Wednesday, September 7, 2011

The Pegasus

One of the more interesting "not here anymore" places at the Port -- the Pegasus Restaurant -- opened in 1962 on El Embarcardero, just down the street from the former location of the Port's administration building.

The restaurant was located in a $215,000 structure that also housed the wharfinger's office, the security office and space for the Coast Guard and U.S. Customs, and unlike those offices, the Pegasus featured lingerie-clad waitresses serving beer at 5 in the morning.

We only could find one real reference to the Pegasus online, which was a post by Nancy Ellison on a blog called "One for the Table" that offers a taste of the Pegasus' atmosphere in later years:
"The smell of cigarettes and beer was the first aroma that greeted me as I entered the plate glass windowed 1950’s style roadside cafĂ© in the heart of the docks.  The neon lights and lit beer signs offered an odd, alien contrast against the warm glow of the rising sun which rose behind the oil pumps on the road coming in. "

You can read the rest of that article -- which features a great interior photo of the restaurant -- here.

Photos of the Pegasus in the Port archives are pretty scarce; we'd love to see more of the interior and hear some stories, so if you have any memories or photos please share them with us.

The restaurant closed sometime around 1993, and the building is gone now; the property is part of the ongoing Middle Harbor development.

Click here for more photos.