The Venue thread

[thatguy]

Another new venue coming July 1:
https://www.sfgate.com/food/article/revi...147881.php

One of the Bay Area's oldest dive bars comes back from the dead as Thee Stork Club

Amanda Bartlett ,  SFGATE 
Updated: May 5, 2022 6:04 p.m.
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One of the Bay Area's oldest dive bars, the Stork Club in Oakland, is slated to reopen as Thee Stork Club on July 1 with help from founders of Eli's Mile High Club and Mosswood Meltdown. 
Grant Kerber/Courtesy of Thee Stork Club

One of the Bay Area’s oldest dive bars and music venues is coming back from the dead — and famed musician Shannon Shaw, longtime DJ Chris Owen of Budget Rock Festival and legendary cult filmmaker John Waters plan to help usher it into a new, gaudy era. 

The Stork Club — newly christened Thee Stork Club in a nod to its ties to the garage rock scene — will welcome the public to the historic space on Telegraph Avenue again with a grand reopening bash on July 1, according to a press release shared with SFGATE by the venue’s new owners on Wednesday. Now at the helm will be Marc Ribak and Amy Carver of Mosswood Meltdown (the annual music festival formerly known as Burger Boogaloo), Billy Agan and Matt Patane of Eli’s Mile High Club and Tony Bedard of Hemlock Tavern and Talent Moat. 

When the decades-old watering hole was forced to close its doors in May 2020, its clientele lamented the loss of a scrappy “home away from home” and a hub for the punk and DIY community. Now, Ribak, a veteran of the local music scene who co-signed the 11-year lease on the space in September, hopes it will carry on the same spirit of the grungy Mosswood Park festival on a year-round basis and foster a thriving epicenter for Bay Area bands.

“The old vibe of the Stork Club was like, anybody and everybody could play there. You literally just called up the bar and you could book a show,” Ribak told SFGATE over the phone on Wednesday afternoon. “It’s a really special place for a lot of people in the music scene because they made so many memories there.” 

He and his wife, Carver, usually book 25 or 30 bands a year for Mosswood Meltdown in addition to a few other one-off shows, but balancing a mix of local, national and international acts posed a challenge. He said they felt they weren’t able to accommodate enough bands from the local scene, and things got worse when the pandemic hit. 

“It’s gotten harder than ever for people to pursue their art in the Bay Area. Rent has gone up. There’s been inflation. You can’t buy a vintage guitar from the ’60s anymore without signing a deal with the devil,” Ribak said with a laugh. 

Those obstacles, coupled with a slew of dive bar and venue closures, including Elbo Room, Lucky 13 and the Stork Club itself, gave him pause — and made him wonder if there was something he could do about it. 

“When the opportunity came along to rent the Stork Club, I thought maybe we can save it,” said Ribak. “Maybe we can bring it back and make it cooler than it was before.”
The former owner, Micki Chittock, her son and manager Tom Chittock, and his wife, Laura Carney, were known for treating their customers like family, according to backers of the Stork Club’s 2020 GoFundMe campaign. Ribak, a longtime patron himself, said that while the former owners had decided it was time for them to move on after the initial closure, they were grateful to see a group of devoted customers who were invested in breathing new life into the space. 
“Tom said that if I was interested, he wanted to help out and make sure the club could continue,” said Ribak.

They started brainstorming new ideas and renovations for the venue over a year and a half ago while they negotiated the lease, Ribak said. Once it was signed, Ribak brought up the concept to Waters in October at last year’s Mosswood Meltdown, which the filmmaker emcees, and Ribak said Waters was immediately on board.

“He really wanted to get involved,” Ribak said. “Dive bars are one of his hobbies, and when he comes to San Francisco, he likes going to some of the famous ones.”

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John Waters introduces performers at the 10th annual Mosswood Meltdown festival (formerly Burger Boogaloo) on July 6, 2019, in Oakland.
Miikka Skaffari/Getty Images

During a staff party held at the club last December, Shannon Shaw (of Bay Area doo-wop garage rockers Shannon and the Clams) similarly jumped at the chance to someday play at the club and encourage other bands to do the same. 
“That night was super cool because it really made us start to feel like we had a purpose and a vision for this,” Ribak said.   

When Thee Stork Club is formally unveiled, patrons can expect to see some new, ’70s-inspired embellishments and an aesthetic that’s undeniably smattered with Waters’ fingerprints: think wood-paneled walls, retro carpeting in multiple shades of pink, kitschy art and chandeliers that will sparkle over a shiny gold dance floor while visitors imbibe a menu of so-called “tacky” cocktails with excessive garnishes.

"TGI Friday's is a big inspiration lol," Agan said via text. (It’s worth noting the club’s notoriously cheap PBR tall boys will be here to stay, too.)

But one of its most recognizable features — a vast collection of Barbie dolls looming over the bar — will not be returning. Tom Chittock told Ribak that following the closure in 2020, when they were packing up and placing the dolls in boxes, someone had stolen them all.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Ribak said.

In spite of the loss, they’ll be replaced with a quirky new collection of memorabilia featuring the iconic canine actor Benji, who was the star of the retro TV sitcom “Petticoat Junction” and the ’70s film franchise that followed the heroic dog’s adventures. But a ’50s-era dollhouse Ribak unearthed upstairs will be on display, hearkening back to the Mattel legacy.
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Shannon Shaw, left, and Cody Blanchard of Shannon and the Clams perform during Noise Pop Festival at the Fox Theater on Feb. 27, 2017, in Oakland.
Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images

Meanwhile, the back room where the pool table once was will be transformed into a “red room” and dining area inspired by Italian horror movies, spaghetti westerns and marinara sauce, Ribak said. There, they hope to permit the kitchen previously unutilized by the former leaseholders and serve pizza in the style of Bella Napoli, an Italian restaurant and bar that occupied the Telegraph Avenue space in the ’80s. 

“Coming into a historic space like this, one of the things that’s really important for us is honoring the past and honoring the folks that worked really hard there before,” Ribak said. 
When Thee Stork Club reopens, Ribak and Bedard, who is in charge of booking at the venue, plan to host at least five shows and 15 bands every week, with storied San Francisco punk band the Avengers, fuzz rockers Tha Retail Simps and Oakland five-piece Body Double among some of the acts appearing on the upcoming roster.

“People seem to be more excited about the club than people ever have been about [Mosswood Meltdown], which I didn’t get at first. It’s just a dive bar, guys,” Ribak joked. “But as I’ve thought about it, I’ve realized that for a lot of people in the music scene, these places can feel like home, and a place for them to showcase their talents year-round instead of just one weekend a year.”

SFGATE’s California trending news reporter Ariana Bindman contributed to this report. 
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Thee Stork Club will reopen on July 1.
Courtesy of Thee Stork Club

--tg