Santa Rosa

Santa Rosa is an hour north of San Francisco, on Highway 101. My older brother, Hank, and his family moved from the San Fernando Valley to take a teaching position at Santa Rosa Junior High School.  12 years older than me, he, his wife and three kids quickly fell in love with Sonoma County. Then three kids became six kids.

While I attended St. Mary’s College in Moraga, I would go up and visit them on occasion. And I fell in love with Sonoma County too. Cathy and I got married. And when we returned from Florida, I got a job as one of the managers at a sea food restaurant in Half Moon Bay. Summer weather doesn’t happen in Half Moon Bay so every chance we got we would go to Sonoma County and visit my brother’s family. On one such occasion I made a comment “someday when I’m rich and famous I’d like to live here.” We had been looking for a place to settle in and my sister-in-law, Sally, said “you don’t have to be rich and famous to live here”. Casually I said, “if that is the case, keep your eyes opened for a house in our price range and give us a call.  Later on that night, when we got back to our travel trailer in Half Moon Bay, there was a message on our phone. It was from my sister-in-law. She said, “we found you a house”. Long story short – we bought the house. Compared to where we were looking, the house was a steal. We bought a three-bedroom house which was only a few blocks from downtown. The house was at the end of  a cul-de-sac which meant it was the biggest lot in the area. The folks that owned the place were now in their 80’s.  They had done a nice job. It was obvious that it had been taken care of. It had a in-ground swimming pool, a large garden and 17 fruit trees. Over the next few years I added a green house and hot tub. The previous owners, gave us a second mortgage that we could afford because they liked us, then 25 and 27 years old, that we planned to have children, and that we had a little dog.

I don’t recommend doing what we did because I was a manager in a seafood restaurant in Half Moon Bay and it turned out that salaries in Sonoma County were low as compared to other Bay Area counties. So I ended up commuting to Marin County for the next seven years. I got a job in a bar and restaurant that was just opening in Mill Valley, starting as the service bartender in the waiters’ station; behind the scenes.  It wasn’t long before I was graduated to the main bar upstairs. The restaurant’s name was Sid and Jim’s. It was a sunny bright place with gigantic saltwater fish tanks. The place was peppered with exotic birds in cages. Have you ever been in a place that is supposed to be a nice quiet restaurant but it has exotic birds screeching? It turned out, that within weeks, it was the hottest place in Marin County.

That’s where I met a man who was building a restaurant in Sausalito. Within a short time I got the job as the Bar Manager at Flynn’s Landing. I remained the bar manager for the next seven years.

Let’s segue back for a moment to the summer before my senior year of high school. I took guitar lessons. My favorite TV program was Hootenanny. I loved Peter Paul and Mary, but my favorite was The Kingston Trio. It wasn’t long before I knew all of their songs.

I wasn’t much of a rock and roller but I certainly loved just about all of the songs that were known as folk songs. The only concert that I attended in high school was when I took Kathy Thompson to see the Kingston Trio at the Valley Music Theatre. Kathy Thompson was a cheerleader and a very popular girl. I on the other hand, was the shyest boy in class, I think. It took me days before asking her to this concert.

So I’m the bar manager of the hottest bar in Sausalito. Bob Shane of “The Kingston Trio” turned out to be one of the regulars there when he was in town.  Now, I never went up to him and said, “hey I’m a fan and I know all of your music.” I was simply a bartender at one of his local “watering holes”.  But I mention that because it’s important to this story.

Meanwhile my wife, Cathy, got a job at the hospital. Life went on. I mentioned that I had built a green house in the backyard of our sweet little home and I still wanted my own restaurant. I knew that my restaurant would be a bright sunny environment with lots of plants. So, I built a small plant rental business. I had about 10 businesses for which I would water weekly, and change plants out as needed.  On Thursdays, I would close up the bar at 2 AM and head to the City, (San Francisco). The Flower Market opened at 3 AM. On my way home I had a route to take me to my customers to sell my indoor plants. I remember selling a 15 dollar plant to a lawyer friend of mine. When he moved offices he gave me a call and wanted to know, “How am I going to get that palm out that I’ve had in my office for several years now?” Who knows, it might be still there!

To keep this story consistent, after seven years commuting from Santa Rosa to Sausalito, I got the money together to build my own restaurant, in Santa Rosa.  The first week the restaurant was open, we got a call from the adoption agency. The next morning we went to Berkeley and met our 3 month old daughter, Vanessa, for the first time. The agency required Cathy to take a six month leave from working her nursing job to be a mom. It was an unpaid leave. Then nineteen months later she had to do that again when another agency said they had a five month old for us, another daughter. I worked the restaurant for three years. Money was tight and I decided to close the restaurant. Times had changed in Santa Rosa.

I still had a good reputation in the bar and restaurant business. So salaries would be  now comparable to Marin County.  I called a head hunter and landed the job as food and Beverage Director for the LaRose Hotel.  The LaRose Hotel is right across the street from the train station. It’s a multi-storied stone building built in 1907 after the earthquake. The city of Santa Rosa had put $8 million into the budget for the LaRose Hotel Project.  It was considered to be an anchor business for Railroad Square that was designed to tie the rest of the downtown area together. When Highway 101 came through Santa Rosa in the late 60’s, it pretty much cut the town in half. The old train station and all the businesses on the west side of the freeway were cut off from downtown.       

However, the city fathers had big plans for this area of town. They envisioned something like Old Town Sacramento, considering the fact that Old Town Sacramento had become a Northern California mecca for the tourist industry.

Then they planned a multi million dollar shopping mall on the eastern side of the freeway.  Between the freeway and the railroad station was the LaRose Hotel right across the street. Around the corner, W. 3rd St. had antique shops and a couple of restaurants.

The LaRose Hotel sat only blocks away from our home so seemed to be the answer to our prayers. I got hired as the food and beverage director about three weeks before the grand opening. The grand opening was a big deal for the city. The frontage road is called Wilson. There were a couple of famous Italian restaurants down the street and a soup kitchen for the homeless. Needless to say opening day didn’t go without a hitch. I had an inexperienced hostess who was taking directions from a girl who should’ve known better. They sat a party of six homeless people right in the middle of the dining room.  By the time somebody ordered the third bottle of wine I became aware of the situation. They were becoming rowdy so I had to ask them to leave. With the mayor of the town sitting next to them, I finally got them to the front door. I felt like I was at football practice with all of the fancy moves I was doing in the middle of the dining room.  It was a major scene and to my surprise, when I looked back around the dining room, I was getting a standing ovation for how I handled it!

The LaRose Hotel was a positive addition to Santa Rosa. Santa Rosa also had a facility called the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts. It is known for its presentations of groups like The Kingston Trio. the next time they performed there, they stayed at the LaRose Hotel. We had another client staying with us who was a dentist. He came to me earlier in the afternoon to make a reservation for dinner. He proceeded to tell me that he was going to have the Kingston Trio in for dinner after the show. After the show our dining room would have typically been closed. I told him if he wanted to make a reservation that late at night I would have to bring in an additional waitress, hostess and I have to keep the regular staff and have to pay them over-time. This didn’t bother him so I said yes although he was already being obnoxious.

After the show was over, the dentist showed up and still demanded the party with the Kingston Trio. I had already called in the three extra people and had a short meeting with them. I explained this party is very important. “It’s for the Kingston Trio. These people are special to me so I hope that you’ll take care of them to the best of your abilities.” As I’m walking away from them, I hear one girl say to the others, “Who are the Kingston Trio?”  I heard one of the others, “I think they’re a new reggae group.”

I went over to the LaRose Hotel Annex, across the street from the main hotel, knocked on the door where the Trio was staying and said, “Okay, who’s in charge here?” I  recognized the guy who opened the door as being a friend from Sausalito. He recognized me and played along with the prank.  Bob Shane emerges from the group of seven or eight people and says, “I guess I am. Who wants to know?” and in the same breath he says, “Tom, what are you doing here?” After a brief explanation and hand shakes all around, I told everybody that I was the food and beverage director. I explained the situation  regarding the dentist. “We’ve kept the dining room open for you guys and we’ve got a table for 15 waiting for you”. As it turned out, I knew everybody in the room except the two other members of the Kingston Trio and their bass player.

A great time was had by all. Even the dentist and his wife.

Restaurant Review #1