Patrons Drink, Hoist Glasses to Toast Benicia
By Corey Lyons
Contra Costa Newspapers
Feb. 9, 2003
BENICIA -- It's the little beer bar with a sweeping view of the Carquinez Strait, a waterfront watering hole offering slabs of gravy-smothered meatloaf and cold Bud.
But Cliff's Pleasant View, which sits on a knoll above the Ninth Street dock, is serving its last round of raucous good cheer.
After 36 years, the pub and the prime property on which it sits are for sale.
The $2.2 million asking price is indicative of a glorious view that follows a ribbon of milky green waters under a bridge and to a vanishing point.
No one knows what will become of Cliff's, which operates out of a former grocery store building. Some say it may be razed in favor of condo units or replaced by a spectacular house.
In any case, the prospect of a true "last call" here is leaving the regulars feeling a little nostalgic. "I'm devastated. Where we gonna go?" asked Jerri Davis, who moved back to Benicia from Los Angeles a year ago and found renewed comfort at Cliff's.
"Mostly, we don't socialize outside the bar," she added, sipping an iced tea at the front counter. "This place is like an extension of the family."
Cliff's occupies a small building that looks like a rundown house near a leaning lamp post. Christmas lights dangle above a front window.
Inside, manager Valerie Seiffert serves piping-hot bowls of fresh chili, piles of meatloaf, French dip, cold brew, even advice for the down and out.
"They let it all hang out in here," said Seiffert, a jovial woman in a pair of oversized eyeglasses.
It was her late husband, Willie Seiffert, and her brother, Ed Zabaszkiewicz, who bought the tiny former grocery store and opened a pub in 1967.
"It was just a little beer bar -- five for a dollar, in fact," said Valerie Seiffert, who has worked behind the counter since the early 1970s. "We didn't even have wine in those days."
The wine started flowing in 1977 after a license was procured. It led to a quickly implemented store policy: Cliff's would no longer be open New Year's Eve.
"People didn't know how to stop drinking," Seiffert said of the Dec. 31 experiment. "The first year we had our wine license,
five minutes after midnight guys were beating each other up with empty wine bottles."
It's been a mostly pleasant place since.
"You don't have to worry about anything in here. You can get messed up without worrying about gettin' in a fight," said Vance Mayton, a disabled construction worker.
Folks have come in for giant crab feeds, pool tournaments, to help peel potatoes in the cramped kitchen or for live entertainment -- courtesy of a few drunks with a sharp wit.
The joint's late-night meals, good company and famed views have drawn a wide cast of characters, including refinery workers, laborers, retirees, fishermen, doctors and drifters.
"It used to be all blue-collar types. Then, guys with ties," said Seiffert, a Chicago native now in her 60s. Seiffert has continued to manage the bar, even after it was no longer owned by her family.
On a recent day, a retired teacher working on a book about the history of time sat near a mother and her daughter who came in for meatloaf to beat the lunch crowd.
Don Georgetti, a sales manager for Budweiser who supplies Cliff's with its favorite drink, sat down for lunch.
"Look at the view," he said, pointing out the window. "You can fish down there, sunbathe over there and windsurf right there."
Cliff's went up for sale in October. One written offer ended without a deal.
The owners told Seiffert that they wanted more time to travel, that the time was just right.
Located in a residential area, the 2-acre property at 850 West Ninth St. includes a mixed-use zone, meaning the parcel on which the restaurant sits can be used for a house or a business. Or both.
"We're bummed. We're really bummed," said Shelley Marksbury, who moved into a longtime family house next door with her husband, John. "They've got the greatest food."
Whatever fate awaits Cliff's, though, no doubt its heralded view will be spared.
Contra Costa Newspapers
Feb. 9, 2003
BENICIA -- It's the little beer bar with a sweeping view of the Carquinez Strait, a waterfront watering hole offering slabs of gravy-smothered meatloaf and cold Bud.
But Cliff's Pleasant View, which sits on a knoll above the Ninth Street dock, is serving its last round of raucous good cheer.
After 36 years, the pub and the prime property on which it sits are for sale.
The $2.2 million asking price is indicative of a glorious view that follows a ribbon of milky green waters under a bridge and to a vanishing point.
No one knows what will become of Cliff's, which operates out of a former grocery store building. Some say it may be razed in favor of condo units or replaced by a spectacular house.
In any case, the prospect of a true "last call" here is leaving the regulars feeling a little nostalgic. "I'm devastated. Where we gonna go?" asked Jerri Davis, who moved back to Benicia from Los Angeles a year ago and found renewed comfort at Cliff's.
"Mostly, we don't socialize outside the bar," she added, sipping an iced tea at the front counter. "This place is like an extension of the family."
Cliff's occupies a small building that looks like a rundown house near a leaning lamp post. Christmas lights dangle above a front window.
Inside, manager Valerie Seiffert serves piping-hot bowls of fresh chili, piles of meatloaf, French dip, cold brew, even advice for the down and out.
"They let it all hang out in here," said Seiffert, a jovial woman in a pair of oversized eyeglasses.
It was her late husband, Willie Seiffert, and her brother, Ed Zabaszkiewicz, who bought the tiny former grocery store and opened a pub in 1967.
"It was just a little beer bar -- five for a dollar, in fact," said Valerie Seiffert, who has worked behind the counter since the early 1970s. "We didn't even have wine in those days."
The wine started flowing in 1977 after a license was procured. It led to a quickly implemented store policy: Cliff's would no longer be open New Year's Eve.
"People didn't know how to stop drinking," Seiffert said of the Dec. 31 experiment. "The first year we had our wine license,
five minutes after midnight guys were beating each other up with empty wine bottles."
It's been a mostly pleasant place since.
"You don't have to worry about anything in here. You can get messed up without worrying about gettin' in a fight," said Vance Mayton, a disabled construction worker.
Folks have come in for giant crab feeds, pool tournaments, to help peel potatoes in the cramped kitchen or for live entertainment -- courtesy of a few drunks with a sharp wit.
The joint's late-night meals, good company and famed views have drawn a wide cast of characters, including refinery workers, laborers, retirees, fishermen, doctors and drifters.
"It used to be all blue-collar types. Then, guys with ties," said Seiffert, a Chicago native now in her 60s. Seiffert has continued to manage the bar, even after it was no longer owned by her family.
On a recent day, a retired teacher working on a book about the history of time sat near a mother and her daughter who came in for meatloaf to beat the lunch crowd.
Don Georgetti, a sales manager for Budweiser who supplies Cliff's with its favorite drink, sat down for lunch.
"Look at the view," he said, pointing out the window. "You can fish down there, sunbathe over there and windsurf right there."
Cliff's went up for sale in October. One written offer ended without a deal.
The owners told Seiffert that they wanted more time to travel, that the time was just right.
Located in a residential area, the 2-acre property at 850 West Ninth St. includes a mixed-use zone, meaning the parcel on which the restaurant sits can be used for a house or a business. Or both.
"We're bummed. We're really bummed," said Shelley Marksbury, who moved into a longtime family house next door with her husband, John. "They've got the greatest food."
Whatever fate awaits Cliff's, though, no doubt its heralded view will be spared.
posted by Corey at 3:18 PM
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