Dang, forgot to tell Captain Jim Maya about the new strip club
proposed for town.
Dang, forgot to tell Captain Jim Maya about the new strip club proposed for town. He would have gotten a hoot out of that. From the waiting room at Toyota, where Dad (me) was picking up the 100k-mile-service tab – complete with a free apple – for college daughter’s car, a well-projected voice bellowed, “Is that Mark Derry?” Lo and behold, beneath the cap emblazoned with “Captain Jim, San Juan Islands, WA” appeared the bearded seaman and former Gilroy High drama teacher extraordinaire James Mead Maya. I hope that full name is right, it just strangely popped into my memory. Hadn’t seen him in a lifetime. Jim runs boat tours off the island an hour from the north coast in Washington State. He showed me pictures on his laptop of the whales he says hang out there regularly, and said life has been good captaining his boat, the Peregrine, since his retirement from teaching in 1997. His salt-and-pepper beard are a perfect compliment to his new role. I enjoyed chatting with him as he told me he and his wife, Carol, would be visiting the Palmerlees, the Gables in Santa Cruz and Phil Robb, among other longtime Gilroy friends …
Anywho, back to the Showgirls Strip Club … the Gilroy jokes are flowing freely … Good thing there’s not city sales tax revenue associated with the proposal or we’d have four or five … Hey, wonder if they could take over the old Walmart building? … Can the city charge a ticket tax? … What about an ordinance that says 50,000-square feet or more and it’s OK? … El Amigo Restaurant turns into the Todos Mis Amigos Stripper Club … At least they can get new poles close by at Home Depot … ye-ha, what a great way to start the New Year …
Not so great a start to the new year for the Happy Dog Pizza Company, formerly Station 55 Restaurant. The brick, historic Fifth Street eatery, Gilroy’s former fire station so elegantly propped up with an expensive earthquake reinforcement a decade or so ago, has shut the doors. Such a shame. It’s a great building – a cornerstone really – second only to the status of Old City Hall. Some day, hopefully in my lifetime, it will be a part of a vibrant downtown. I remember at the opening party many moons ago when optimism reigned, Tim Filice upstairs near the fire pole quietly expressing hopes for success but uttering the words, “I don’t know, Gilroy’s really tough on restaurants.”
… And no, the Station 55 fire pole is not being sold off to the Showgirls Club … and the rumor that Ante Bilic, the Bay Area strip club mogul behind the Gilroy proposal, is talking to MayorAl about buying Gilroy Gardens and turning it into an ecologically sensitive resort for naturists … well, ask the mayor … “Look, honey, what’s up in that circus tree?” … but I digress
If anyone can do it right – run a restaurant downtown that is –
Gary Walton can, so let’s be sure to support his tapas bar and restaurant at Old City Hall when it opens this year and not let it go the way of the not-so-Happy Dog …
Not a happy dog owner was I when the other morning on our regular early-morning walk, a waddling, upturned tail proved too much for my golden retriever to ignore and – despite my hollers – she went for a sniff. I can vouch, however, for the new anti-skunk stink formula developed by a chemist. It’s:
– 1 quart hydrogen peroxide
– 1/4 cup baking soda
– 1 teaspoon liquid soap
Wet the hound, smear on the paste, be careful around eyes and nose, rub the paste in well (with gloves of course), rinse, and the odor almost disappears. Over the years, I’ve tried them all – God bless my old dog Stubby’s soul – but this is the only concoction that really has worked.
Bet they’ll have some wonderful sweet concoctions at the new bakery that’s going to open up … better than a new Walgreen’s (although just about any new construction is welcome with open arms now). Anyway, Penny Perluss and her husband Ken are opening the new place near the Claddagh on First Street. Penny is already well known in town for her masterful cakes and desserts, and if you haven’t had the pleasure it won’t be too much longer before the doors are open and that absolutely wonderful bakery smell greets happy customers …
Reminder to self, tell Konni at the First Street Coffee House to talk to Penny about cross selling arrangements … fresh coffee for fresh cupcakes and danish perhaps … so I hope it’s a full-service bakery …
Sure is kind of funny how the shoe sometimes gets put on the other foot on the turn of a dime … first it’s the “poor” school district asking for help from the “wealthy” city to fund facilities because of inadequate developer impact fees and, in addition, getting flack for wanting to re-zone property. Now it’s the “poor” city asking the “bond-wealthy” school district for help with the capital projects at Christopher High School the city committed to but will have trouble affording. The city better hope the school district doesn’t react as frostily as the city did when the district needed help … what goes around does indeed come around.
