The legendary Coach House Concert Hall in San Juan Capistrano turns 45!
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Good morning. It’s Wednesday, May 7. I’m Gabriel San Román, happily lurching over my laptop and bringing you this week’s TimesOC newsletter with a look at some of the latest local news and events from around the county.
A hidden office strip off the 5 Freeway in San Juan Capistrano seems like an unlikely home for the Coach House Concert Hall, a legendary music venue celebrating its 45th anniversary this year.
But through the doors, a transformation occurs as the Coach House immerses music lovers in its quirky, saloon-style quarters, an homage to its origins in 1980 as a country music steakhouse.
It’s where owner Gary Folgner, 84, has entertained Orange County with an array of musical acts — from Grammy-winning to up-and-coming artists — for decades.
In marking the milestone, TimesOC feature writer Sarah Mosqueda toured the Coach House, a venue she tells me she frequented in her younger days to see bands like The Lemonheads and Bullets and Octane.
Folgner first boasted to Mosqueda about the Coach House kitchen, which serves 300 dinners a night, before delving into the storied venue’s history.
As he retold it, Folgner bought the Coach House for $52,000 and ran it as a country music bar. When the legendary Golden Bear rock ‘n’ roll club in Huntington Beach closed six years later, Folgner absorbed their concert schedule and the rest, as they say, is history.
The walls of the Coach House attest to that and are adorned with photographs of famous acts that have graced its stage over the decades.
Miles Davis, Pat Benetar, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Norah Jones, Joan Baez and BB King round out a list of legends too long to republish here.
For Folgner, hospitality is everything while hosting the greats.
“When national acts are on the road, this is their home for the day,” Folgner told Mosqueda. “If you don’t treat them well, they are going to have bad day.”
Glancing at the portraits unlocks the wealth of stories the venue has collected within its walls.
Folgner recalled Debbie Reynolds’ performance at the venue in 2016 two days before Carrie Fisher, her daughter, passed away. Reynolds died one day after.
When Chris Isaak first played the Coach House, he made $1,500.
Many more memories are on the way as Folgner celebrates 45 years in the business with a Coach House Concert Hall Celebratory Concert Series that began last month and carries through to the end of the year.
Don McLean of “American Pie” fame is scheduled to perform June 14. On Oct. 3, Wayne Newton takes a break from his Las Vegas residency at Bugsy’s Cabaret at Flamingo to grace the stage in San Juan Capistrano.
The series is set to culminate in a main event that remains unannounced for now.
Whatever show patrons decide to celebrate with, Folgner prides himself on the Coach House’s intimate setting where the furthest seat from the stage is still only 40-feet away.
As the anniversary festivities take place, expect more of the same excellence that has helped the Coach House define Orange County’s music scene for decades.
“We are not going to change a whole lot. We are going to try to keep the big name entertainment here,” Folgner said. “That’s what we do.”
MORE NEWS
• Not long after Cypress City Council honored its City Manager Peter Grant for his service did a former department head beg to differ. Doug Dancs, Cypress’ onetime Public Works Director, surfaced at the April 28 city council meeting and called for Grant to be fired during public comments. He accused his former boss of “unlawful acts of misconduct” before City Atty. Fred Galante stepped in and cautioned against any further comment. Dancs left the meeting without detailing his accusations. Since then, TimesOC obtained a $183,000 separation agreement between Cypress and Dancs, which has a confidentiality clause but also doesn’t prevent Dancs from talking about unlawful acts in the workplace.
• A subscriber exclusive in the Los Angeles Times details the Orange County origins of the white supremacist Public Enemy No. 1 gang and how the Aryan Brotherhood used O.C. neo-Nazi punks to grow their influence. Dominic Rizzo and Donald Mazza came up with the PEN1 name while, ironically, listening to Rudimentary Peni, an anarcho-punk band, one day in 1982. An attempted murder in Stanton in 1999 sent the pair to the California Institute for Men in Chino. From there, Aryan Brotherhood leaders recognized PEN1’s reputation and recruited the pair, which testimony and court documents detailed after a string of crimes.
• It’s safe to go into the water again! After a weekend of closures, the Daily Pilot’s Sara Cardine reports that a half-mile stretch of beach between Huntington Beach and Newport Beach got the OK from Orange County Health Care Agency officials to reopen on Monday. Nearly 4,000 gallons of sewage spilled from a line in Costa Mesa causing bacteria levels in the ocean to rise to unsafe levels. But quick work vacuuming the spill and testing ocean waters allowed swimmers and surfers to return.
PUBLIC SAFETY & CRIME
• John Tamahere McCabe of Hawaii pleaded guilty to scamming an elderly Irvine man out of $1.8 million, according to City News Service. McCabe offered to help the 78-year-old man sell off his yacht but falsified documents to transfer ownership to himself, instead. From there, he pocketed the money from the sale and spent it on himself. McCabe also convinced the elderly man to transfer ownership of his $1-million Irvine home to a company he controlled. Drained of its equity, McCabe defaulted on loans and foreclosed on the house, which left his victim homeless. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 16.
• An RV park in Anaheim turned violent on Sunday when a man struck people with his vehicle, opened fire on them and turned the gun on himself. Paramedics transferred three people, including the gunman, to a nearby hospital with gunshot wounds. An Orange County Sheriff’s Department spokesperson said investigators believed the incident stemmed from people who knew each other. The conditions of the three hospitalized people are unknown at this time.
• Orange County Superior Court Judge Patrick Donahue removed a defense attorney from a murder case last week. Facing misdemeanor charges of his own and unable to come to court due to a head injury, Jeffrey Schaffer pleaded for six more weeks to resolve his legal and health issues. But Donahue decided to substitute public defender Adam Vining to represent Zachary Pickrell in the murder trial. Pickrell is accused of murdering Danilo Ashton Arauz, 17, of Anaheim in 2021.
SPORTS
• May Gray made for ideal weather conditions as a record 15,000 athletes competed in the OC Marathon on Sunday. As the Daily Pilot’s Eric Licas reported, Xavier Smith of Lake Forest finished in first place in the men’s full marathon, completing 26.2 miles through Costa Mesa, Santa Ana and Newport Beach in 2:23:41. Stephanie Mundt of Tempe, Arizona, led the women’s race with a 2:52:08 finish. Placentia’s Christine Mayfield completed her 58th marathon, a feat dedicated to the 58 victims of the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival mass shooting that she survived in Las Vegas.
• Newport Harbor High School’s swimmer Connor Ohl nearly topped the all-time Orange County record in the boys 50-yard freestyle on Friday. Ohl clocked in at 19.79 seconds at the Sunset League swim finals held at Golden West College. As the Daily Pilot’s Matt Szabo reported, Olympian Michael Cavic set the record at 19.69 seconds in 2002 when he swam for Tustin High School. Los Alamitos High School won the boys’ Sunset League swimming championship while Newport Harbor’s girls’ took home a third straight title.
• Paul Salata, a former NFL wide receiver who passed away in Newport Beach four years ago, started a tradition of “roasting and toasting” the last NFL draft pick as “Mr. Irrelevant” back in 1976. Daily Pilot reporter Andrew Turner penned a lengthy feature of “Irrelevant Week” in Newport Beach, as it continues Salata’s legacy and marks 50 years in June. Cornerback Kobee Minor, this year’s last pick in the draft, is set to receive the Lowman’s Trophy, which playfully depicts a fumbling football player. Other Irrelevant Week honorifics typically include a banquet, surf lesson and a key to the city.
LIFE & LEISURE
• The Laguna Art Museum celebrated the end of its “Every Single One” fundraising campaign with — what else? — an art project! Supporters who donated at least $250 got the chance to paint their names onto a community art wall. The display attracted curious onlookers on Saturday. With all the funds raised, the art museum is looking to make auditory and accessibility improvements while giving the nearly-century-old building a fresh coat a paint. The community art wall will stay up for another month.
• A concession stand at Bolsa Chica State Beach is taking a two-step twist for the summer. SeaSalt Honky Tonk at the Beach opened on Saturday with enough meat on the grill to make beach goers forget all about seafood. Prjkt Restaurant Group’s Alicia Cox teamed with Heritage Barbecue’s Daniel Castillo in reimagining the SeaSalt concession stand. The menu serves up a hearty offering of tri-tip, chicken, ribs, brisket and pulled pork. Bluegrass brunches, line dance lessons and country music round out the rest of the best at SeaSalt Honky Tonk at the Beach.
• The future of the Costa Mesa Playhouse is uncertain as the Newport-Mesa Unified School District decided to terminate the lease on the 73-seat theater it has called home since 1984. The theater company planned an upcoming season with a series of plays at Rea Elementary School to mark its 60th anniversary when board members received the notice by mail. Costa Mesa Playhouse President Mike Brown pleaded with the trustees at a recent meeting to work in good faith with the nonprofit before the lease expires on June 29 to accommodate a grade reconfiguration at Rea Elementary. Is a civic deus ex machina on its way before then? Time will tell.
CALENDAR THIS
• A new documentary about Our Lady of La Vang is set to have its world premiere on Sunday at the Christ Cathedral’s Freed Theater in Garden Grove. “Our Lady at the Center” explores how the Catholic faithful believe the Virgin Mary appeared to a group of persecuted Catholics in a Vietnamese rainforest in 1798, an apparition that has since become a symbol of hope and faith. The documentary also tells the story behind the 12-foot, $12.6 million Our Lady of La Vang shrine at Christ Cathedral before it was unveiled to thousands of Catholics four years ago. The film premieres Sunday at 5 p.m. General admission for the special event is $75.
• Critically-acclaimed rapper Talib Kweli is readying to rock the mic on Saturday at the Wayfarer in Costa Mesa. The Brooklyn-bred emcee is best known for his solo work with producer Hi-Tek on “Reflection Eternal” and as one-half of the legendary hip-hop duo Black Star with Mos Def. With a body of work spanning more than a quarter century, including last year’s “The Confidence of Knowing,” expect a set list culling from Kweli’s catalog of classics. The show starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are $42.10.
• This year’s Be Kind Fest at the Great Park in Irvine is all about honoring mothers on Mother’s Day weekend. The free fest celebrating kindness, gratitude and connection is, of course, family-friendly. Event goers can enjoy food trucks, bounce houses, music and workshops all in the name of a little more kindness in our world. Be Kind Fest runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday at the Great Park Palm Court in Irvine. Event organizers ask that people register online before attending for free.
KEEP IN TOUCH
We appreciate your help in making this the best newsletter it can be. Please send news tips, your memory of life in O.C. (photos welcome!) or comments to carol.cormaci@latimes.com.
It’s been my pleasure penning this newsletter these past two weeks. Our regularly scheduled host Carol Cormaci returns next Wednesday. Until then: stay classy, O.C.!
Gabriel.
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