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Publication Date: Friday, August 01, 2003

Unsung saloons

By Candice Shih

Most people think of two places when it comes to bars in Mountain View: St. Stephen's Green and Molly Magee's.

But there are many more places to imbibe in town, especially if you want to save money and aren't focused on meeting single people.

With the exception of the King of Clubs, these eight bars fit the bill.

Feeling at home

A slice of Bavaria

I'll start with my favorite of the bunch: Fred's Place.

Located across from a car dealership and next to a Yardbird retailer at 2534 Middlefield Road, Fred's is not what it seems. It features a giant martini glass on its sign, but its real draw is its selection of authentic German beers.

I opted for a Kostritzer in a bottle while my friends ordered a Bitburger and a Michelob Hefeweizen on tap. The Bitburger comes in its own special glass, as do the Spaten and Franziskaner, which also appear to be very popular at Fred's.

Co-owner Paul Partti said Fred's first opened in Palo Alto in the late '50s, moving to its current location in 1960. Partti -- who used to own Bueno Bueno -- and Chang Cho bought Fred's about 18 months ago, and decided to keep the bar's original neon sign. "It's 44 years of history," Partti said. Fred's regulars, he added, range from a "professional crowd" on weekday afternoons to a mix of "younger people" at night and on weekends. Its aesthetic is rather homey, although slightly quirky. The favorite activity of patrons, besides watching sports on multiple televisions, are dice games played around a long, narrow table.

Also, during two trips to Fred's I saw a customer have a pizza delivered there, and a dog of indeterminate origin and pedigree wandering around inside. I even ran into an old friend from high school.

Feeling at ease in this environment, I decided to settle in and order some food, too. Fred's serves "chicken dinners" for 50 cents a piece.

"It's a whole chicken, boneless, skinless, and served in a package," Partti informed me. He was talking about a boiled egg.

"A nice little watering hole"

If hanging out at Fred's was like leaning back in an easy chair in my living room, going to Francesca's, located just down the street at 2135 Old Middlefield Road, was like sitting on a lawn chair in my garage.

In fact, one of Francesca's wood-paneled rooms was outfitted with metal folding and plastic lawn chairs, in addition to a few booths, for patrons to sit in while listening to a band called 3-1. I'm not exactly sure how to classify the music, but let's just say it started the same Led Zeppelin song three times.

The decorations included blinking Christmas lights, black lights, yards of the material typically used to make fake spider webs on Halloween, and balloon animals.

Thankfully, Francesca's is different things on different nights; on Fridays and Saturdays the bar belong to a group of local Tongans, who host disco nights and bring in live bands, often with a cover charge.

Francesca's also sponsors a bar pool league and, indeed, I witnessed a few patrons bring in their own cues to play on the two coin-operated tables.

And, to others, it's simply a friendly neighborhood bar. Said 12-year patron Debbie Simental of Sunnyvale: "It's a nice little watering hole for a bunch of friends to get together."

On the strip

Ron's: chugging for charity

A regional magnet for less-than-flashy bars is El Camino Real. The Mountain View portion of the Peninsula's main strip boasts four of these.

The most eye catching is Ron's Farmhouse. A striking red building at 2026 W. El Camino Real, Ron's is a fairly large, dim room with plenty of vinyl-covered furniture, televisions that broadcast sports, and bar games including pool, darts, pinball, tabletop shuffleboard and foosball. Ron's is also one of Mountain View's oldest restaurants.

During the weekday happy hour when I went, most of the 15 customers were drinking beer around the U-shaped bar and chatting with one another.

The jukebox was untouched during my visit, but my guess -- based on the multiple life-sized cardboard cutouts of Brooks and Dunn inside -- is that country is played more than pop.

Indeed, Ron's hosts karaoke nights twice a month and brings in a live country or classic rock band once a month.

Lauri Beamish -- wife of the late Ron Gunther who bought The Farmhouse in 1983 -- is committed to channeling the bar's proceeds towards charity. It recently raised $358 in a bake sale to help feed low-income children, and if you drop a pool ball on the floor, watch out: You now owe $1 to Via, the county's crippled children's network.

Striving for ugly

The former Time Out, which has been renamed Ugly's by its new owners, is not quite ugly, but it's on its way.

Located at 1313 W. El Camino Real, Ugly's is now owned and operated by two members of the Mountain View High School Class of 1994, Jessica Cohen and Carrie Rogers. Their bartenders and many of their customers are former schoolmates, who, combined with the old Time Out crowd, can provide for an interesting mix.

Since taking over on June 2, the pair have followed Cohen's grandfather's dream of opening a bar with a "garage sale" theme.

A decoration belongs in Ugly's if it makes you say, "Oh my god, it's so ugly, but it's kind of cool," said Cohen.

So far, there's a mannequin hand appearing to come out of a wall, a head-shaped cookie jar, and a sculpture in the shape of a fish tank. Patrons are welcome to donate their own "ugly" knickknacks, too.

Cohen also seems interested in getting creative with the drinks. The special offered during my recent visit was the "TQ popper."

The bartender seemed to be new and not terribly experienced at making drinks with funny names, but she was friendly and invited customers to pick songs on the jukebox for free.

The jukebox, by the way, was filled with a lot of mid-'90s music but also featured a few Mountain View bands, including Atomic Mint and Mental Brotherhood.

The sign outside, which is supposed to be replaced soon, is doubly deceiving, though -- Ugly's is not only not Time Out, it's also not a sports bar. Neither of the two silent televisions had sports on; one was on FOX and the other on AMC, which was showing "Jaws."

A little bit country

The 101 Club, further south at 821 W. El Camino Real, didn't have its televisions tuned to sports, either. Both were set on the Country Music Channel, showing a Dolly Parton music video.

In line with its country theme, the 101 Club also featured NASCAR promotions and had fliers advertising a NASCAR barbecue with a "caution flag drink special." Customers planning to attend were told to let "Bubbles" know.

Minimalist in design and decoration, the 101 Club is one small room including a long bar, a few booths, and two pool tables. Smoking patrons obediently do their business one step outside the front and back doorways.

Since I'm not a country music or racing fan, the best news about the 101 Club came when I asked for change in quarters. The bartender, who might very well have been Bubbles, said, "It's free pool, honey."

"Working" in the Office

On the southern side of the Highway 85 interchange at 820 E. El Camino Real is the Office Bar. It was not unlike the 101 Club in size and clientele, which was all middle- to upper-aged males on the early evening I paid my visit.

But this windowless and very dark bar did appear to have visions of being more. There was a suit of armor next to the wall of liquor, and on one side of the wraparound bar, there was a large Matisse-like mural and a small stage where karaoke is hosted on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday nights.

Along this wall was a long and narrow porch with all of the seats facing out, looking somewhat like a spectator gallery. It was a bit disconcerting to be watched by people seated there while playing pool and Golden Tee. But I suppose it's all worth it just to say I was "at the Office."

Where the insiders go

The King

Out of the way but displaying more than a bit of flash is the King of Clubs, situated at 893 Leong Dr. A sailor bar when Moffett Field was a Navy base, it is now the home of the popular Daybreak Bar -- which was forced from its El Camino location more than two years ago -- and calls itself the "South Bay's hottest gay and lesbian nightclub."

While other bars in town strive for a homey atmosphere, the King of Clubs is more of a nightclub; it advertises music and special events to attract patrons from beyond Mountain View.

After driving around a bit to find parking, I paid the $4 cover charge to get in on a Wednesday night, which was billed as "Adrenochrome."

"Low-key Goth meets gay bar" is how my friend described it when we entered. The clientele was rather diverse; some were casually dressed, others displayed Day Glo and Mohawks.

Most, however, did not take advantage of the pulsing dance music despite an uncrowded dance floor and two platforms. Resident DJs spun records all night, but their taste was a bit uneven --one played a pointlessly sped-up version of Eminem's "Without Me."

On other nights, the club features karaoke or varying dance themes, so I'm going to chalk up the apathy to it being a Wednesday.

Like most nightclubs, drinks were more expensive than at a neighborhood bar, and it was tough to get the bartender's attention (I had neither Mohawk nor Day Glo). I opted not to order one of the King of Clubs' specialty shots (which I'm not sure I can name here), but went for a martini; it tasted a bit off.

The bathrooms have not been the highlight of any of these drinking establishments, but the King of Clubs did have a memorable one. The men's room had neither urinal nor trough, but a hole in the ground that was draining poorly.

Overall, though, the King of Clubs is the most ambitious of the bunch, and probably has the most potential to become a destination for those seeking excitement.

A downtown secret

It seems only fitting to conclude with a true hole in the wall, Mervyn's Lounge (not to be confused with the department store). Located between Maharaja at 236 Castro St. and the parking lot behind it, this bar is well hidden. There's no sign on the door (the bar is hoping to have a new one soon) and no windows.

Consequently, very few people seem to know about it although, oddly enough, those very few include several city politicians and other Mountain View insiders.

The bartender on a recent Monday, Gary ("You don't want to know my last name; I'm on the most wanted list."), said Mervyn's has been open since the 1950s, when a coffee shop of the same name occupied Maharaja's space. "We're the last neighborhood bar" in downtown, he added.

Gary said Mervyn's steady business is "not from the volume of people, but from steady people." Regulars have been coming back for decades, and one frequent Tuesday night patron has been a regular since the bar first opened. Things were apparently different back then: "In its heyday, it was as popular as the Town Club or the R Club," Gary said.

On a given night, the crowd at Mervyn's may be different but everyone seems to know one another; while friendly ribbing may extend to strangers, they seem to be a pretty welcoming bunch. The bar itself stands in stark contrast to the nearby Limelight nightclub: there's never a lot of people or noise; oldies and blues are the music of choice; and beer is the most common order. The multiple televisions usually show the evening's most notable sporting events.

Since Mervyn's has nothing on tap, I ordered a Sam Adams in a bottle; it arrived with the label half-missing, which was strange but not terribly disturbing.

And that's how I might characterize this whole adventure.

E-mail Candice Shih at cshih@mv-voice.com