The other day we asked for some good fancy cocktail-related anecdotes, and this one, one of the highlights, takes a wild look back in time:
I once sauntered into the legendary Odeon Bar (where the Knockout is now) and asked Flash the bartender to make me the fanciest fancy cocktail he knew.
He poured me a shot of Fernet, then he hopped up on the bar, dropped his pants, put a lit bottle rocket between his cheeks and fired it clear across the room.
RIP that place, am I right?
[The above photo, of Flash behind the bar at the Odeon, by Mike Kepka of the Chronicle, was the first result of an image search for "odeon bar mission sf ca"]
 and asked Flash the bartender to make me the fanciest fancy cocktail he knew. He poured me […]</p>
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I used to have a monthly party there called The Monsters of Yoyo:
http://odeonbar.tribe.net/thread/a7057dbe-7dbf-46b8-8e3d-154a73ba3219
You’ve come a long way, baby.
Were you the guy who used to show vintage 16mm yo-yo movies from the attic of the Attic? Probably predates your event by about 5–6 years.
Yup, that was me. I had turned 21 and yoyos were my world.
Remember before it was the Knockout or the Odeon or the Brickhouse and it was just the NiteClub and normal people went there to party with their friends? Yeah, neither does anyone else.
yeah, Prohibition was a bitch too.
They know not of what they speak.
Tell us about it, native.
I remember! Rick and Debbie owned it. I played for their pool team.
Odeon was a great bar. I miss it muchly.
You can always go to Burning Man to relive the days of yore.
I don’t want to be at the Odeon with 49,999 other people.
It was a comment like this that made me realize we had a mutual friend by the name of Ssurr Distick.
I’m sort of surprised that nobody has mentioned that Chicken John owned the Odeon.
Yup. One of his better projects.
Thank god the Odeon is no more. That Chicken John is a sad, tired fucking doucheburner. Glad he disappeared into his dark hole of dirty cyber hippie orgies and fringe “election” candidacies.
Naw.
You know.. you can dislike Chicken, you can hate cyber-hippies… but you cannot say anything bad about the Odeon, it damn well was the best bar in the city ten years ago.
Then you didn’t go to many bars ten years ago.
I did, and Kiya’s right.
I dunno if it was my favorite bar, but it was definitely one of them.
to speak this way about about the man named chicken is of coarse logical
but, if you sir are unaware of the benefits a community has on a common enemy then you sir have have missed the point entirely .
Cosigned…too many drogas.
richard branson was a bartender at the odeon?
go figure. i always knew he was in to butt rockets.
I used to tend bar at the Odeon. I fucking loved that place. Loved it so much, I wrote this about it:
http://lastcallsf.com/2009/06/29/nope/
Giving my love to everybody who remembers.. because you were there, you were wonderful and it wouldn’t have been the same without you.
So if THAT story didn’t win the cocktail-anecdote contest…. which one did?
I once got my dick sucked onstage there at karaoke during the bridge of cyndi laupers “girls just wanna have fun” while the crowd looked on in various faces of shock, horror and amusement. I got off stage right as the final verse kicked in and the girl finished the song. Chicken gave me a free round. I also got shot in the face with a bottle rocket there while singing “American trilogy” by Elvis and got a free round for that too.
The Odeon. We squeezed a lot of living in those 5 short years…
Shout out to Will F! Hey, I really really want you to hate me more. It pleases me so. Just fills me with joy. Thanks for making my day.
Jenner I gave you that job because I trusted you. You weren’t too cool, you werent’ trying to prove anything and you didn’t have any pre-conceived notion of what was happening (which means you won’t be disappointed and quit). As far as I’m concerned we all did the Odeon for you. You were the one who probably got the most out of it.
There was a dark side to the Odeon… booze and drugs took a few good people down. I’ll never own another bar. It’s dirty money. But there were some magical nights. It was a factory that manufactured a product. That product was “anything can happen”. And sometimes that’s exatcly what went down. When it worked it worked like nothign else.
But many of you don’t know that 3 or 4 nights a week, the Odeon was complely empty. Many shows were devoid of any audience but me. Or Jenner. I still paid everyone. Of course. But it was hard. I was a plumber during the day.
I swept that sidewalk 1,500 times.
It seems so long ago…
chicken
Thanks for everything, Chicken. You were a great guy to work for, and the Odeon will always be the best job I ever had.
See you at the wedding party!
This thread makes me very glad to live in SF.
Awesome. Fernet and Butt Rocket is indeed the fanciest cocktail. Does Flash bartend anywhere these days?
I’ve seen Flash serving at Butter occasionally, but I think those are one-offs.
The Odeon is about three blocks from my house. I used to love going to the Chris Karney show on Sundays. As for Chicken John… I greatly appreciate everything he does to make San Francisco more interesting.
I SO miss the Odeon. Particularly Monday’s Bad Karaoke Night. I would always go on as “The Other Brian”, because the REAL Brian was just too amazing. He was this incredibly sweet, but clearly developmentally challenged guy who would get on stage and mumble vaguely coherent sounds to a wide variety of pop songs. It was utterly blissful.
Then there was the time I sang NIN’s Closer while wearing a full bunny outfit. I miss that place so much… Thanks Chicken.
I used to go to the Odeon every Sunday for a year or more to see “The Visceral Variety Show” which was hosted by Scot Nery and Chris Carney (With the occasional assist from Funny Frank Olivier)
Here’s how much I loved that place – I don’t drink! I never have. I know I didn’t personally give much, financially, to the place. I was poor as fuck! But I did my best to get friends in there every week to try and make up for it.
I remember when I left for Portland, Scot and Chicken brought me up on stage and they passed the hat for me to help me in my new life. I cried. I was overwhelmed. I got a clown nose and a Canadian Five-Dollar bill.
The Extreme Elvis Christmas show with all the snow. Miss that place!
The Odeon was def one of the best bars SF has ever been home too, and thanks to Chicken John for that, because I know it was not easy. I especially miss my time there as part of the Chris Karney Show and The Surreal Avengers. Then there were shows with The Barfedders acoustic and also The Stunning Cunts,but maybe that was the Brickhouse days. Too many drinks to remember!
I know Flash, but I never had heard this story before! Very entertaining article, Thank You! He is a man who is deft with rebuttal. He pours at lots of places, places that I would not want to recommend.