THE HAZE OF ST. PATRICK’S DAYS PAST

TIPSY NOSTAGLIA—OK, I’ve been sober since Halloween 1986 but I can still taste that Irish Coffee at Tom Bergin’s saloon in LA’s Wilshire District as if it were served ten minutes ago. Also, I wonder my O’Shess shamrock is still hanging up on the west wall. Will someone on Fairfax Ave. please check?

Another pub I loved crawling was Perry’s Saloon along Union Street in San Francisco. While living there as an Examiner reporter, I had a good saloon on each side of Russian Hill: Perry’s in Cow Hollow and the late, great Powell’s in North Beach. Perry’s front window table is still hard to beat on a chilly night.

Add Harry Caray’s in Chicago with my oldest son and Manhattan’s P.J. Clarke’s on my list of great bars, each with a fabulous history.

Across the pond, I had memorable Irish coffee’s at the London Playboy Club then there was the world’s most expensive martini at Harry’s Bar at the Paris Ritz hotel and a vin ordinaire seated at a small table near the stage at the Moulin Rouge. Check out the MR’s website for a fun time. http://www.moulinrouge.fr/ Ah, those Parisian’s. My investigative report from back stage was the dancers were all longer-legged Brits.

In Venice, cheers to the four Pan Am stewardesses from Frisco, who clinked flutes with me at the Danieli Hotel Lobby, only steps from the Grand Canal. We were all staying there, separate rooms, alas.

The highest I ever got on a glass of Champagne was aboard the Concorde at 60,000 ft. from London to Beirut. Lately, British Airways has a terrific tea service at 4 pm whatever cloud your Boeing 777 happens to be flying through.

The owner of Las Hadas resort in Manzanillo set up a white cloth row of tables to feed and Champagne a corps of travel writers on a bluff over looking a Pacific sunset. Hard to forget that Champagne and lobster.

Another sunset appreciated was with a bottle of local Panamanian beer on the fantail of a Royal Cruise liner through the Panama Canal. Gave a whole new meaning to lock and loaded.

While in Port Vila in the New Hebrides I shared a local punch rum drink after they saved me from drowning. Somehow, I had fallen out of the rented outrigger and fell into the lagoon. Flailing to find shore, the Kiwi couple merely pointed out: “Stand up, Yank the water’s only a meter deep.”

Speaking of Asia, I shared a gin and tonic with my imaginary friend Rudyard Barnett at the bar in the Raffles Hotel. He was curious why on earth I was wearing a wool suit in Singapore? Explanation: It was cold and wintry when I left Seattle. “The aroma of wet wool is unforgettable. You should get yourself to an Orchard Road tailor for something more equatorially suitable.”

And, as for my farewell drink, it was another flute of bubbles at the oyster bar at Pax Restaurant (long gone) in La Jolla, where my future bride suggested I’d be a great catch if I stopped drinking. Talk about Sophie’s choice. That glass of bubbly was my last. A decision and promise well kept.

Images: Internet from various websites, including the Concorde.

TOP OF THE TANK / RAISED BY A BUNGALOW

CALIFORNIA CRAFTSMAN--Our modest one story 1915 Craftsman bungalow that we immodestly call The Shess Bungalow sits on 28th Street in San Diego's historic North Park Arts & Crafts era district just a couple of cracked sidewalks away from famed Balboa Park.

Our pride and joy sits fence to hedge among more stately two-story neighbors with more impressive designer pedigrees. At birth, our one-story bungalow fell between the kit homes created by Sears and the cherished work of local icon builder and designer of the Arts & Crafts period David Owen Dryden. Its total lack of embellishments and its exuberant naïveté were its main key to survival over the years.

Our bungalow withstood well-meaning owner improvements over the years. It came into our hands 23 years ago in need of some immediate affection.

We too were naïve. We first believed we purchased an older home. Unbeknownst to us at the time we had a Craftsman bungalow, a fact we realized when we read our first issues of American Bungalow and Old House Journal magazines at the home of North Park historians Don and Karon Covington.

From that day forward we realized a Craftsman bungalow is much like a cat-it owns you and not the other way around.

So educated into the genre, our family began a love affair with our home that continues to this day. Because our home did not come with many built in adornments, we were able to choose what improvements were important to us.

Two home elements were created by my wife, Phyllis. She designed a replica of a Batchelder fireplace (using San Diego area Craftsman tile artist Laird Plumleigh and chimney builder Jim Crawford of Authentic Fireplaces)) and a guest bathroom that might have appeared originally, complete with hexagon floor tile. Our bath’s triple door built-in medicine chest is copied based on master builder David Owen Dryden’s bathroom cabinet from Della Tanner’s home two doors down. Phyllis also designed the nook table in the kitchen.

Our work, hand scraping all the lead based paint exterior and interior, replacing ruined windows and termite damage with modern period equivalents. Plus, furnishing it and accessorizing it with a comfortable mix of antique and reproductions. We beam when visitors insist that our new work appears original. And, in 2000, we were paid a huge compliment by the Save Our Heritage Organisation (Soho) when they included our 28th Street home on its popular Arts & Crafts Weekend Home tour.

A common thread in our family was the love of actually being surrounded by the heritage of our town and our neighborhood. Corny as it may be the love of restoring our home created a loving family bond. It focused us on heritage and in this shatterproof age it gave all of us the understanding that all things old are not automatically trashable.

In this old bungalow, we raised a family and our Craftsman home helped raise us.

Images: Kitchen nook and fireplace design by Phyllis Shess. Art tiles by Laird Plumleigh.

Top of the Tank is an occasional series on life in historic North Park, one of the nation's most diverse and architecturally significant neighborhoods with special emphasis on the Arts & Crafts Era (1890-1920).