We got a note from a reader who reminded us that there's a new pub in town:
Subject: I'll never have to go to the Press again!
To: "Claremont Insider"
The new Belgian Beer bar, The Back Abbey, is open!
The Daily Bulletin had a pre-opening article on The Back Abbey, which opened this past Monday:
The Back Abbey, housed in a tiny Spanish-style building beside the Laemmle Theatre on Oberlin Avenue, will feature an additional 50-60 imported beers in bottles, a rich wine list and a unique food menu of burgers, sausages, salads and other items, said owner John J. Solana.
Solana said the beers would be 60 percent to 70 percent Belgian, with the remainder from France, Germany and England.
"(I'm) hoping to capture an intimacy that's only found in those little hole-in-the-wall pubs in Belgium," said Solana, a La Verne resident and professional chimney sweep.
The intimate pub - it fits 45 inside and 45 on outside patios - opens at 11 a.m. and has city permits allowing it to stay open until 1 a.m., though Solana says it may close earlier depending on business. The pub will be closed Sundays.
Meg over at M-M-M-My Pomona ran the first review we were able to find, and she described the place as only she can:
The place was a ZOO, I'm telling you. Every available seat was taken, every standing space filled, every oxygen molecule converted to CO2. And it was so noisy that K. and I had to shout into one another's ears to be heard. It was like being at club, and I'm not talking some piddly little Jonathan Richman show but a full-on International Noise Conspiracy performance. Without earplugs.
So don't say you haven't been warned. Until the place calms down some AND (not "or") they add some acoustic dampening, I can't recommend it for a fun evening with friends. It would, however, be a great place to take someone you don't really want to talk to.
The Back Abbey is located inan old ice house on Oberlin Ave. behind the Hotel Casa 425 and next to the Claremont Laemmle Theatres. The Claremont Courier's Tony Krickl had an article back in January giving the backstory to the pub and the building:
The 1050-square-foot building was originally located at the corner of First Street and Indian Hill Boulevard, said Ginger Elliott, executive director of Claremont Heritage. Owned by the Edison Company, it was moved to its current location in the early 1920s.
When the union ice house company managed the building, large quantities of ice were stored there and cooled fruit from The Packing House through an underground tunnel, Ms. Elliott said. Ice was also loaded onto each end of freight trains that transported fruit cross country and was reloaded at various icehouses along the way.
“They could almost be described as a partnership between the citrus and the railroad industries before refrigerated carts were used,” Ms. Elliott said.
The Ice House was still functional until the early 1990s, selling ice to individual and event organizers throughout the region. In 1996, the city purchased the building along with much of the land where Hotel Casa 425 and the Village Expansion plaza now sit.
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