As they say, location, location and location

Some locations have lasting power. For example, there are three locations in Balboa that have had the same kind of businesses -- although under different ownership -- for more than 60 years. I am speaking of the corner of Main and Bay streets, which has housed a bakery for more than 60 years, and the two corners of Main and Balboa Boulevard that have been the site of a drugstore and a restaurant for the same period of time.

First the bakery. When I was a youngster during the early 1920s, Mr. and Mrs. Reber operated a bakery in the Knight building at the corner of Main and Bay. It was so nice to walk past just to savor the wonderful smell of the place.

Then, when I was a little older, I was further exposed to the smell of the bakery during the summer when Hersh Teeter, the lifeguard captain, and I and a couple other guys lived in the front room of the second story of the Knight building. There we were exposed to the smell of the bakery on a 24-hour basis. A couple of years later, I lived in a shack on the roof of the Knight building with Barney Lehman of Star Boat fame.

Although the smell was somewhat diluted, it was still there.

Going down Main Street to Balboa Boulevard, on one corner there is a restaurant; on the other a drugstore. Take my word for it, a drugstore and a restaurant have been at those locations for more than 60 years.

The original drugstore was operated by Walt Eastlake, whom I best remember because he had a harelip, which I must admit is not a very nice thing to remember a person by.

Following Walt Eastlake, Lonnie Vincent came along with a drugstore at the same location. I remember Lonnie best because we were all afraid of him. Lonnie wasn’t very big, but he had a brother who was a professional boxer named Kid France, and anyone who had a brother who was a professional boxer had to be tough.

Then Don Gunderson became the druggist. I don’t know who has the place now, but it’s still a drugstore.

Across the street is Dillman’s restaurant. Originally, it was a restaurant called Young’s. All I can remember of Young’s is that he always had a leg of pork turning on a spit in front of the restaurant.

Then the White brothers, Vaux and Art, took over. When they broke up, Art started the Park Avenue on the Island. Vaux stayed on in Balboa. The place is now Dillman’s and although Max no longer runs the bar, it still has that wonderful neighborhood ambience found in cities such as New York, Chicago and San Francisco.

Moving up the peninsula to old Newport, the site now operating as Sid’s Blue Beet is a winner, even though Sid isn’t there. His next-door neighbor, Tom Carson’s Stag Bar has been there since the late 1920s, although I was shocked the other day to see a news item that said the Stag was putting in greenery. Spittoons I can see for the Stag, but no greenery.

The Arches has been there since the 1920s. The Five Crowns in Corona del Mar has been there forever under various names.

The place with the real history is the site now operated as Bandera’s. Originally, right after World War II, it was the Chef’s Inn, operated by Hugh and Claudia Hutson. It was far and away the most popular restaurant in the history of our town.

Then Hugh was killed in an airplane accident, Claudia lost interest, and from that time to the present there followed a series of failures you wouldn’t believe.

One time, Chuck Masters and I counted nine restaurant failures up to Bandera’s, which I evaluate as having staying power.

As they say, location, location, location.

* JUDGE GARDNER was a Corona del Mar resident and former judge.

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