Photograph by George Sakkestad
Queasy Rider: One
of the Saddle Rack's feature
attractions, the
mechanical bull, will buck its last customer when the club closes its
doors Aug. 5.
Happy
Trails
After 25 years, the legendary country & western bar and
nightclub
the Saddle Rack rides off into the sunset on August 5
By Genevieve Roja
WITH A NAME LIKE the
Saddle Rack in San Jose, the
place should
smell of earth and manure, but it doesn't. It should smell of grease
and Naughahyde, but it doesn't smell like that, either. Its patrons
should all drive Dodge Ram trucks and Chevy Suburbans--and there are
plenty of them parked four nights a week out front in the parking
lot--though there are the occasional imports.
The gals at the
Saddle Rack should look like Dolly Parton and their
clothes should shine like the studded rhinestones and sequins sewn onto
her costumes, but sometimes they kind of don't. And for every fella
sportin' a 10-gallon hat and a curlicued mustache, there's another
clean-shaven fella wearing a backward Giants baseball hat and a Hurley
T-shirt, with his thumbs locked into the belt loops of his Wranglers.
At
"The Rack," as it is nicknamed by regulars, there is a combination
of expectations and contradictions. So those making the pilgrimage to
the mecca of cowboy decadence should know that for every Dolly that
makes her way onto the dance floor, there's a J-Lo boot-scootin' right
behind her. They should know that inside the western palace--which
includes seven bars, three dance floors and two bandstands--everything
and everyone converges. There's a mechanical bull, a barber chair, a
few clients that are hair bears and honky-tonk men. There's usually a
college crowd celebrating someone's 21st birthday or the gang from some
high-tech company having off-line fun. Then there's the two-steppin'
old-timers who have been here since Day One, when the Saddle Rack
opened Aug. 13, 1976. All these friends in low places who have slipped
on down to the country oasis that is the Saddle Rack--easily one of San
Jose's greatest institutions--will gather one final time when the
Saddle Rack closes its doors August 5.
Truth vs. Fiction
THE FACT THAT the Saddle Rack is
really--no, really--shutting
down is difficult to believe. For years it had been an ongoing rumor
among Rack patrons that the bar was closing. Friends told friends, thus
feeding the rumor mill and boosting business. "The Rack's closing! We
gotta go before it closes!" "Are you sure?" some asked incredulously.
"Omigaw we have to go and find out if it's true!" Cue squeals.
General manager Andy Buchanan
laughs from the belly when he hears the
latest rumor nugget--that the Saddle Rack lost its lease, which is the
real reason why they're closing.
It couldn't be
further from the truth. The future of the Saddle Rack
changed in October 2000, when owner Hank Guenther sold the
6-and-a-half-acre property to developer KB Home. Neither the KB
representatives nor Guenther disclosed the price tag on the property,
although commercial real estate agent Brian Matteoni of Grubb and Ellis
estimates its worth at roughly $12.5 to $13 million. In February the
San Jose City Council voted to change the zoning at the Saddle Rack
site, on the southeast corner of Meridian and Auzerais avenues, from
manufacturing and commercial use to a planned development. On August 5
the capacious parking lot and club, at times resembling a supersized
version of an Alpha Beta supermarket, will turn into Midtown Plaza, a
market-rate, high density housing development with 233 condominium
units. The one-, two- and three-bedroom units will cost between
$300,000 and $400,000, and include 486 total parking spaces and a new
city park. No units priced below market-rate are being offered.
Auzerais
Avenue, the street that borders the Saddle Rack, will be blocked by two
cul-de-sacs on each end. Cars attempting to travel down the length of
Auzerais from Meridian to Race Street, and vice versa, will be blocked
by each cul-de-sac. Guenther's Rack Properties, which owns the Saddle
Rack, has agreed to build a new 48-foot-wide replacement street to the
south of the new development. New traffic signals would be added at the
intersection of the new street at Meridian and Race. The development,
part of the city's Midtown specific plan, appealed to KB Home because
it saw its potential in an area undergoing rapid redevelopment,
according to Robert Freed, KB Home president and regional manager for
Northern California.
"It's
located near transportation--the freeway, the train station, light
rail," says Freed, whose company eyed the property two years ago as an
ideal spot for high density housing. "It has good access to downtown."
For
more than 20 years, Hank Guenther has owned the property and the Rack.
Originally Guenther had come to San Jose in the late 1960s to run the
Sweden House, an all-you-can-eat smorgasbord, eventually changing the
name to Bit O' Sweden. When the restaurant business started slowing, he
successfully bought the restaurant out and opened the Saddle Rack.
Buchanan, who met and befriended Guenther at the Eastridge Ice Arena
when the two played ice hockey years before, became general manager.
Guenther's club joined the rest of the country & western bars,
including Cowtown in San Jose, the Horseshoe Club in Santa Clara and
the Silver Saddle in Morgan Hill, the Rio Grande in Mtn. View, and
Cheers in Sunnyvale. All have since closed and with the demise of the
Saddle Rack, the sole surviving country & western venue in the Bay
Area is Cadillac Ranch in Concord. Still, there's hope for the Saddle
Rack possibly relocating.
"We will reopen," Buchanan told
Metro last week. "I don't know when,
but we will reopen."
Asked
if the new location meant staying in San Jose, Buchanan replied,
"Obviously, we've been in the community for 25 years, so we'd like to
stay here. That'd be our number one choice."
The
famous neon sign might not make the move, as well as some of the other
Saddle Rack memorabilia, such as the electric chandeliers, wagon wheels
and split wooden fences that adorn the bars.
"I
think he's [Guenther] trying to sell it all," Buchanan says. "I think,"
he pauses, "let's put it this way. He's got something where he's got it
locked for someone to buy the whole thing, to buy the name, the whole
bit."
Cowboy Mystique
BEYOND THE RUMOR MILL,
a John Travolta vehicle
released in 1980 and called Urban Cowboy
helped feed the Saddle Rack machine. Until then, the bar had been
another player in the country & western bar scene, but with the
cool factor associated with the movie, everyone shimmied into the
Saddle Rack. In the same way that another Travolta film, Saturday
Night Fever, catapulted disco dancing into America's nocturnal
pastime, Urban Cowboy introduced
two-stepping and mechanical bull riding into San Jose's vernacular.
Audiences could come to the Saddle Rack and live vicariously like Bud
and Sissy Davis night after night. The film was a hit and so, too, was
the Rack.
"At the time the
movie came out, it moved from a little country bar
into a massive, and I mean massive, country bar," Buchanan
says.
Beginning
in 1981, the Saddle Rack hosted live shows and concerts featuring
singers and rockers--heavy metal and country--on the way up and on the
way down, Buchanan says. Over the years, they've booked such acts as
James Brown, B.B. King, Garth Brooks, Huey Lewis, Roy Orbison, the
Charlie Daniels Band, Johnny Cash, Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn, Martina
McBride and an all-star roster of other bands and singers. And it's not
all Texas-style bragging. Inside Guenther's office, just like in the
movie where Wes attempts to rob Gilley's (which inspired Guenther's
Rack), wood-framed photos of celebrity singers line the faux
wood-paneled walls.
Guenther
turned up the cowboy mystique when he incorporated a bull pen--yes,
live bulls--in the back corner, where the dance floor closest to the
bathroom now stands, around 1982. The story sounds familiar. On a busy
Thursday night, Patty Gergel, 22 and a recent graduate of San Jose
State University, tells her group of friends that she heard a rumor
about the bulls.
"They got loose and started running on 280,"
she tells her sorority
sisters.
"Shut up!" one of them screams.
"It ran on
Meridian, not 280," says Buchanan, clarifying the rumor
later that night.
Was
it all the bulls?
"Just one. It jumped over a 10-foot fence. That was amazing
to see. An
1,800-pound bull jumping the fence."
An
automobile traveling on Meridian hit the bull and ended its spree of
freedom. The bull arena didn't last much longer and in 1984, after
their insurance company said they wouldn't cover it, Guenther shut it
down. These days, the mechanical bull is one of the largest draws, with
many just-turned-21, it's-my-birthday gonzos tanked on liquid courage
lining up for a crack at it. (Wednesday bull riders pay $1; Thursday is
free and Fridays and Saturdays is $2.) First, everyone must sign a
waiver acknowledging that they will not hold the Saddle Rack liable for
any injuries incurred. When one girl hops on--flanked in stiletto heels
(stiletto heels!)--it's easy to see why it's a necessary agent. After
several practice rounds, the bull ride operator begins testing the
speed settings, so that people get bucked up, out, sideways, butt first
into the soft mat. Friday and Saturday nights, Patty and her sorority
sisters--Stephanie Sutton, 21, Michele Panzica, 21, and Ola Samuels,
22--know better than to line up for a ride unless it's a special
occasion. Everyone watches the bull riders, cheering and clapping for
the sure-footed, sturdier types who have either ridden a lot of horses
in their lifetime or must have groins of steel.
"It's
a really eclectic crowd," says Sutton, referring to the mix of
downtowners, urban cowboys and Silicon Valley techies. She dismisses
the bar's reputation as a "meat market," as it was widely known during
the club's peak years in the late '80s and early '90s.
"There's
gentlemen in here," Panzica says. "They ask you to dance, they walk us
to the dance floor and walk us back to our seat."
What's
valued here, Sutton says, are guys that dance well. Upon seeing some
Marlboro man ride the bull, Sutton coos, "Oh, here's one going on now."
All
four girls crane their necks to watch a piece of vintage Americana, a
cowboy sexpot caught in the white spotlight, camel-colored cowboy hat,
fitted long-sleeve shirt and ass-tight jeans burning in the brightness.
A cold Budweiser for their thoughts?
"It's
like having sex," says Samuels on how to stay on the bull, as she
gyrates in her seat as if she were trying to keep an invisible hula
hoop going. "It's, like, sloooooooooow."
"Is that going to be in the
paper?" Patty asks.
"Oh no!" the
girls groan. Down by the bull, a bartender just rang the
bell, a celebratory response to someone who has just downed a shot
while seated in the Margaritaville barber chair. While explaining how
line dancers know which steps to accompany which song (it's determined
by the tempo and a brave floor leader), Samuels gets plucked from her
chair by the notorious, seventysomething Steve. Steve is one of the
Rack's enigmatic regulars who doesn't sit down long enough for a
conversation. Entertain his dancing fancy and maybe he'll talk. But
when he's asked why he's come for 10 years straight, every night on his
bicycle, he smiles slyly, "I'll never tell." And with one look at
Samuels and his right arm extended, they walk off together toward the
dance floor.
Photograph by George Sakkestad
End of the Line: Two-steppers and line dancers will
have to groove elsewhere after Aug. 5.
True Heart
MORE SO than their
tricycle races, in which adults
on children's
trikes pedaled through an obstacle course, and line dancers shuffling
to "Achy Breaky Heart," the heart of the Saddle Rack is the music. The
house band, Wild at Heart, has played every night for 10 years,
changing its repertoire from time to time to accommodate the slew of
contemporary, pop, country and country crossover hits like Shania
Twain's "Man I Feel Like a Woman," the Corrs' "Breathless" and yes,
even Britney's "Hit Me Baby One More Time." Every Wednesday and
Thursday evening, patrons can sign up for open mic and sing, no holds
barred, backed by Wild at Heart. But one of the reasons why it is so
beloved by country music fans is that this is one of few venues where
they can hear live country music. For years now, the Saddle Rack has
partnered up with KEEN, KSAN, KYCY and currently San Jose's KRTY,
promoting the concerts and shows at the Saddle Rack and at the
surrounding arenas and musical venues. After every major concert at
Shoreline or Compaq Center (formerly San Jose Arena), fans gather for
the post-show at the Saddle Rack. And on several occasions, the talent
from those shows comes too, guitar and microphone in hand.
Following
a big Brooks and Dunn show May 5 at Shoreline, the show continued at
the Saddle Rack, when Brooks and Dunn, Montgomery Gentry and Toby Keith
jammed onstage for a while, says Nate Deaton, marketing director and
assistant program director for KRTY, which co-sponsors vocalist
contests and prize giveaways. "That was very cool."
"I
love country music," says Sutton, who rode the bull on her 21st and
nursed her groin the next day. "It's the best place to sing and dance
to country music."
And
without a place like the Saddle Rack serving as a showcase for upcoming
talent, it's not likely that there will be another venue quite like it.
"Country
music is a viable genre in Santa Clara County," says KRTY's Deaton.
"I'm sure, in a short period of time, a couple of clubs that open up
will have country music nights. But no matter what it is, it's not
going to be the same. The Saddle Rack's legendary."
So
as the weeks and memories become more precious, and longtime employees
ponder where they'll work next, the Saddle Rack family holds tight for
now.
"For me, it's
been a fantastic run," says Buchanan about all the
memories he's accumulated in the last 25 years. "I really enjoy it; I
still really enjoy it. Otherwise I wouldn't still be here."
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