Sitting on the corner of Montgomery and San Fernando streets, just steps from the Diridon Caltrain Station, Patty’s Inn looks like a ramshackle watering hole from the outside. Inside, it looks like that, too — it’s also got character and a lot of history.
But that history, going back to when the bar opened at the end of Prohibition in 1933, ended this weekend when Patty’s Inn closed its doors. The 1890 building survived the Loma Prieta earthquake, a 1993 fire and the construction of the Shark Tank just a few blocks away, but Google’s plans to develop the area for its Downtown West campus proved to be too much.
Ken Solis, who has owned Patty’s Inn since 2001, welcomed friends and regulars on Friday and Saturday. A stream of people who had heard about the closing stopped by for a last drink and to say farewell. There was free food, if you like hot dogs, sports on the TVs and lots of memories being shared around the bar, which is surrounded with beer signs, sports memorabilia and other bric-a-brac. Paper money — both U.S. bills and foreign currency — are tacked up behind the bar near a photo of former Sharks fan favorite Mike Ricci.
“We never advertised, never did any of that stuff,” said Solis, a dyed-in-the-wool conservative who cleaned up when he bet friends that Donald Trump would win the presidency in 2016. “It was all word of mouth.”
Customers I talked to on Friday afternoon knew the end would come eventually once Google bought the property in 2017, but many hoped Patty’s Inn would have a few more years of life. After all, the end had seemed nigh before but Patty’s Inn proved to be a battered survivor of natural disasters and urban development.
“This is a dive bar, but I never thought of it as a dive bar. It was just Patty’s Inn,” said Jim Nielsen, an executive at RBC Wealth Management, who has been a customer off and on for decades. “It’s tough to see these places go away because they can’t be replaced.”
Patty’s Inn shows up in a San Jose phone directory in 1934, the year after rancher Pat Krickeberg opened it in a former grocery store. The space went through a variety of names over the next 30-plus years — O’Neill & Krickeberg Liquor, Corda’s Restaurant, the Depot Inn Tavern — before finally returning to its roots as Patty’s Inn in 1971. The bar catered to a lot of railroad guys and cannery workers who stopped in after their shifts, whenever that might be. Two regulars — Mike Gathers, a former Southern Pacific railroad engineer, and his co-worker Dave DiSalvo — bought the business in 1987, though Roy Krickeberg, Pat’s son, still owned the land. San Jose’s Redevelopment Agency scooped up the property, and became Solis’ landlord, when it assembled parcels for a potential ballpark more than a decade ago.
Patty’s Inn earned a reputation as a working-class bar, alongside San Jose classics like Bini’s, Manny’s Cellar and Sam’s Log Cabin, with a no-nonsense vibe. Now, it joins them as another place that used to be here. Solis — who is being compensated by the redevelopment agency’s successor for being displaced — said he made sure his employees would be taken care of and had jobs lined up before he decided to call it quits.
And, let’s face it, the Google development will absolutely create a more vibrant environment than the area has ever seen. But Patty’s Inn is taking 88 years of memories with it, and the cast of characters who populated the bar — mostly people who couldn’t care less about urban villages or craft cocktails — will miss it.
READY FOR SCHOOL: The start of a new school year is right around the corner, and a bunch of nonprofit groups in Silicon Valley are hard at work to make sure that students have all the supplies they need when they head back to the classroom.
Shop With a Cop Foundation Silicon Valley’s Operation Backpack on Aug. 14 will pair students with a uniformed police officer who will help fill a new backpack with supplies and a book. Executive Director Darrell Cortez says the nonprofit’s goal is to raise $10,000 to purchase items for students from four elementary schools. You can pitch in at www.shopwithacopsv.org.
Family Giving Tree has teamed up with Westfield Oakridge for a two-day “Stuff the Bus” school supply drive. Visitors can donate supplies inside the South San Jose mall on Aug. 1 (11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.) or Aug. 8 (2 to 5 p.m.). The drop-off events will include performances by Bravo Conservatory of Music, kid-friendly educational activities run by San Jose Library staff and a special appearance by San Jose Giants mascot Gigante. You can get more information about Family Giving Tree’s Backpack Comeback campaign at familygivingtree.org.
CHECK IT OUT: San Jose’s branch libraries opened in waves over the past few months as restrictions were lifted, but the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Main Library downtown had remained shut tight, allowing only for pickups of reserved material. That changes Aug. 2 when the eight-story library reopens to the public six days a week. For the time being, it’ll be open at 1 p.m. on Mondays and 10 a.m. Tuesday through Saturday, closing at 6 p.m. all week. Hours for specialized areas like the children’s room and the California Room may vary, as well, and some services will be limited. Check for updates at www.sjpl.org.
