Find a Bar & Become a Regular—It Might Change Your Life
How a Boston Sports Bar Led to Homeownership in Oakland
I sent my first demanding letter to the Mayor and my City Councilperson yesterday. I didn’t write after any of the 21-ish bippings my cars suffered in the Bay Area1. I also didn’t write after unhoused folks erected an impressive structure — with wood paneling and chain link fences for the doghouse — on my block in Jack London Square. I wrote because the City of Oakland’s actions jeopardize the sustainability of a longstanding piece of social infrastructure: Eli’s Mile High Club.
Eli’s Mile High Club should qualify as a historical monument. Eli Thornton opened it 1974 and ran it until Frankie Williams, his girlfriend, shot him at the club.
Jack Cheevers’ 1986 column2 poetically recounts the legend of Thornton death, and also gives a taste of how important Eli’s was to the Oakland — and global — blues scene:
The club squats in a faceless white building on Martin Luther King Way near 37th Street, in the shadow of a North Oakland freeway. If there's a Southern-style blues roadhouse in heaven, it'll look just like Eli's. Walk inside and drink in the atmosphere:
In one corner is a tiny stage that has held blues greats including James Cotton and Percy Mayfield. At the bar is a huge, Buddha-like wooden bust of Muddy Waters. The walls are plastered with smoke-darkened photos of scores of bluesmen who have jammed there.
Eli's is known around the world, and it's not uncommon to see blues aficionados from Germany, France or Japan nodding their heads to the beat of a Jimmy McCracklin or a J.J. Malone.
Through the ‘80s, co-owners J.J. Malone3 and Troyce Key, kept Eli’s alive as a blues bar before it evolved into a punk and metal club. Its current owners, Billy Joe Agan, Erik Schmollinger, and Matthew Patane took over in 2016, and they also brought back the blues weekly with Monday Night Blues4 — with many of the original performers from the ‘70s and ‘80s.
Eli’s is a powerful piece of social infrastructure because it achieves what many hospitality establishments struggle to accomplish: draw clientele into a single space despite racial, socioeconomic, and age difference.
Eli’s also indirectly led to this newsletter—Revival Rounds started after Billy Joe Agan’s remarks on an Oaklandside panel, and we hosted the first edition in its backyard, which is now in danger of closure.
I’m grateful that my City Councilperson Zac Unger replied almost immediately that the issue is on his radar, and KQED reported that the Eli's team is in touch with Councilperson Carroll Fife, who represents their district.
Cities across the country invest in roads and bridges, but not in social infrastructure like Eli’s—despite evidence that “when hard infrastructure fails…it’s the softer, social infrastructure that determines our fate.5”
Bars might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you hear ‘social infrastructure,’ but one bar—Parlor Sports6 in Somerville (Massachusetts)—led me to homeownership in Rockridge (Oakland). When I was looking to move out west, Helms, another regular at Parlor, told me one of his friends from high school ran an edtech company in the Bay. I ended up chatting with Tess, and while she didn’t hire me7, we became friends. Ten years later, Tess, her husband, and I are now happy owners of a duplex.
See, bars are magical. Find one and become a regular.
Helping Eli’s
If you want to help Eli’s, you can donate to their GoFundMe and email photos (especially any 10+ years old to establish prior use) or written testimonials.
Upcoming events:
March 15, 6pm-2am: Temescal Spring Bar Crawl. Gather your friends (or meet some new ones) and plan for a fantastic evening on the avenue. 21+, no ticket required. More info at temescaldistrict.org.
March 15, 6-10pm: On Purpose Collective Launch Party. On Purpose Collective is an inspired community of purpose-driven entrepreneurs, change-makers, healers, and creatives, supporting one another to bring our bold visions to life from a place of resourced body, mind, spirit, and finances. Hosted by Lily Williams, a JOINERS regular.
March 21, 5-8pm: Revival Rounds #15. Revival Rounds will welcome the first days of spring and celebrate women’s history month at Heart & Dagger Saloon, a woman-owned bar focused on community in Lakeshore/Grand Lake. RSVP on Partiful.
March 22, 9:30-12pm: Plants and Pitchers in Miniature. In this 3 hour workshop for adults, you’ll learn how to make miniature plants and pitchers using simple craft materials and household objects. These tiny decor items are cute additions to a bookshelf, top of a door hinge, or in the context of a miniature scene or vignette (like what you can create in Erica’s "Make a Miniature Vignette" course!). Hosted by JOINERS regular, Erica Meade. RSVP at BrushStroke Studio.
March 22, 12:30-7pm: Porchfest. A music fest / block party with local bands playing from a tiny porch in Temescal. It's annual so you may have been in the past. RSVP on Partiful.
April 25, 5-9pm: JOIN or DIE Screening. Join or Die is a film about why you should join a club—and why the fate of America depends on it. Follow the story of America's civic unraveling through the journey of Robert Putnam, whose legendary "Bowling Alone" research into American community decline may hold the answers to our democracy's present crisis. RSVP on Partiful.
May 4, 9:30-12pm: Make a Miniature Vignette. In this 2.5 hour workshop for adults, you’ll create a miniature scene that features a wall and floor, framed piece of art, console table, miniature books, and clock. You’ll get to customize your space with a choice of art print and mini-framing method, “tile” color and pattern, wall color, clock color, and more. Final dimensions approx. 7.75” tall x 6” wide x 3.7” deep. Hosted by JOINERS regular, Erica Meade.RSVP at Brushstrokes Studio.
“Bipping,” is how the Bay Area affectionately says “car window smashing.” Highly recommend California Auto Glass for your bipping repair needs. Fast, cheap, and they sometimes have free tamales.
Sonny Rhodes said Creedence Clearwater Revival wouldn’t have their sound without J.J. Malone.
Also worth noting that Frankie Williams was welcomed back into the club after her overdue parole.
p. 15 in Klinenberg, E. (2018). Palaces for the people: How social infrastructure can help fight inequality, polarization, and the decline of civic life. Crown.
A few of Parlor’s accolades: multiple-time winner of Best Sport Bar in Boston, favorite hangout of sports nerd podcast royalty after the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, and it had a cameo in Starting Five on Netflix.
Tess insists it wasn’t because I wasn’t qualified.
Very cool learning for me!