FEATURE
Celebrating 75
Oldest Pub Tivoli Bar and Grill, Gaslamp Quarter OPENED AS A SALOON IN 1885
Check out the photos of patrons Wyatt Earp and his wife Josie at the bar at Tivoli, and imagine you’re visiting back when the Gaslamp Quarter was a red-light district known as the Stingaree— because visitors got “stung” by hustlers of every stripe. In 1912, the police tried to straighten up the Stingaree before the Panama-California Exposition by rounding up sex workers. A local newspaper headline told the story: “138 Are Arrested in Stingaree Raid/136 Promise to Leave City; Two Agree to Reform.” Later, the Tivoli rented rooms by the hour for soldiers and their (paid) paramours during both World Wars. Now, you can drop by for a beer and a bite—no extra charge for companionship.
Honorable Mention: Little Italy’s Waterfront Bar & Grill isn’t the oldest saloon in town—it opened in 1933—but it boasts the oldest full- service liquor license. Don’t be surprised by spirits among the, um, spirits: The bar’s late-night cleaning crew says it’s haunted by ghosts of barflies past.
104 AUGUST 2023
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