Every time I’ve visited San Francisco, I’ve spent most of my evenings in North Beach enjoying the live music. ** The Saloon, Lost & Found, Grant & Green, Pearl’s**–I love them all. But lately I’ve come to wonder, how long have those places been there, functioning as bars or night clubs? The Saloon claims to have been there since the 1860’s, but can that really be possible? How long has North Beach been an entertainment mecca? Also, in the same area, I’ve noticed the gaudy marquee of the strip club The Condor, and I seem to remember seeing something very similar, also called The Condor, in an old movie which happened to take place in San Francisco. Could that have been the same place?
I’ve hunted around the web for this information, but without success. There is a site, http://www.sanfracisco.com, but it wasn’t any help.
The Condor, at Broadway and Columbus, was originally a strip joint. IIRC, that’s where the infamous Carol Doda began topless performing. About 6 - 8 years ago, when North Beach was starting to clean up, they converted it to a food joint. But a bunch of the other old strip joints remained and a new upscale one was added…
As for the Saloon, yep, it’s been around that long. I am sure that if you check the SF Examiner/Chronicle archives, you can find out about the history of the neighborhood…
http://www.sfgate.com has a “Bar Guide” that gives some history of the older joints in North Beach.