Last Week of The Odeon Bar

window memories
photo by Scott Beale

Ok, this is it. The final week of The Odeon Bar is upon us. Chicken John has sold our little clubhouse in The Mission and after this Saturday, The Odeon Bar will close its doors for good. No more watered-down drinks. No more spinning the big wheel and bottle rockets being shot out an unsuspecting victim’s ass. The Edsel, squids and NOPE sign are all coming down. Phoenix will call the last, “last call” and step away form the door. Chicken has left his mark and its time for the final Apple Sauce.

Here’s what’s in store for this, the final week (complete info can be found in the Squid List post):

Tuesday, May 17th (tonight): Loop Station with guest bartender Flash-o-matic. Ask Flash to tell you a story. He has a few of them.

Wednesday, May 18th (tomorrow): Ask Dr. Hal with Nice Pants! and Jelly Donut. This will be your last chance to see Ask Dr. Hal at The Odeon Bar. Here are my photos from last week’s amazing installment.

Thursday, May 19th: The final Kostume Karaoke. You get to act like an idiot one more time and keep the costumes when its over.

Friday, May 20th: Cotton Candy, Kitten on the Keys, Project Pimento

Saturday, May 21st: The last night of The Odeon Bar, featuring Runaway Truck Tramps, Rube Waddell, David Capurro, Toshio Hirano, Loop Station, Sparkle Motion hosted by Chris Karney.

Chicken John has this to say:

Soon, the Odeon Bar will be nothing more than a memory. I’m moving on to other things, and would like to thank everyone who contributed to this amazing place. More monster than bar, more tripumph then venue…. more more, than less. The Odeon Bar was committed to bring the people of San Francisco odd and unlikely variety arts, strange music and bad puppets shows. 5 years ago when this project started I thought it would last a few months. The bar has made a man outta me. I now sell to some really great people, but they have their own agenda to follow. The name Odeon was not part of the sale. I hope that you will patronize their establishment when it opens in a few short weeks. The new place will be called: The Knockout. The Odeon will float around on occasion and do a show maybe here or there every once in a while. I gotta tell ya, it’s been quite a ride. But I gotta go now. Don’t talk shit about me when I’m gone….

UPDATE: Check out John Alloway’s photos from the last days of The Odeon Bar.

Scott Beale
Scott Beale

Scott Beale is the founder of Laughing Squid and is based in New York City. When not running the blog, Scott can be found posting on Threads and sharing photos on Instagram.