A night at Smiley’s Saloon in Bolinas, the Bay Area’s oldest bar

However what drew me to Smiley’s was a drive a lot older and stronger: a really daring declare on its web site:

“Established in 1851, Smiley’s is reported to be the oldest frequently working saloon on the West Coast.”

To the informal bar fly, this assertion can appear arbitrary, nevertheless it’s really fairly contentious. 

You see, Smiley’s isn’t the one old-timey bar in California laying declare to this title. There’s the Iron Door Saloon in Groveland simply outdoors Yosemite Nationwide Park, which touts the tagline “oldest saloon in California” (although they opened in 1852, a yr after Smiley’s). The William Inform Home in Tomales, simply down the street from Bolinas, boasts that it’s “Marin County’s oldest saloon,” regardless of courting again to a relatively trendy 1877. 

“I’ve despatched messages to them and to William Inform and have been like, ‘So do you guys need to discuss this? Ought to now we have a showdown at excessive midday, maybe?’” jokes Leila Monroe, the proprietor of Smiley’s, sitting throughout from me on the saloon’s balcony. “I have not gotten any response.”

Smiley’s actually seems to be previous, a two-story white constructing with shiplap siding and an old style colonnade supporting the balcony for the resort upstairs. Inside, the bar has douglas fir and redwood partitions, ceiling and trim, and some previous hippies sipping brews on bar stools. There’s a bit of carved sailor figurine on the bar prime, mirrors in ornate gold frames, historic images of Smiley’s circa 1851, a weathered Baldwin piano within the nook, and a replica of the “Bolinas Rumour Information” posted on the wall behind the bar.

Sidling as much as the mahogany bar to order a drink, I half anticipate a cowboy to burst by way of the again door and greet the bartender with a “howdy.” No such cowboy arrives, and I order my exhausting kombucha with activated charcoal with a smidgeon of disgrace.

My companion and I’ve simply rolled into Bolinas for the weekend. We’re cautious of the city’s status for shooing away vacationers who’re drawn to the city by surfable waves and blogs promising the charms of a unusual “hidden gem.” The locals so ardently don’t need firm, in truth, that they’re infamous for tearing down their very own freeway indicators. Sadly for them, everybody has Google Maps now, and nowadays, the city’s days of being hidden are lengthy gone.

Nonetheless, I really feel like we stick out like sore thumbs, metropolis dwellers toting in a single day luggage and driving our brilliant crimson rental automobile up and down the tiny downtown strip in a confused seek for parking. 

However as quickly as I meet Monroe, who took over Smiley’s in 2015, my fears of unwelcoming locals are instantly put comfortable. A surfer and former environmental lawyer in her early 40s, she is the image of laidback friendliness. Noticing my exhausting kombucha, she gushes about the way it’s her favourite factor on the drink menu. 

Warming as much as the locals

Possibly Monroe is so heat to guests as a result of she was as soon as thought of an outsider within the city herself. She’s owned the bar for a couple of years now, however she continues to be a reasonably recent face round Bolinas — she’s from Santa Cruz and extra just lately lived in San Francisco earlier than transferring right here to run Smiley’s. 

“It is true that there is this very sturdy native delight, but additionally a dislike of outsiders,” she advised me. “… The city is an unincorporated township within the county so in a variety of methods, it is type of omitted. Unincorporated cities simply have their very own approach of doing issues.”

She admits that she herself needed to give the locals a while to heat as much as her. 

“Though I’m from the Bay Space, I used to be in ocean conservation legislation, and I surf, that didn’t completely insulate me from missteps,” she stated. “We bought hazed for certain. You already know, social media is brutal.”

A part of the problem, she stated, was her timing: her possession of Smiley’s coincided with Airbnb’s arrival in Bolinas. 

“One after one other, long-term leases have been turning over into Airbnbs,” she stated. “And I believe we bought a bit of bit lumped in with the, you understand, new face of Bolinas, it’s ruining previous Bolinas. And I do not assume we had something to do with that.”
 
Varied studies of Airbnb gutting Bolinas have come out over the previous few years, with short-term leases making a squeeze on out there leases and pushing lifelong residents out of the small coastal group. As of 2019, enrollment on the city’s Ok-8 faculty had seen greater than a 25 p.c drop since 2014.

“That to me was the stress that this city has been going by way of,” stated Monroe. “A whole lot of very long time households have needed to go away. And there is a variety of new people residing on the town and, you understand, good individuals, nevertheless it’s an enormous change.”

An previous bar, made new

Monroe and her crew renovated Smiley’s over the course of the pandemic, making main structural upgrades from the inspiration to the wiring. She factors out some metal beams she had so as to add to the bar’s inside — “the constructing was imploding on itself,” she defined. 

The 170-year-old constructing wanted a lot work that it in all probability would have been simpler to raze and begin over, however as an alternative, Monroe took pains to protect it. 

She’s continued the bar’s legacy as a music venue as properly, a practice began by the earlier proprietor, Don Deane: a former Marin juvenile probation officer who foster-parented dozens of at-risk youngsters and hosted people concert events at Smiley’s. Monroe additionally occurs to be the founding father of Mission AMPLIFI, a company that phases concert events with impartial musicians in assist of nonprofits, so music is near her coronary heart. 

“There was this historical past of music on this house,” she stated. “That was type of what drew me right here in addition to the surf.”

Monroe’s most tangible adjustments to Smiley’s, although, are including a meals menu — Mexican cantina meals, a rarity for West Marin — and making Smiley’s all ages earlier than 9 p.m., as many households in Bolinas have younger children. She says she strongly feels the adjustments have been for the higher, though some staunch old-timers could disagree.

“There’s positively a robust group of those who love this place. And so any change I believe was tough, however we tried to remain true to most of what this place is,” stated Monroe. “We have made a couple of, I believe for some individuals, apocryphal adjustments, however for others, it’s actually good, proper? This place by no means had meals previously and it was at all times 21 and up solely.”

The suggestions she’s gotten has been overwhelmingly optimistic, apart from one factor: she moved the bar’s beloved pool desk out because of COVID.

“The pool desk has been a scorching button subject,” she jokes. “Do not point out the pool desk.” 

From speakeasy to bait store

Legend has it that Smiley’s was first opened in 1851 by a sea captain. In 1846, the world by Bolinas Lagoon, which up till then had been inhabited by the indigenous Coast Miwok individuals, was bought to Spanish Californian settlers in a Mexican land grant referred to as Rancho Las Baulines. When the California Gold Rush introduced an inflow of gold seekers into San Francisco, logging started in Bolinas. It grew to become a port city, with dozens of boats coming out and in of the lagoon every day carrying lumber to San Francisco. 

Sea Captain Isaac Morgan constructed what was then often known as the Schooner Saloon in 1851, a spot for schooner and lumber crews to take a load off with a stiff drink. Again then, it was certainly one of a number of bars serving the working males on the port, nevertheless it’s the one one nonetheless working in the present day.

Smiley’s has survived nearly the whole lot through the years: the 1860s temperance motion, the 1906 earthquake that dumped Bolinas’ different saloons into the lagoon, Prohibition within the Nineteen Twenties, and two World Wars. 

Its longevity might be chalked as much as its willingness to adapt, from an incarnation as a barbershop with a speakeasy within the again throughout Prohibition to a saloon referred to as Ed’s Nott Inn (the proprietor, Ed Nott, wasn’t usually round) to a bar and bait store. The bait store period was when Smiley’s grew to become Smiley’s — it was purchased in 1955 by Italian immigrant Ismaele (Smiley) Bianchini, who can be answerable for remodeling the saloon right into a resort. 

Within the 70s, Smiley’s grew to become part-saloon, part-pizza store; within the 90s, earlier proprietor Deane produced a newspaper referred to as the Coastal Submit upstairs and began reserving bands downstairs.

It’s solely becoming that underneath Monroe, Smiley’s has reworked as soon as once more. Some locals could grumble, however change is within the saloon’s DNA. 

A night at Smiley’s

It’s a Saturday night time and the solar is setting, so my companion and I resolve to purchase tickets for that night’s live performance on Smiley’s patio. We order margaritas, chips and salsa on the bar, then settle into our seats. 

A band referred to as Chris Peck’s Glowing Water from San Rafael is celebrating the discharge of their new album, acting on a raised platform adorned with a colourful mural of the shoreline. The laidback guitar music is the right backdrop for people-watching, so I take within the scene. 

Shortly, the middle of my consideration turns into a pudgy bulldog making the rounds, demanding pets and scratches from everybody who will give him the time of day (later, we study his identify is Kahuna). He’s not the one pleasant hound sauntering across the bar — as I study all through the night time, Bolinas is kind of the dog-loving city. 

We order vegetarian tacos and a mole hen quesadilla, and nod our heads contentedly to the music as a couple of youngsters dance round by the stage. When the present ends, it’s solely 7, so we take our night time contained in the saloon. 

Proper as we get in line on the bar, a drunk man encourages us to “order drinks, you deserve it!” whereas slurring his phrases. Can’t argue with that. As soon as once more, I’m beginning to really feel like an outsider — the concert-attending crowd has thinned out, and it looks like everybody in Smiley’s is aware of one another. 

The bartender, although, could be very welcoming, and begins chatting with us. He’s a fiddle participant who additionally works in sustainable agriculture — a really Bolinas mixture. He sings Monroe’s praises, calling her an incredible human, and chats with us about what introduced him to the city as we sip our beers. 

Because the night time progresses, locals begin coming as much as us, asking the place we’re from in a fashion that’s each pleasant and a bit of unsettling. Going to bars within the metropolis, I’m actually not used to the convenience with which strangers strike up a dialog right here. However it’s kind of good. 

One native bemoans the Smiley’s of her youth, saying it’s simply not the way it was — however she nonetheless has nothing however form issues to say about Monroe. Possibly she simply misses the pool desk. 

The morning after

The subsequent morning, I get up hungover. Groggily, the night time comes again to me: margarita, beer, one other beer, a shot of mezcal. Ugh. But additionally, one other extra nice feeling — the fun of getting skilled a quick glimpse into a really particular place.

“I believe really the truth is people are fairly pleasant,” Monroe had advised me the day earlier than. “Simply do not be an asshole and throw litter on the ground. You already know, there’s a variety of unhealthy conduct from guests generally, however I believe so long as you are pleasant and you are not impolite then yeah, persons are fairly pleasant again.”

I believe she’s proper. The locals have been so pleasant, in truth, that by the tip of the night time, the factor that first intrigued me about Smiley’s — whether or not it was really the oldest saloon in California — grew to become irrelevant. It wasn’t its storied previous, however the present day, fascinating individuals occupying its barstools on a random Saturday night time that made it so intriguing.

Smiley’s would be the solely bar on the town, nevertheless it’s additionally the very best one.