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Surf Lounge
Surf Club
The Surf Lounge started out as the Surf Club on the old coast highway at Mussel Rock(which later became the city dump) by John Arenguena in 1952, who owned it for a 2 years before turning the business over on September 18, 1954 to Dave and Helen Wright, along with their two sons Don and Vern. They moved the club to Waterford street, East Edgemar. The club offered buffet dinners, and "Krazy Cocktails". Their slogan was "Where You Are A Stranger But Once!".
The Surf Club participated in charitable community activities, which carried over when the Wrights moved their Surf Club to 77 Aura Vista, in the Pacific Manor Shopping Center in 1961, re-naming the business: "Surf Lounge". The largest charity that local businesses competed in and contributed to was the March of Dimes, President FDR's creation of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, better known as March of imes. They pioneered the vaccine research leading to the eradication of polio in the U.S., and later expanded their mission to address issues of birth defects. Surf Lounge won for the highest contribution in 1975, raising $700. for the charity.
Surf Lounge also competed with other local businesses in golf, bowling and football. The lounge was a sports bar with a surfing theme, and a large aquarium. Unlike the Surf Club, there was no buffet, or food offered (unless beer nuts qualifies). But like any tavern, there were the colorful characters and incidents long the way - burglaries - few of which were successful, because of the difficulty reaking into the Aura Vista location - liquor sales to underage persons, a small fire (extinguished) and an 8-day closure due to backed-up city sewage, where the lounge had to clean up and install new carpets. After Dave and Helen retired, then Don and wife Joan took over the business.
In 1992, Don and Joan Wright retired, and sold the business to Larry Bohne and Bob Harrington. Bob was a longtime Pacifica resident who had been retired for seven years when he had the idea to purchase the Surf Lounge. It all began one night when Harrington chatted with bartender Larry Bohne in another local cocktail lounge. The discovered they shared an interest in going into business. They wound up partners in a transaction which made them proprietors of the venerable lounge. Both have had bartending experience, but both have been involved in other endeavors. Harrington spent 34 years in data systems and computers for the U.S. Defense Department at Fort Mason and Oakland. Bohne had been an insurance man, a security salesman and a travel agent, and spent time in the Merchant Marines out of Lincoln High School. He bar tended off and on for several years, the last two at Winter's. Harrington, 61, and Bohne, 42, shared the tricks at the Surf with bartenders Ben Hodges and Steve Girard, another pair of veterans in the field. They had special events at the Surf, including one for John Folger, who worked for 27 years at the Surf Lounge when it was owned by Don and Joan Wright. The new owners made some improvements, and with their experience had seendrastic changes in the bar business through the years.Their policy became one to caution patrons to drink in moderation and strongly urged them when necessary to call a taxicab for transportation. Harrington observed that it was "a lot less expensive" than two days in jail, the loss of a license for four months or so and an average fine of $1,200. In 1993, Larry and Bob made their business "Sur Lounge Incorporated".
In 1996, Larry Bohne left the Surf Lounge to open up his own business, called "Dallas' Place,which merged with "Spanky's restaurant, referred to as "Spanky's and Dallas' Place". Harrington continued working at the Surf Lounge until his death in 2003.
In 2002, Don Wright died of natural causes at age 74
In 2003, Bob Harrington died after an illness at age 72 .
On May 11, 2010, John Folger died in Maui. He was 70.