In San Pedro, It’s Always 1963
By Theo Douglas

PHOTO by ROSHEILA ROBLES

It’s a weekday afternoon in San Pedro, so you and another guy are alone in the Indian Room (since 1933) with a bartender who claims she and the cash register came over on the Mayflower. Which is a fib—the cash register is way younger—so she amends it to say the gizmo, a small device with fake woodgraining, is from 1950. There’s a Tecate in the beer display behind the ancient leather-upholstered oak bar and she finds you its brother, behind a set of doors that look like they used to be an icebox. It’s dead quiet; the TVs have the sound off and you’re slumped on your stool when, somehow, the jukebox turns a B-side from ’63: Roy Orbison’s “Shahadaroba.” iTunes has “Pretty Woman,” but it doesn’t have this. “When a dream dies and the heart cries/Shahadaroba is the word they whisper low,” Orbison moans, and a sad clarinet answers. It’s still 1963 all across San Pedro, if you know where to look.

Sacred Grounds Coffee House
Sleep in, ’cause most of the cool shops don’t open ’til 11; and when you do wake up, head north to Sixth Street: this city’s answer to Long Beach’s Fourth Street, just 10 years older and with a lot more restaurants. Sacred Grounds is the coffee house everyone name-checks when you say “San Pedro.” The art on the walls is good; musicians play at night, and on weekday mornings a group of old men—possibly Serbian or Russian immigrants—inhabit the tables outside, chewing over the morning’s news sotto voce. Inside, the tuck-and-roll dinette and a sesame seed bagel both have your name on them. 468 W SIXTH ST | SAN PEDRO 90731 | 310.514.0800

Cheerful Al’s Union War Surplus
A fixture on Sixth since 1946, Union War Surplus is still where you go to find Navy pea coats, $100 Air Force parkas, blue speckled enamelware, helmets from assorted wars, woolly Navy sailor pants for girls, and a few super hot, petite-sized British uniform coats—in a cheerful red with blue epaulettes and gold buttons. Can you say “Hollaback Girl”? That’ll be $250—worth it, because unlike the pea coats and parkas, which are new—and look it—this reads vintage. 355 W SIXTH ST | SAN PEDRO 90731 | 310.833.2949

Canetti’s Seafood Grotto
Turns out to be a metaphor for the grotto in all of us. Since 1949, Canetti’s has had a sweet little neon sign out front and interior design by Damon Runyon. The chow is basic and hearty: burgers, a rib-sticking clam chowder; meaty fish tacos with—of all things—grated carrot; and fish and chips worth remembering. Three pieces of moist cod, dunked in a flaky cornmeal batter like Mom made, but not greasy. And you get a small salad with zesty Italian dressing. 309 22ND ST | SAN PEDRO 90731 | 310.831.4036

Best of Times Antique Mall
There’s a little bit of everything here and—possibly reflecting rents—prices seem to be stuck in the ’90s. Don’t miss Popular Mechanics from the ’30s; someone’s unwise Kiss decoupage; and, scattered throughout, vintage California pottery. Also? A lower-end midcentury modern Heywood-Wakefield dinette and china hutch, each $450; and a Travelodge Sleepy Bear decanter for $85. That’ll make you hibernate—glug-glug-glug. 415 W SIXTH ST | SAN PEDRO 90731 | 310.514.3750

PHOTO by ROSHEILA ROBLES

Z Fabrique
One last stop before you ankle this slice of heaven. Z has two little cases full of gorgeous blown-glass cocktail rings that clock in under $20 apiece. There’s hard-to-find essential oils and incense that smells like this should be Mumbai. Plus Juju the ginger cat, watching the world from the threshold. As your purchases are rung up, you spy a beautiful printed silk parasol with a long shaft so it can be an umbrella. It’s $100, and pretty enough to splurge on. 421 W SIXTH ST | SAN PEDRO 90731 | 310.547.1871

Sunken City
History first, then booze. At the foot of Pacific Avenue, which is fenced because it’s a few steps from those cliffs people keep falling off of, Sunken City was once a little neighborhood of homes that, starting in ’29, began slumping toward the kelp beds in the Pacific far below. So they moved the homes and now it’s just giant slabs of lifted asphalt that were gradually graffitied in giant signatures. And, on the left, tiny plateaus of green turf, separated by gravity and populated by gophers who stick their heads up to glare at you for minutes at a time. PACIFIC AVE SOUTH OF SHEPARD ST | SAN PEDRO 90731

PHOTO by ROSHEILA ROBLES

Indian Room
Reprise: 1933 bar with a politically incorrect name and sign—a vintage neon Indian-head; a new set of owners who—except for the TVs—have had the great good sense to leave this place alone. The oaken bar is perfect, even with varnish blackened on one end by a fire years ago. It’s very spare—exposed brick and glass-brick walls; bare concrete floor, but the main walls are curvy because when they built this thing, Art Deco was a baby. Roy Orbison and Hank Williams Sr. on the jukebox. That’s all you need. 952 S PACIFIC AVE | SAN PEDRO 90731 | 310.514.3511

Papadakis Taverna
You just drank your dinner, but have a real, nice one here. Since 1973, this is to Sixth Street what Meow is to Long Beach’s Fourth Street: a white tablecloth-white napkins kind of place with some of the finest traditional Greek fare in the area. The Pasta Vassiliko is a must-have: fresh-made pasta with pine nuts, garlic, basil and chunks of sausage. To get started, there’s meze: assorted nibblies either hot or cold. We liked the cold platter because it has assorted cheeses, Greek olives—and octopus, which is always delicious. But, this being Greece, your evening may vary; there’s belly dancing, periodically, and ouzo. There’s always ouzo. 301 W SIXTH ST | SAN PEDRO 90731 | 310.548.1186

Tags: Special Issues, To Do