Post #440796 by Humuhumu on Tue, Mar 17, 2009 10:24 PM

I can understand how odd, even unthinkable, it must be to watch people who live within easy driving distance of the Tonga Room not clamoring to do anything possible to save it. After all, it's a gem. A rare gem.

But, I challenge those same people to try to go to the Tonga Room on a regular basis, and see how they feel. It's a horrendous amount of money to spend to be treated like crap time after time, no matter how broadly one smiles, no matter how accommodating one tries to be.

Parking alone costs on the order of $25 (unless you're a hardcore SF local, in which case it costs 25 minutes of driving time looking for street parking). It's a very expensive evening out, even by San Francisco standards. A lot of money to spend, just to leave feeling awful. Especially in this town, where you can go to a bar like Alembic (or any other of the dozen or two top-drawer bars), spend half as much to have cocktails four times as good, and be treated like an old friend.

Good god, I'm utterly OBSESSED with Polynesian Pop, and if a place like the Tonga Room can't compete for MY attention....

That said, it is beautiful, it is historic, and I don't want to see it go. I don't. I want it to live forever. But it would be terribly disingenuous of me to fight hard for it to stay. My support where it really counts -- my pocketbook -- will be limited.

I still go there about four times a year, it's not like I've abandoned it. But every time I go, I leave feeling somewhere between disappointed and angry. That's just the honest truth.