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Publication Date: Friday, February 09, 2001
Don Rosenthal, an 18-year patron of Harry's Hofbrau, and Marian Swanson, who worked as a bartender there for 9-1/2 years, shared memories before the bar's closing last Wednesday.
@vcredit:Justin Scheck
Harry's Hofbrau, El Camino institution, to be turned into offices and housing
Harry's Hofbrau, El Camino institution, to be turned into offices and housing
(February 09, 2001)
By Justin Scheck
For 18 years Harry's Hofbrau at 399 West El Camino Real was a destination for residents seeking home-style food and a friendly bar. On Jan. 31 the restaurant closed, to be replaced with office space and condominiums by a Redwood City development company.
A sign on the door last week thanked patrons, saying, "Unfortunately, the new landlord does not wish to extend our lease."
But according to Whitney McNair, Mountain View's zoning administrator, the 1.5-acre property was sold last year by Hofbrau owner Larry Kramer to the Prometheus Real Estate Group, which plans to begin building on the site by April.
Kramer did not return phone calls by press time, but Ellen Brown, the project manager for Prometheus, said, "It's going to be an office building along El Camino of approximately 27,000 square feet, with 21 row houses behind it."
The company does not yet have a tenant for the three-floor office building.
As the Hofbrau neared closing, regulars discussed their memories of the bar, as well as where else in town they could go for their after-work beers.
"I've been coming here since they built the place," Don Rosenthal, a patron from Redwood City, said last week. "It's a good bar. The bartenders are really good... they've got good food, everything's homemade, it's fairly inexpensive, and there are a lot of older people who come to eat here."
According to Marian Swanson, a bartender at Harry's, most of the employees will be transferred to one of the four other Harry's locations around the Bay Area.
"It's scary for me. I'm going to the Foster City store... But this has been my home. I've worked here six days a week for 9-1/2 years," said Swanson.
"The bartenders are surly and abusive, and we get to throw it right back at them. And it's good fun," said Rick Pendergrass, a Mountain View resident who has been coming to Harry's for over a decade.
"I think it's a darn shame. I've been coming here at least 10 years," said Linda Dickerson of Sunnyvale.
The regulars, who have their own set of rules for conduct at Harry's, said it could take time to find a new place to meet.
"We're going to check out Kapp's, but we don't know where we'll all meet," said Pendergrass.
John Moss, vice-president of Prometheus, said that the company is in the process of applying for a building permit, and expects to begin demolition of the existing Harry's building in March.
Brown said that the row houses to be built on the site will consist of five separate buildings, and contain mostly three-bedroom units, with the exception of two two-bedroom units.
She added that the office building is being built to "shelter the houses behind it," she said. "We would have liked to build something denser," she noted.
Moss would not say how much money his company paid for the site.
McNair said that because the development falls under the existing zoning laws for the area, the city council did not have to review the development, which was approved through the regular zoning process.
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