The Marine Room Tavern's bar
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continue
The
Unique Charm of the Marine Room
Pretty much
every town south
of the Arctic Circle has at least one bar.
Many of them resemble Moe's Bar on the Simpsons. They are unadorned
cinder block buildings constructed to serve a straightforward purpose.
Some of these are perfectly worthy watering holes, and bulwarks in the
communities where they stand. Orange County, being Orange County,
has some exceptions, bars that add to the atmosphere created by the
regulars by providing a lounging place that causes tourists to stop
just inside the door and admire, "Wow. What a beautiful place!"
The Marine Room welcomes an eclectic
clientèle
With a decor that reflects its
name
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Old-World
Charm - But Clean!
The Marine Room in Laguna Beach is such
a place. Expertly carved
hardwood replicas of sailfish and marlin hang on the paneled walls. A
commemorative textile is framed near the restroom. The printed
handkerchief celebrates the Battle of Manila campaign of General John
Pershing in 1898. Hardwood floors, warm furnishings and a beautifully
maintained, well-stocked bar make the Marine Room a welcoming
destination. Legendary local band The Missiles of October have
entertained here for decades. The band has been rocking on Thursday
nights and Sunday afternoons without a basic change in staff for
sixteen years. The band has several successful self-published CDs. They
would like to make the big time, but they don't want it too much. The
drummer, Frank, is into his sixties and has never any job other than
drumming. When bassist Jimmy divulged that his wife had cancer a few
years ago, the community turned out in droves, turned their pockets
inside out to help the uninsured family through their rough patch.
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General Pershing
commerative
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The Missiles of October
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And when community members have trouble, the
Marine Room and the
Missiles turn out in kind. When artist Peter Riegler died last year,
the place was closed for a wake and a benefit for his young son. This
spring when street musician Lonnie lost his girlfriend of many years to
cancer, people poured into the Marine Room to remember the gentle Sue
Nachman, and to console a heartbroken Lonnie.
Dykes
on Bikes (and others too)
Summer Sunday afternoons, every parking space on Ocean Avenue is filled
with tricked out Harleys and custom-built bikes. But the Marine Room is
no biker bar. The Sunday regulars are dentists, lawyers and other such
stuff, more into putting black lights into their undercarriages than
getting into fights. Marine Room owner Kelly Boyd (whose grandfather
fought with Pershing) is a rare Republican voice on the city council
and his nephew Robbie runs the place. The biggest disputes the two get
involved in are regular run-ins with the city over excessive noise as
the expensive chrome hogs enter or leave town.
Laguna Beach is a tourist town with surprising small town habits. As
soon as the annual Patriots' Day parade ends in early March, the bar
fills with Vietnam veterans and a kilted band of bagpipers. It's a
noisy, rowdy bunch on that day. As one might expect in a very liberal
town with many retired Marine homeowners and many resident full-time
artists, the political discussions can become heated.
Patriotic patrons
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Bagpipe
band
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Cartoonists
In another era the Marine Room was a sanctuary for famous cartoonists.
Original art by Virgil Partch (Big George), the Interlandi twins
(Playboy and the New Yorker), Charles Shulz and a host of other
visiting cartoonists covers one whole wall. It seems that cartoonists
in the fifties had quite a lot of time on their hands. This marauding
band often felt the need for sanctuary. They frequented a number of
bistros in a much less populous south Orange County at the time, but
the Marine Room was always a favorite. Cartoonists of today still drop
in. So do well-known underwater photographer Beverly Factor, and Beth
and Steve Wood of the sixties band, Honk. Beth hosts a high-powered
singer/songwriter night at the Marine Room on Tuesdays, when lots of
new material gets tried out publicly for the first time.
The Marbar's cartoon wall
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The Marine Room filled their dance floor in back
with pool tables a few
years ago and moved the bands to the front of the bar right next to the
front door. They also gave up their permit for dancing. People still
dance, but they do so between the tables or on the sidewalk outside.
Green awnings cover the sidewalks, and favored bands draw crowds
under those awnings to listen the music through the open windows even
when it rains, which isn't very often.
For all the traffic and activity and tourists (and unwelcome MTV fans)
in Laguna Beach, it can be easy for a visitor to miss the underlying
personality of this town of iconoclasts. Thursday nights in the winter,
especially in the rain, give a unique view of the heart of the
city, gathered together for a rare night when we have the town to
ourselves.
If you plan to spend an evening at the Marbar as it is called, eat
before you go. The alternatives are to dine on beernuts, the only food
found inside, or spend quite a lot at one of the dozens of fine food
establishments located within a two block radius.
The
party is outside as well
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Here's
to the inestimable marbar
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Come
On Down!
Main Beach Park is
not a hundred steps away from the Marbar, and a
moonlit stroll on the boardwalk can be a perfect counterpoint to the
music and conversation waiting on the other side of Coast Highway. If
you are there with your main squeeze, there is no where on the planet
more romantic than Main Beach Park under a harvest moon. If you are on
your own, come by in the daytime. The eye candy is second to none.
THE
MARINE ROOM TAVERN
214 Ocean Avenue
Laguna Beach, California 92651
(949) 494 - 3027
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