LUNCH CLUB: AFTER DARK AT THE GALLEY
Photos by Barry Stein
By Bob Vickrey
After living in L.A. for almost 40 years, I find myself constantly reminded that we live in the shadow of the Hollywood sign.
Such was the case recently while watching a television rerun of the 1999 movie “The Cider House Rules.” I was once again completely engaged by this unique film, when suddenly my Palisades neighbor Colin Irving appeared on-screen during a dramatic turning point in the story.
I was aware that he had appeared in several movies in his younger years, but I had not yet met him when the movie was initially released. It occurred to me that the former actor—turned fitness guru—would be a perfect candidate to join our lunch club for our November trip to The Galley in Santa Monica.
Since The Galley is only open for dinner on weekdays, we decided to make this our first-ever evening event. This funky seafaring-themed restaurant opened in 1934, and is the oldest restaurant and bar in Santa Monica.
“Captain” Ron Schur has been at the helm for the last three decades and prides himself on The Galley’s personal service. There are four dining rooms, as well as the South Seas Bar and patio decorated with fishing nets and seashells, and of course—the requisite sawdust on the floor.
But it’s the Christmas lights that are draped on the ceiling and walls throughout the restaurant that give the place a warm cozy feeling and creates such a festive atmosphere. The Galley has always catered to the local crowd and has been a favorite nighttime watering hole and dinner spot for decades. In fact; I’m betting several of those older “sailors” at the bar haven’t been home in months.
I could sense that Colin is rather modest about his short-lived career as an actor. He appeared in “Dead Poets Society” in 1989, but he most appreciates the shared creative experience of acting in three films based on books written by his father, the acclaimed novelist John Irving. Colin’s first role was in “The World According to Garp,” based on his dad’s landmark bestseller in 1978. “The Cider House Rules” eventually earned his father an Oscar in 2000 for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Special guest Colin Irving and our Galley server Gomez (Go-Go).
Colin took a major career turn in 2006, when he commissioned two engineers to prototype a cycling-related concept he had developed as a teenager. Long days spent training on stationary bikes during the long, snowy Vermont winters of his youth had inspired him to create a more realistic cycling trainer—a stationary bike that could be leaned and steered like an outdoor bike.
Years later, developing the prototype would lead to forming the company he co-founded and currently operates, RealRyder International. His bikes can now be found in homes, health clubs, and military bases throughout the world.
Colin had eaten at The Galley a half-dozen times, which equaled about the same number of my trips there. Arnie revealed he had never been. When we asked Barry how often he’d been there, he said “Oh, maybe a thousand times.” So, let’s mark this trip down as number one thousand-one!
When we arrived, I watched Arnie’s face light up like a young boy when he took in the bright glow of the Christmas lights that filled the room. I reminded him that these lights were permanent fixtures throughout the year. Every night is Christmas at The Galley.
As we perused the menu, we were reminded that the restaurant is known for its seafood specialties, and its steaks that are big enough to satisfy a lumberjack’s appetite. We began with their garlic bread that came with a generous-sized dish of marinara dipping sauce. Barry ordered fried calamari for the table. After munching on the bread and our appetizer for half an hour, we decided we should save room for dinner.
Arnie ordered the blackened salmon salad, while I went with the seared Ahi tuna that came with a terrific cilantro-scallion sauce. Barry ordered a jumbo-sized shrimp cocktail and a dinner salad, and Colin opted for blackened scallops with a side of asparagus.
Meanwhile, the bread kept arriving and we kept dipping. In fact, Arnie may have set an all-time Galley record for most garlic bread consumed in one sitting. I’ve heard of pie eating contests, but if there is a competition for bread-eating, we may have a winner.
We halted the bread-fest long enough to chow down on a slice of great key lime pie, plus a rather intimidating giant wedge of chocolate cake that presented a formidable challenge. But despite the odds, we accepted the challenge—and we conquered!
Maybe it was just the overall effect of the Christmas lights, but I left The Galley that night humming “Jingle Bells,” which made me wonder if customers who go there in mid-June, also leave humming Christmas carols. Maybe we should just come back then and find out.
Bob Vickrey is a writer whose columns appear in the Houston Chronicle, the Palisades News, and the Waco Tribune-Herald. He lives in Pacific Palisades, California.
Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Honey on the road to San Francisco with some of the Spanish explorers
NOTES FROM ABOVE GROUND
By Honey van Blossom
(Honey is a Belgian Marxist former strip-tease artiste)
"Cities of the Golden Gate," Raymond Dabb Yelland, 1893. Most illustrations can be enlarged by clicking on them.
Prologue to the story of the Spanish exploration and settlement of California
Seasonal migrations of animals now extinct in California probably created the roads the native people used before the Spanish land exploration of California. “The heyday of giant mammals in North America was the middle and late Pleistocene, an epoch that started 2.6 million years ago and ended 11,700 years ago, around the time the Earth was thawing out from the Ice Age. The gigantic beasts, which migrated from Asia across a now-vanished land bridge called Beringia, are known as Rancholabrean megafauna, after the famous La Brea tar pits in downtown Los Angeles — the graveyard of thousands of saber-toothed tigers, giant bison and other extinct animals.”[1]
The seasonal migrations of the large mammals may have created the substantial roads used by the indigenous people after their arrival.[2]
Paul S. Martin and Richard G. Klein argue that Paleoindian over-hunting led to the extinction of the megafauna.[3] Others argue that climate change was responsible for mammoth and mastodon extinctions. As the last major glaciation ended around 12,000 years ago, climate warmed too quickly for the megafauna to adapt.
