Post #182164 by thejab on Fri, Aug 26, 2005 2:32 PM

On 2005-08-26 13:10, Satan's Sin wrote:
By "funky" I guess I meant that San Fran is a town that doesn't take itself too seriously and in fact you can still catch a faint vibe of gold-rush boominess in the air. By "hard core" yes I meant sex, it seems to be open with its sexual services industry but forefront in mind is that diagonally across the street from City Lights (one of the most famous bookstores in the world) is the Condor Club (one of the most legendary strip joints in the world). And, come to think of it, diagonally across the street from the Condor is yet another tiki bar, I forget its name, great Mai Tais, wonderful interior, awful terrible music.

(and btw, the Rainbow Room no longer attracts sophisticated boho yuppies as they had planned in their redocoration scheme; it is instead a pure tourist trap and clip joint, the drinks are tiny and poorly made and cost at least $25, but the view of lower Manhattan makes it all absolutely worth it.)

My mistake. I meant the "Redwood Room" not the Rainbow Room. The Redwood Room is a 1930s Art Deco masterpiece of a bar in the Clift Hotel in San Francisco. About 10 yrs ago Ian Schrager bought the hotel which instigated a "Save the Redwood Room" drive. After the ownership transferred the room was restored (the Klimpt artworks that were added in the 1970s were removed and the 1930s "curly" redwood interior - supposedly from one old-growth tree - and light fixtures were retained), and then the atmosphere was changed for the worse, as they added 4 huge video screens in the room. They now serve overpriced weak drinks like the Lychee-tini (gasp) and DJs play crappy music. But nobody seemed to care anymore because the hotel has been a smashing success especially since it reopened in the peak of the dot-com boom. It has since become a hangout for the rich and famous and wanna-be rich and famous.

The Condor is still there but they made changes to the signage. They also recently removed the classic sign for the Hungry I (the old comedy club had been toen down but a strip club took over the name). I love North Beach but it is changing rapidly, and in the Bay Area we have nothing like the LA Conservancy. Old places disappear all the time with maybe just a brief mention in the newspaper.

Before:

After:

Broadway street used to be all neon signs - now it looks like this:
The Condor Club's sign featuring a topless woman (Carol Doda?) with blinking red nipples was removed in the 90s when the topless dance bar became a sports bar (I think it's now a dance club).

For more Farewell Favorites check out one of the best web sites on San Francisco (www.mistersf.com)

http://www.mistersf.com/farewell