San Diego Unseen: An Urban Portrait
Scot Blair, owner of Hamilton’s tavern, Small Bar and Eleven, is expanding his bar-restaurant fiefdom to Downtown. He confirmed to CityBeat that he’s signed a lease for the East Village space that formerly housed The Jewel Box and is currently working to turn it into a pub called Monkey Paw.
Monkey Paw is expected to open within the next three months. Blair also plans to open a brewery on site, but he says that won’t be finished until later this year. He’s gutted the place and plans to give it an old-world-pub look—“but not theme-y and not shtick-y,” he says—with a dark-wood-and-brick décor. The menu will include craft beer, cocktails, cheese-steaks and hot wings.
“It won’t be a dive bar, like The Jewel Box was before, but it also won’t be a stuffy Downtown bar,” he says.
The Jewel Box closed last October, and Simcal Properties Inc., the building’s Coronado-based landlord, opened the space to Blair several months ago. Holly Peterson, The Jewel Box’s owner, says she still has her liquor license and plans to reopen the storied dive at a new location.
Tin Can Ale House is launching a monthly series centered on the guitar.
Trve Friends: A Night of Rare Guitar Performances will feature touring acts and local musicians and highlight a range of styles, but acoustic-guitar-strumming balladeers need not apply. “The idea is very basic and open to individual interpretation. The only stricture will be that the performances are guitar-centric,” says Joshua Blatch ley, a local guitarist who’s helping book the series. “For example, vocals are not prohibited, but singer-songwriters will not make an appearance.” The showcase will go down on the 26th of each month from June through December. Blatchley will perform under the name White Shrine on Sunday, June 26. Rollerblade, Feather Jacket and Mystic Myths will also play.
Reggae-rockers Jet West will perform at the annual Rock to Stop Violence fund-raiser at House of Blues on Thursday, June 23. Proceeds from a silent auction will go to the Chadwick Center for Children & Families, a child-advocacy group and trauma-treatment center at Rady Children’s Hospital. Four other bands will play, and DJ Layla will spin tunes.
