Labor Day is often a social holiday for folks: it’s the last big day for summer parties. In Benton Park, one’s going to take place with a bit more history and tradition than your loud neighbor’s annual blowout. On September 2, the Venice Café is going to mark 25 years in business, culminating a weeklong celebration of the club’s past.
As a few folks will remember, the Venice started out a coffeehouse, an all-ages venue that catered to fans of poetry and avant-garde music; fittingly, Tory Z. Starbuck was the first employee, a barista before the name was popularized, and an all-around perfect fit for the art-in-progress space. Founded by co-owners Jeff Lockheed and the late Paul (aka Pahl) Cuba, the Venice was largely limited that first winter to the main barroom, though its famed patio and upstairs Explorer’s Club would quickly follow.
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The expansion was largely facilitated by the addition of a liquor license. As is true with a lot of things at the Venice, there’s something of a story there.
“We started in September of ‘88,” Lockheed says, “and got the license in ‘89, six months after we opened. The new liquor commissioner, Bob Kraiberg, was a fraternity brother of mine from college. At the time, people were trying to run Naugles out of the neighborhood in Dogtown; it was open 24 hours a day. There was a move to have all new liquor licensees close by 10 p.m. But Kraiberg held out, and said that the new bars should be able to stay open until at least 1:30 a.m., so the best way to do it was to go in right away and apply for the liquor license. We got it, and on the first day we opened with booze, we doubled the best ring we ever had selling coffee.”
Different aspects of the place have come and gone, but some things remain firmly in place. For example, the Monday night open mic is the longest of its kind in St. Louis, nearly as old as the venue itself. Lockheed says that he’s going to reach out the original hosts, as “I haven’t talked to Bob Putnam and Sherri Danger in a long time. I’m going to see if they’ll come down and say a few syllables.”
While the open mic continues under the auspices of co-hosts Miles Long and Derek Parker, the 25th anniversary party will feature the Rock Clowns on Monday September 2, an act which Lockheed recalls as one of the first five groups to play the Café. The entire week after the event will also feature groups well familiar to the Venice’s stage, including Strange Rangers on Thursday, Hudson and the Hoo Doo Cats on Friday, and Liquid Gold on Saturday.
Lockheed says, “All those guys have been around here forever.”
So have some of the workers. Uncle Bill Green logged over 20 years on the Venice’s door before retiring, and several current staffers have a decade of service under the belt.
“I like having the same, old people that I can trust,” Lockheed says. “That means a lot to me. Trusted employees are the best.”
Chad Taylor, the Venice’s GM, has been a part of things for 15 years. Things have been mostly good, often great, but there are bittersweet memories mixed in.
He says that, “Twenty-five years is a lifetime in this business. And this is my 15th here. I started out as a cook, working in the old kitchen here. When Jeff asked me to be the GM about five, six years ago, I said, ‘I’ll give it a shot. But I’m telling you right now that I don’t know what I’m doing.’ Before I ever worked here, I came in with my parents for a quick beer. I told my mom that I wanted to work here. She’s got a thick, Texas twang and she told me, ‘Ever since you were a little boy, this is the kind of place that you belong.’ I met my wife here, I got married here. My mom, now that she’s retired, wants to be Jeff’s volunteer gardener. I don’t always like bartending; dealing with people can be tough. And we’ve been through some stuff: the death of Pahl Cuba, the fire, the burglaries. So things have been hard, at times.
“When we got robbed the last time, my knee-jerk reaction was anger, because we lost this money,” he remembers. “But we decided to kill them with art. We got it out in that way. We worked through the anger by making these medieval-looking window-guards. That’s what I love about this place. Every day, it’s about what we can make. I want this place to be here. I want to give this place to my son. I need it to be here, and it’s lucky that we have it to give to the City. That’s what I think.”
When Taylor gives the mock-salute “25 more years!” Lockheed remembers what he was told by a friend not so long ago.
“The City’s celebrating 250 years in 2014,” he says. “So, the Venice has been here for 10 percent of St. Louis’ history. That’s pretty cool.”
The Venice Café, 1903 Pestalozzi, 314-772-5994, thevenicecafe.com.
