East Bay Party People

Tonight I will be working the door and helping my "besties" with the grand opening of their bar in uptown Oakland.  Come by and say hello! Happy hour from 4-8pm, then an opening party from 8-2am.

Bar 355: 355 19th St. Oakland




Via the Oakland Tribune:

Bar 355

On Wednesday, Travis Dutton and Patrick Lynch couldn't remember the last time they had a full night's sleep. Seven months ago they decided to transform an abandoned bar on 19th Street into a lounge that mingles Las Vegas with Hollywood.

"And finally Friday's the big day," he said, meaning today. Happy hour starts at 4 p.m.

"How did I get involved in this? Purely accidentally," Lynch said.

He was planning to open a restaurant but the idea fell through. One day he asked Dutton, a 7-year-veteran of the Radio bar, if he ever thought of opening his own place.

"Yeah, all the time," Dutton responded.

"The rest is ... history," Dutton said, stacking bottles of vodka, tequila and gin with only 48 hours remaining.

The contents of the bottles will go into classic standards like the aviation, sidecar, Manhattan and martinis.

"Drinks that never really go out of style," Dutton said. "And obviously we're going to make our own drinks as well."

The last time someone ordered anything there, the space was called Softnotes Restaurant and Lounge. (Bar 355 plans to offer food in the future.)

The previous operators abandoned the lounge a couple years ago, leaving almost everything behind.

"The only thing they took was two flat-screen TVs," Lynch said.

The walls were glossy white and mustard yellow.

"It was hideous," Lynch recalled.

The walls are now papered in gold and royal blue. The newly lacquered bar shines under retro lamps in what Lynch said was the Hollywood Regency style. There is a nook at one end of the three-tiered room and a stage framed by gold curtains at the other. Gilded mirrors are plentiful.

Think neo-noir: the Slow Club in David Lynch's "Blue Velvet."

Outside a workman was installing a lamp that will hang in a shallow recess in the faux lava rock facade. Overhead, a sign bearing the name Mr. B's stands like a beacon from some distant chapter in Oakland's downtown history. The sign is topped by an orb painted with the words "Don's," dating back to when the lounge was Big Don's Cactus Room. Someone else took over and changed the name to Big Al's Cactus Room.

Eventually the exterior will give way to city plans for sprucing everything up. But for now, the orb revolves.

Bar 355: 355 19th St., 510-451 3355

Nice... my Oakland office is blocks away.  HOpe to check it out soon!
Nice interior... it's like LA Confidential...

good looking bar, hope they do well, cameron

Cooooool looking place Patrick!!!

Can't make it tonight but would be stoked to check it out in the future!

Have fun and be safe tonight!!

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Very cool gig, Patrick.  Good luck to your friends on their venture, and watch your back while you run the door at an Oakland night spot!

Good stuff.