THE VERDICT -- robert gardner

Some locations have lasting power. For example, there are three locations

in Balboa that have had the same kind of businesses -- although under

different ownership -- for more than 60 years. I am speaking of the

corner of Main and Bay streets, which has housed a bakery for more than

60 years, and the two corners of Main and Balboa Boulevard that have been

the site of a drugstore and a restaurant for the same period of time.

First the bakery. When I was a youngster during the early 1920s, Mr. and

Mrs. Reber operated a bakery in the Knight building at the corner of Main

and Bay. It was so nice to walk past just to savor the wonderful smell of

the place.

Then, when I was a little older, I was further exposed to the smell of

the bakery during the summer that Hersh Teeter, the lifeguard captain,

and I and a couple other guys lived in the front room of the second story

of the Knight building. There we were exposed to the smell of the bakery

on a 24-hour basis. A couple years later, I lived in a shack on the roof

of the Knight building with Barney Lehman of Star Boat fame.

Although the smell was somewhat diluted, it was still there.

Going down Main Street to Balboa Boulevard, on one corner there is a

restaurant; on the other a drugstore. Take my word for it, a drugstore

and a restaurant have been at those locations for more than 60 years.

The original drugstore was operated by Walt Eastlake, whom I best

remember because he had a harelip, which I must admit is not a very nice

thing to remember a person by.

Following Walt Eastlake, Lonnie Vincent came along with a drugstore at

the same location. I remember Lonnie best because we were all afraid of

him. Lonnie wasn’t very big, but he had a brother who was a professional

boxer named Kid France, and anyone who had a brother who was a

professional boxer had to be tough.

Then Don Gunderson became the druggist. I don’t know who has the place

now, but it’s still a drugstore.

Across the street is Dillman’s restaurant. Originally, it was a

restaurant called Young’s. All I can remember of Young’s is that he

always had a leg of pork turning on a spit in front of the restaurant.

Then the White brothers, Vaux and Art, took over. When they broke up, Art

started the Park Avenue on the Island. Vaux stayed on in Balboa. The

place is now Dillman’s and although Max no longer runs the bar, it still

has that wonderful neighborhood ambience found in cities such as New

York, Chicago and San Francisco.

Moving up the peninsula to old Newport, the site now operating as Sid’s

Blue Beet is a winner, even though Sid isn’t there. His next-door

neighbor, Tom Carson’s Stag Bar has been there since the late 1920s,

although I was shocked the other day to see a news item that said the

Stag was putting in greenery. Spittoons I can see for the Stag, but no

greenery.

The Arches has been there since the 1920s. The Five Crowns in Corona del

Mar has been there forever under various names.

The place with the real history is the site now operated as Bandera’s.

Originally, right after World War II, it was the Chef’s Inn, operated by

Hugh and Claudia Hutson. It was far and away the most popular restaurant

in the history of our town.

Then Hugh was killed in an airplane accident, Claudia lost interest, and

from that time to the present there followed a series of failures you

wouldn’t believe.

One time, Chuck Masters and I counted nine restaurant failures up to

Bandera’s, which I evaluate as having staying power.

As they say, location, location, location.

* JUDGE GARDNER is a Corona del Mar resident and former judge. His column

runs Tuesdays.