The Paul Cummins Gay 90s
“A Saloon Created For The Carriage Trade”
- Professors of the Piano and Banjo
- Beauteous Feminine Cupbearers
- Gleaming Fire Pole
- Amazing Oil Paintings
- Luxurious. Salubrious. Pulchritudinous.
- Home of the Biggest Drink in the West
- Greatest Guest Participation Sing Along Nightly
157 North La Cienega, Beverly Hills, California
– from The Jab’s collection
Roundup of Bay Area old west style roadhouses – part one of three.
We are real lucky in the San Francisco Bay Area because we have three (perhaps more) old western style roadhouses/restaurants. That’s more than in any town in Texas that I know of! In fact, there may be more here than in any other city in the U.S. I challenge my readers to name another city with three vintage western style restaurants!
In the countryside of West Marin County, California, there is a ranching village that looks frozen in the 19th century – Nicasio, population 96 (2010 US Census). In the town there is a church dating to 1867, a one-room schoolhouse from 1871, a town square with a baseball diamond, and Rancho Nicasio saloon and restaurant, built in 1941 on the spot where the Hotel Nicasio (1867) burned to the ground in 1940. The restaurant is in a ranch style building along with a general store and post office.
The bar is filled with taxidermy, old photos of the Nicasio area, and a wagon-wheel chandelier hangs from the ceiling. You can eat in the bar if you prefer, or to avoid a band cover (or a band you don’t care for).
The dining room is a large with many wooden tables and a big wooden dance floor and stage, where bands play most weekend nights (Fri-Sun) starting around 8:00pm (the cover charge varies – sometimes there is no cover and the band passes the bucket) . The best way to experience the Rancho is to book a table at around 6:00-7:00pm so you can have dinner before the show, preferably seeing a country and western band like local western swing acts The West Coast Ramblers or the Lone Star Retrobates or Los Angeles act Big Sandy & His Fly-Right Boys (all personal favorites and highly recommended!).
The West Coast Ramblers
Allow plenty of time to get there because the roads are windy and treacherous and it’s nice to have a stroll around the village before dinner (if you arrive before dark). The food is good. On my recent visit I enjoyed the excellent lamb medallions (and a chilled iceberg wedge salad), but the steaks and the pork chop are also good choices. On summer weekends starting Memorial Day weekend they have barbeques out back with live music. The fog often rolls in during the late afternoon so bring a jacket.
Polish up your steppin’-out boots, put your Stetson on, and head out to the Rancho for a wild time!
Rancho Nicasio
1 Old Rancheria Road, Nicasio, CA 94946
(415) 662-2219
Open for lunch Mon-Fri 11:30am-3:00pm, Sat-Sun 11:00am-3:00pm
Dinner Sun-Th 5:00pm-9:00pm, Fri-Sat 5:00pm-10:00pm
Recently I was watching the 1961 comedy Bachelor In Paradise, starring Bob Hope as an international playboy writer (A.J.Niles) who moves in to a suburban house in the San Fernando Valley near Los Angeles to write a book about how Americans live. It’s a pretty good movie and it’s particularly fun to watch for the scenes in mid-century suburbia (especially the house interiors), filmed on location in Woodland Hills and the around Los Angeles. In one scene Niles goes to a barbecue restaurant called The Pig Pit, that was in a great mid-century modern style. Well, I don’t know if that place was a studio invention, but in the San Fernando Valley there is a great little BBQ joint called The Bear Pit Bar-B-Q that has been open since the late 1940s. The food is good, the decor has original elements like wagon wheel lamps and old beer signs, and the neon sign is pretty amazing, with working animated neon arrows. Do you think The Bear Pit inspired the movie version? The next time you’re heading along the I-5 why don’t you take a quick detour to The Bear Pit and think about it over some BBQ ribs?
A.J. Niles and realtor Rosemary Howard (played by Lana Turner) visit a tiki bar in the movie. I don’t know if the bar was made for the movie or if the scene was shot in an existing tiki bar. Here’s the movie trailer with part of the tiki bar scene. How do you like those drink garnishes? Practically a jungle in a glass!
The Bear Pit
10825 Sepulveda Boulevard, Mission Hills, CA 91345
(818) 365-2509
Open Sun-Thurs 11:30am-9pm, Fri-Sat 11:30am-10pm
The Hitching Post in Casmalia is the last stop on our tour of historic Santa Maria style barbecue restaurants. (I previously covered Jocko’s in Nipomo and the Far Western Tavern in Guadalupe, which is due to move to a new location soon ). Around the turn of the century Casmalia was a thriving town of 1500 people, mostly ranchers and oil field workers and their families. The railroad ran through town to a terminal on the coast called Port Petrol, and the Casmalia Hotel was the center of town activity. In 1944, after the railroad line was closed, the owners of the hotel demolished the hotel rooms, and reopened the old Italian restaurant as a steakhouse called the Hitching Post. In 1952 the Ostini brothers, Frank and Victor, bought it and it’s still in the same family to this day.
The interior at the Hitching Post is nothing fancy. It’s basically a large room with some western art, artifacts, and old photos on the walls (there was a fire in 1988 so everything inside was redone not too long ago). But the thing that sets it apart from other barbecue joints in the Santa Maria area is its indoor oak pit under glass (fired with local red oak of course).
Dinners are pretty expensive at the Hitching Post but they do come with relish tray, shrimp cocktail or fruit cocktail, salad, potato or grilled vegetables, garlic bread, coffee or tea, and ice cream. I was surprised to find that pinquito beans and salsa are not served with the steaks, there was no tri tip on the menu, and the steaks were not covered with dry rub before cooking. So it seems that the Hitching Post is not exactly a Santa Maria style barbecue place in the strict sense, though they do cook the steaks over local oak. However, the Hitching Post opened before Jocko’s or the Far Western Tavern, so perhaps they have always been a classic steakhouse and have never changed their menu (instead of a place serving traditional Santa Maria style cookout meat on a skewer with the accompanying dishes). Who really cares anyway, because the steaks are good! My 22 oz. T-bone (aka porterhouse) was perfectly cooked and very tender and juicy. A great steak – a New York and filet steak in one – and worth it at $44 (with all the sides). They also offer local favorite top sirloin, as well as ribeye, New York and filet (in two or three sizes each). After two steaks in two days I ordered the grilled veggies as my side, but the restaurant claims the Los Angeles Times said their French fries are the best in Southern California, so you may want to get some with your steak.
There is another Hitching Post location in Buellton, which opened in 1986. Easier to get to from U.S. Highway 101 than the Casmalia location, but not as charming.
The Hitching Post
3325 Point Sal Rd Casmalia, CA 93429
(805) 937-6151
Open Mon-Sat 4:30pm-9:30pm; Sun 4pm-9pm
UPDATE: Fleur de Lys in San Francisco closed in 2014 after 44 years in business.
In honor of that uniquely American celebration of love, Valentine’s Day, I thought I would share a few of my favorite romantic restaurants. Starting with the most wonderfully over-the-top romantic steak house of all, the Gold Rush Steak House at the Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo, CA. Many steakhouses go for the dark woods, mens’ club look, but this one is for couples! I believe it opened in 1967, but I have not confirmed that yet.
I snapped this photo of the Gold Rush Steak House on my first dinner there in 2000
In San Francisco my pick for the most romantic historic restaurant in town is Fleur de Lys, opened in the late 1950s, and purchased in 1970 by the maître d’hotel Maurice Rouas, who still runs it, with Alsatian chef Hubert Keller at the helm. It was remodeled over the years (and even closed for a while due to a fire in 2001), but now it is an elegant, plush room with a large chandelier and a gorgeous flower arrangement in its center. The food is primarily classic French, but with California touches like local, seasonal ingredients and healthier preparations. The service is impeccable. It is still one of the finest historic restaurants in a city of trendy restaurants that come and go, so it deserves a mention here on Le Continental, despite its contemporary decor. Here is a vintage postcard view of the interior.
On the east coast one restaurant stands out for me as a romantic destination: The Mai-Kai in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The Mai Kai is easily my favorite restaurant in the entire country, because it is the only large Polynesian supper club left from a time when they existed all over the country, and because…well, it’s just fabulous beyond belief! I always have a hard time describing it to people who have not been because there is so much to see and I don’t want to ruin the surprise. So I will just recommend that you go as soon as you can, and the first time you visit, go with your spouse, lover, or partner for a romantic dinner show for two. It’s also fun with a group, like at the Hukilau festival that occurs there every year, but I think one’s first visit is best as a romantic night out for two. More on the wonderful Mai-Kai in a later post.
Romance should not only happen on Valentine’s Day. Visit these places anytime for a special date!
Gold Rush Steak House
100 Madonna Road San Luis Obispo, CA 93405
(805) 543-3000
Open 5pm – 10pm Mon–Sat; 4pm – 10pm Sun
Fleur de Lys
777 Sutter St., San Francisco, CA 94109
(415) 673-7779
Open Tue-Th 6pm-9:30pm; Fri 5:30pm-10pm; Sat 5pm-10pm; closed Sun-Mon
Mai-Kai
3599 North Federal Highway Fort Lauderdale, FL 33308
(954) 563-3272
Open daily at 5pm
