercantile

Nov. 1, 6-9 p.m. 
37th Ave. and Ortega, Outer Sunset
sunsetmercantilesf.com

This Outer Sunset farmers market comes to life at night for a special Día de los Muertos edition. Glittering lights and garlands will adorn the open-air market, which will feature live traditional folklorico dance performances, arts and crafts, face painting, Latin American food vendors, a photo booth, DJ music and a costume competition. Contestants are invited to suit up in the style of La Catrina, or dapperly dressed skeleton now synonymous with Day of the Dead, and compete for prizes at 7 p.m. Members of the public can also build an altar to a their loved one at 5 p.m., prior to the event.

Celebrants join the procession for San Francisco’s 2022 Día de los Muertos parade. | Source: Michaela Vatcheva

Day of the Dead Festival of the Altars 

Nov. 2, 8 a.m.-5 p.m.
Potrero Del Sol Park 

Potrero Del Sol Park turns into a colorful memorial to departed loved ones with altars scattered throughout the park’s lawns. You can lay flowers, glass prayer candles or mementos at one of five community altars or build a custom one to your ancestors by signing up ahead of time. Altar building begins at 8 a.m. A ritual circle ceremony to honor the dead happens from 5 to 6 p.m. 

42nd Annual Day of the Dead Ritual Procession 

Nov. 2, 6 p.m. 
22nd and Bryant streets, Mission 

Led by Aztec dancers, this procession organized by El Colectivo del Rescate Cultural carries forward the spirit of its late founder Juan Pablo Guitierrez and honors the Mesoamerican roots of Día de los Muertos. Costumed processors dressed in traditional Aztec feathered regalia and skeleton Catrinas wind their way along Bryant, 24th, Mission and 22nd streets before concluding back at 22nd and Bryant streets. 

Mixcoatl dancers perform at the 2022 Festival of Altars in Potrero Del Sol Park. | Source: Michaela Vatcheva for The Standard

NightLife: Día de los Muertos

Nov. 2, 6 p.m. 
California Academy of Sciences
calacademy.com 
$21.75

The California Academy of Sciences dedicates its night at the museum-style event to the Day of the Dead. Living skeletons dressed in the style of Mexican catrines will roam the academy’s halls as Mariachi San Francisco keeps the evening moving with soul-stirring music and ballet folklorico performances swirl through the night. Xiuhcoatl Danza Azteca kicks off the celebration with a traditional Aztec blessing at 5:45 p.m.   

SOMArts’ Día de los Muertos Exhibition: The Hummingbird’s Visit 

Through Nov. 3
934 Brannan St., SoMa 
somarts.org

Nonprofit community space SOMArts’ annual display of Día de los Muertos ofrendas, or altars, designed by local artists returns—this time with a theme dedicated to the symbolism of hummingbirds. In Aztec culture, the sprightly bird represents a bridge between the living and the dead that carries messages from the afterlife. SOMAArts’ closing reception on Nov. 3 is your last chance to see how the theme has taken flight.

David Tafolla’s SOMArts Retrospective is seen on display during the 2022 installation of the annual Día De Los Muertos gallery show. | Source: Camille Cohen/The Standard

Día de los Muertos with SF Symphony 

Nov. 4, 2 p.m. 
Davies Symphony Hall 
k12.sfsymphony.org

The creation myth of the Mayan people comes to life in this immersive concert experience featuring traditional Latin American music, vivid dancing and festive art activities.

Dancers from Casa Círculo Cultural kick the celebration off with a procession illustrating the creation of mankind chronicled in the Maya’s Popol Vuh and musical accompaniment form Canción de Obsidiana, which fuses electronic music with the acoustic sounds of traditional handmade Mexican and indigenous instruments. Conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya, making his San Francisco Symphony debut, leads the orchestra in a selection of songs by Clarice Assad, Arturo Márquez, Alfonso Leng, Silvestre Revueltas and Arturo Rodríguez. 

Guests are invited to arrive early, starting at 12:45 p.m., to listen to marimba, or xylophone, music by Guatemalan music troupe Voz de mi Pueblo or make kites, sugar skulls or screen prints with the help of local artists. 

Oakland Dia de los Muertos

Oct. 29, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
International Boulevard at Fruitvale Ave.

Inducted into the Library of Congress as a local legacy event, this vibrant cultural festival, now in its 28th year, attracts around 100,000 people every year to Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood. Admire stunning altars and artistic installations, watch lowriders bounce and Aztec dancers sway, listen to live music and peruse wares by local Latin American artisans. A youth soccer competition will also take place alongside this year’s festival, which is themed “Blooming Resilience.” 

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Mookie Betts #50 of the Los Angeles Dodgers walks through the dugout before Game 2 of the National League Division Series against the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park on October 09, 2021 in San Francisco, California. (Getty Images)

(KTLA) — The Los Angeles Dodgers are in Milwaukee this week for a three-game series with the NL Central-leading Brewers, and while team unity is important during long road trips, one Dodger star is keeping his distance from the rest of the team “just in case.”

According to Orange County Register reporter Bill Plunkett, outfielder Mookie Betts rented an Airbnb with some friends while the rest of his Dodger teammates stayed in a legendary 130-year-old hotel in Milwaukee.

The reason, Betts said, is due to long-rumored reports of hauntings and other creepy happenings at the Pfister Hotel.

The Pfister Hotel is one of the most historic buildings in Milwaukee. The famed luxury hotel is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has hosted billionaires, diplomats and more — it’s also rumored to be home to an intrepid spirit or two.

This is the lobby of the Pfister Hotel seen Tuesday, July 7, 2009, in Milwaukee. The Pfister is Milwaukee’s most regal address, having hosted every U.S. president since William McKinley and scores of celebrities. Today, it’s the place to stay for upscale business travelers and out-of-town visitors, including many Major League Baseball teams. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

Betts, 30, who has stayed at the hotel in years past, said he opted for the modern setting instead of the historic grounds “just in case” rumors of the specters and spirits turned out to be true.

“You can tell me what happened after,” he joked with Plunkett. “I just don’t want to find out myself.”

An eight-year MLB veteran, Betts has stayed at his fair share of hotels, resorts and high-rises over the years, but the Pfister Hotel has affected his sleep schedule in recent stays.

“I couldn’t sleep,” Betts told the OC Register. “Every noise, I’d be like, ‘Is that something?’”

The Pfister Hotel has been the subject of haunting rumors for decades, and it’s one of the oldest hotels that MLB teams regularly visit for road trips. It’s led to many reports of strange and creepy occurrences from the players brave enough to stay overnight.

Michael Young, former seven-time MLB All Star and one-time Dodger, told ESPN the Magazine that he heard footsteps “stomping” around in his room. He recalled telling his ghostly visitor to “make yourself at home” but keep the noise down.

California’s Most Haunted: spook-tacular places to search for ghosts in the Golden State

Bryce Harper, a two-time National League MVP, said he had a strange experience when staying in the historic hotel, claiming that his clothes he had laid out the night before ended up on the floor and a table was moved across the room.

“I honestly thought there might be someone in my room. I had no idea what the hell just happened, so I actually looked around, and then I checked to see if the door was still latched, and it was,” Harper said. He told reporters that he thought he may have been the victim of a prank by one of his teammates.

In 2018, Cardinals players Carlos Martinez and Marcell Ozuna bunked up together after allegedly spotting one of the Pfister’s unaccounted for guests. Martinez, a pitcher, started the next day’s game against the Brewers and was hammered by Milwaukee’s batters and was pulled after giving up seven runs in only four innings.

So maybe Betts’ extra precautions aren’t that crazy, even if the change of venue simply promises a sounder sleep. If the Dodgers want to maintain their spot near the top of the National League, he and his teammates will probably need to be well-rested.

Let’s just hope Betts and his friends didn’t mistakenly book a stay at one of Airbnb’s most haunted hangouts.

The Dodgers dropped their first game of their series against the Brewers in Milwaukee, but were on their way to winning the second game on Tuesday. The series concludes Wednesday.

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LOS ANGELES — Authorities seized more than 100 guns in Southern California as part of a five-day sweep to remove firearms and ammunition from people who are no longer legally allowed to own or possess them, officials announced Tuesday.

The operation last week in Los Angeles County also included 13 arrests, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said during a news conference. Investigators also took nearly 50,000 rounds of ammunition and 87 high-capacity magazines away.

People prohibited to own or posses firearms in California include those who were convicted of a felony or a violent misdemeanor, placed under a domestic violence or other restraining order, or suffer from serious mental illness. The state established a system in 2006 — the first to do so — that tracks firearm owners who fall into one of those prohibited categories.

Authorities found 55 handguns, 19 rifles, 15 shotguns, 17 assault weapons, and eight ghost guns as part of the sweep across 51 cities in LA County. A similar operation was conducted in January in the San Francisco Bay Area, where 30 firearms were seized and eight people were arrested.

“Those are weapons and ammunition that are no longer available to harm the public,” Bonta said.

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Mark Adams, the bankruptcy trustee who oversees 1,500 Skid Row tenants, tendered his resignation Thursday, ending a turbulent three-month tenure that failed to stabilize the neighborhood’s largest inventory of homeless shelters while also incurring additional debt in the properties to charge millions.

Adams resigned at the request of Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mitchell L. Beckloff near the end of a two-hour hearing. Beckloff ruled that disputes between Adams and city officials were overwhelming the daunting task of managing 29 properties owned by nonprofit landlord Skid Row Housing Trust.

Mayor Karen Bass and City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto had recommended Adams to manage the trust’s portfolio.

Feldstein Soto said Adams, one of the state’s most experienced bankruptcy trustees, was particularly qualified to stabilize the properties and fund repairs so other affordable housing providers could take over.

However, she admitted that her office did not fully review his resume given the urgency of the trust’s issues. Feldstein Soto and other city leaders said they lost faith in Adams when problems policing the properties escalated last month.

“It seems to me that maybe a fresh start is the way to go,” Beckloff said.

Beckloff’s hands were tied in part by the city council’s decision this week to provide $10 million in new funding only on the condition that Adams is ousted. With the Adams bankruptcy trustee running out of money after weeks of scrambling to raise funds, the judge concluded that the city’s plan was the most responsible way to continue paying for necessary upgrades and repairs.

City officials hope the funding will cover unpaid securities and other bills Adams has racked up while providing Kevin Singer, the replacement administrator that Beckloff approved Thursday, with enough dollars to maintain the trust’s properties for at least four years more months to manage.

Adams’ tenure has prolonged the turmoil faced by the trust’s formerly homeless tenants, who have endured years of mismanagement and financial hardship as conditions in the buildings steadily deteriorated. In April, with the foundation unable to pay its bills and local residents reporting poor security and property management, broken doors, windows and plumbing, and widespread trespassing and drug abuse, Beckloff Adams appointed Soto at Bass and Feldstein’s request.

Soon after, a Times report detailed previous cases under Adams’ receivership, in which property owners lost their homes, renters faced evictions, and he overbilled by six figures.

The city’s problems with Adams first came to light at a court hearing last month. He had borrowed $1.3 million for escrow operations and modernizations at a 15% interest rate, which the city said violated its obligation to only secure loans with interest rates below 10%.

Over the next week, Adams’ real estate management firm issued 451 eviction notices to tenants who failed to pay rent in May. One tenant was told he owed $56 and many others had been exempted from paying due to the poor condition of their homes. Feldstein Soto considered all postings illegal under city law.

Adams said the notices were sent without his knowledge and that he recanted them in letters to tenants.

Since then, city officials have complained that Adams does not provide them with detailed financial information and that repairs have been slow or non-existent. The number of properties with defective fire and safety equipment has more than doubled since Adams took over the portfolio, necessitating costly around-the-clock security guards, Feldstein Soto told a council committee this week.

Adams dismissed the city’s claim that fire safety had deteriorated during his tenure, saying nearly all buildings had had problems prior to his appointment.

In court filings filed this week, he said city officials made him a scapegoat for their failure to allow the trust’s portfolio to deteriorate and deliberately deprive him of cash. The condition of the city providing financial support for his replacement, he said, would be tantamount to taking trustee residents hostage while not funding essential security services and emergency repairs.

“Honestly, the city’s actions could end up costing lives,” Adams wrote.

First, Adams asked Beckloff to direct the city to provide him with $10 million in funding. But on the eve of Thursday’s hearing, Adams filed a statement saying he had reached out to Avatar Financial Group, a Seattle-based private real estate lender, for a $12 million loan at a rate of $15 % and an additional upfront fee of $800,000.

In court on Thursday, Adams continued to point out that the lack of funding was the main problem with the bankruptcy and said he was confident he could finish the job if he had access to the money.

“To say that the lack of funds is a problem is an understatement,” Adams said. “Because it’s the problem.”

Beckloff appeared to agree with Adams, repeating his praise, expressed at previous hearings, that Adams was well qualified for the role. The judge also stated that he had no problem with Adams’ work and found no wrongdoing.

Managing the trust’s properties was such a big job that Beckloff said he wasn’t sure anyone could handle it better.

However, the judge ruled that the city’s financing program, which provides an interest rate of up to 3%, was the best way forward.

“It’s gotten to a situation where I have the city in one corner and the receiver in another and there’s a lot of people around the ring,” Beckloff said. “But the focus is on 1,500 people who are at risk of becoming homeless.”

How much it will cost to repair the trust’s portfolio and who will foot the bills remains unclear.

Bankruptcy trustees typically pay for repairs and the bankruptcy trustee’s fees using the properties’ equity or using proceeds from a property sale or higher rents. But the foundation is on the brink of bankruptcy, federal and local restrictions are preventing renters from skyrocketing, and amid a homelessness crisis, city officials are desperate to find affordable housing.

The $10 million loan comes from a city affordable housing program. City officials told councilors this week that they would eventually expect a repayment as the properties would be spun off to other companies, but that the city and other public subsidies would likely have to cover at least some of the debt.

City officials and Singer, who appeared in court virtually on Thursday, developed the new $10 million budget by projecting that more than half of the trust’s affordable housing developments — the newer and more valuable properties — will be built over the next year would be transferred to other non-profit housing providers a few months. Beckloff has already approved the delivery of six of these buildings to PATH Ventures and another to LA Family Housing.

That would leave a dozen of the trust’s centuries-old residential hotels and other run-down buildings under receivership.

“We will most likely have to return to the City Council and seek additional funding after we show we’ve had great success,” Singer said.

One important variable, city leaders said, remains unknown: what Adams’ tenure will cost. Adams had hired 18 employees at hourly rates ranging from $151 to $465.

In court filings, Adams said fees for his company, California Receivership Group, in April and May totaled $329,000 — not counting what was owed to outside law firms, property management, security and other contractors he hired becomes. City attorneys told the court Thursday they believe the total outstanding bills total more than $3 million.

Feldstein Soto, who was not in court Thursday, tried to reassure council members that Singer will do a better job than Adams. At a council committee hearing this week, she cited a more thorough review of the new bankruptcy trustee’s résumé of nearly 500 cases, his work on complex matters in San Francisco and his willingness to provide the city with detailed information on his progress.

“It’s very difficult to admit a mistake,” Feldstein Soto said at the hearing. “But I think one of our jobs is to correct a mistake.”

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