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Hussong's

SFandH - 7-27-2023 at 08:01 AM

That's my VW in front..........Not really, but could have been. (((hic)))

Alan - 7-27-2023 at 08:28 AM

So many fun times!

JZ - 7-27-2023 at 10:28 AM

What year? 1976?

SFandH - 7-27-2023 at 10:50 AM

Around there i guess. Brewskis and an afternoon/evening of fun after a session at K-38.

Don Pisto - 7-27-2023 at 02:08 PM

It would still be called Meiggs if he didn't go after his wife with an axe...wonder what the heck she did!

Don Jorge - 7-27-2023 at 03:16 PM

Quote: Originally posted by SFandH

Around there i guess. Brewskis and an afternoon/evening of fun after a session at K-38.

Sounds right.

pappy - 7-28-2023 at 06:40 AM

First time ther 1973. What an afternoon/ night! Many visits post surf in 80’s. Good times.last visit was 89 ...such an epic place.

AKgringo - 7-28-2023 at 06:45 AM

And they probably never asked for those pesky ID things!

BajaTed - 7-28-2023 at 08:29 AM

A Hussong ritual when a friend got to drunk and went to the floor was to kick sawdust on them and then pour a beer over them.

sancho - 7-28-2023 at 09:52 AM

1972 ish for me. Surfing San Miguel and a place just so. of there
called 3 m's. with my 68' vw panal The Bar Miramar in SF, has been my go to for yrs

[Edited on 7-28-2023 by sancho]

SFandH - 7-28-2023 at 10:22 AM

Quote: Originally posted by sancho

The Bar Miramar in SF,

[Edited on 7-28-2023 by sancho]

With a counter-clockwise clock. THE spot! Is it still there?

Barry A. - 7-28-2023 at 10:36 AM

My San Diego area friends and I visited Hussong's numerous times in the late '50's and early '60's. Good times always had by all. It was (is?) a unique place, that is for sure. I have not returned in 60 years. LOL

SFandH - 7-28-2023 at 12:25 PM

Quote: Originally posted by Barry A.

My San Diego area friends and I visited Hussong's numerous times in the late '50's and early '60's. Good times always had by all. It was (is?) a unique place, that is for sure. I have not returned in 60 years. LOL

Is this your car in front?

hussong barry.jpg - 27kB

[Edited on 7-28-2023 by SFandH]

Don Pisto - 7-28-2023 at 12:46 PM

actually its gone out of business and reopened as a tackle store! :coolup:

anyone from ventura here remember the exact replica that was "Hussings Cantina" in ventura harbor? man that was a rompin stompin joint in the day.

msteve1014 - 7-28-2023 at 02:34 PM

No, but i know that place. I live down the street.

BornFisher - 7-28-2023 at 10:46 PM

Oh yeah, Hussongs! And worth mentioning are the Long Bar and Chicago Club in TJ!

Don Jorge - 7-29-2023 at 07:02 AM

Miramar is still there.

So is 3Ms although you cannot park your car unattended while surfing there. But the water is cleaner than it was back then, not clean just cleaner now than then.

We had a trailer at Pinky's California Hotel and rented a house just south of there in 73 and 74. Pinky was a junior, son of tuna boat tycoon of Ensenada. Hussongs back then was the office of the juniors, names like Rodriguesz, Cortes, Borques, Melaro, Arumbula, Villa and many more made Hussongs there place of business and their business was gringas. Oh what a wild time that was.

If we surfed and camped at K38 we partied at Rauls and quite often surfboards and wetsuits would disappear in the dark hours. Sometimes the boards reappeared in the lineup on a later date being used by a local learning to surf.

Camping anywhere on the coast in the 70s be it Baja Malibu, Calafia, 38, 42, Cantamar, Campo Lopez aka K55, San Miguel, Cuatros, Colonet, etc you knew the federales were going to drop by and search your campsite. It was part of the game and usually we ended up sharing Carta Blacas and gringo burritos with them over a a campfire, learning to speak Spanish, them English, sort of.

More than once the fire hoses came out on Ruiz during Carnival or other parade events. A ringside seat in the doorway of Hussongs was a great vantage point to watch the festivities, the paddy wagon rolling up and unlucky, stupid or perhaps both, many gringos were carted away.

Rounding up gringos for public urination was another proven business model and we never bailed friends out pf jail before the morning surf session. We always waited until after the onshore winds picked up and then we would we drive into Ensenada, get some fish taocs on Juarez, the place next to the Corona paint store and full of tacos and sugar sodas we would head over and bail out our amigos.

Lots of memories of that place and lots of drawings by Reyes too. Ah the fairy dust of youth was on us back then and the Mexican people everywhere from Nayarit to Baja treated us much fairer and much nicer than we deserved.

It was a different era back then. An era I think of as Baja before Mexico discovered it was theirs.

Somewhere in a box i have those memories packed away. Not sure they need to be awakened. :lol:

Barry A. - 7-29-2023 at 08:26 AM

Quote: Originally posted by SFandH

Quote: Originally posted by Barry A.

Is this your car in front?

[Edited on 7-28-2023 by SFandH]

Nope. (-: We had an old
VW bus, off-white in color, and there was never any room in front for us to park.

larryC - 7-29-2023 at 09:37 AM

Quote: Originally posted by Don Pisto

It would still be called Meiggs if he didn't go after his wife with an axe...wonder what the heck she did!

What would still be called "Meiggs" if he didn't go after his wife with an axe?

Don Pisto - 7-29-2023 at 09:50 AM

Quote: Originally posted by larryC

Quote: Originally posted by Don Pisto

It would still be called Meiggs if he didn't go after his wife with an axe...wonder what the heck she did!

What would still be called "Meiggs" if he didn't go after his wife with an axe?

Meiggs was the 1st bar in ensenada, licence #001. he broke his leg in some kind of accident and asked john hussong to watch the place while he chased down his wife who fled to america after he came after her with an axe, neither returned. john became the new owner.....or something like that.

or maybe it was john that broke his leg, I know there's a broken leg and an axe in the story! :lol:

[Edited on 7-29-2023 by Don Pisto]

elgatoloco - 7-29-2023 at 10:53 AM

Good times.

Important Baja History Every Nomad Should Know

SFandH - 7-29-2023 at 03:10 PM

Quote: Originally posted by larryC

Quote: Originally posted by Don Pisto

It would still be called Meiggs if he didn't go after his wife with an axe...wonder what the heck she did!

What would still be called "Meiggs" if he didn't go after his wife with an axe?

"Hussong's founder, John Hussong, was born as "Johann" in Landau, Germany in 1863.[7] Johann emigrated to the United States from Germany in 1888, and changed his name to John.[4][5] In 1889, the discovery of gold south of the border lured John to Ensenada.[4] John made a living hunting and trading supplies up and down the Baja coast.

In June 1891, while on a trading expedition to El Arco, John's carriage flipped over, and his companion, Newt House, fractured his leg.[4] John brought Newt to recuperate at Meiggs' Bar, which back then, was Ensenada's only watering hole.[4] Two days after John and Newt arrived at the bar, Meiggs attacked his wife with an axe. When Meiggs was sent to jail, his wife fled to California.[4] When he got out of jail, Meiggs went in search of his wife, and asked John to mind the bar until he returned. Neither Meiggs nor his wife ever returned.[4]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hussong%27s

Don Pisto - 7-29-2023 at 04:39 PM

but there's more....
After running Meiggs’ Bar for a year, in 1892 Hussong wisely decided to break new ground and purchased a stage coach station across the street (the southern terminal of an Ensenada-LA line) which he turned into Hussong’s Cantina. The establishment remains in the same place and largely unchanged to this day, including their continued possession of municipal liquor licence #002. Meiggs’ Bar has since gone out of business, making Hussong’s the oldest bar in Ensenada.

As remarkable as that history may be, Hussong’s primary claim to fame is as the birthplace of the margarita. The c-cktail was purportedly invented in October 1941 by Hussong’s bartender Don Carlos Orozco, who had been experimenting with various concoctions and tested one out on a German ambassador’s daughter who visited the cantina, one Margarita Henkel. She (presumably) enjoyed the experimental libation, and it was thus named after her. While it is no doubt difficult to pinpoint with absolute certainty the first place where tequila, lime juice, and a fragrant liqueur were mixed together into a delicious good-time drink, Hussong’s remains the commonly accepted home of the margarita.

Hussong’s lives on to this day in the old stage coach station, its sawdust-covered floor and uncomplicated place-to-drink-booze atmosphere giving patrons a taste of Old Mexico. Famous visitors include James Garner and Ronald Reagan. Every Sunday, the cantina offers two-for-one deals on “prepared clamatos.”

BTW the fragrant liqueur mentioned is Damiana, (which is a story in itself) I've drank way too many of those! and johns original store was on the corner that became Papa's and Beer....

[Edited on 7-31-2023 by Don Pisto]

SFandH - 7-29-2023 at 05:52 PM

I love history.

larryC - 7-30-2023 at 09:30 AM

Ricardo Hussong is a good friend and neighbor of mine, I will ask him for details of your story.

surfhat - 7-30-2023 at 10:06 AM

Could that fragrant liquor have possibly been Damiana, as from the somewhat stimulant Baja plant based liquor?

The bottle I know of, Guaycura? comes in a beautiful female shaped glass bottle that is worth saving.

Back in the 80's on my way to the East Cape, I stopped in the high desert east of GN after a long enough day on the road during a full moon night.

After a few swigs of Guaycura's Damiana liquor, I swear to this day that the full moon turned to red like the red planet Mars does on occasion.

I enjoyed the experience for....the experience. haha

Damiana is a curious medicinal plant and has a relation supposedly more suited to the female makeup in some mysterious ways more than men.

Curiouser and curiouser.

I occasionally will pick up a bottle for an occasional sipper, but I have never had a repeat of that red full moon night in the high desert.

There was not any other substance at work that night in the desert. Haha.

A very long drive of more than 12 to 15 hours could have had something to do with my mental state at the time but that red full moon was red. I am sure my eyes were quite red too.

Peace and love to all Nomads.

pappy - 7-31-2023 at 07:19 AM

Damian’s in the curvy female bottle...another level experience after consuming that nectar....

thebajarunner - 7-31-2023 at 11:41 AM

How about the guy with the T coil game???

Only true oldtimers will know what I am talking about

Don Pisto - 7-31-2023 at 01:50 PM

Quote: Originally posted by thebajarunner

How about the guy with the T coil game???

Only true oldtimers will know what I am talking about

I never heard it called that but are you talking about these gadget's that were all the rage?

SFandH - 7-31-2023 at 03:28 PM

Quote: Originally posted by Don Pisto

Quote: Originally posted by thebajarunner

How about the guy with the T coil game???

Only true oldtimers will know what I am talking about

I never heard it called that but are you talking about these gadget's that were all the rage?

I remember those things. Some kind of electrocution for fun gizmo I think. I never did it.

thebajarunner - 7-31-2023 at 03:57 PM

That is the one
It was supposedly the coil out of a "T"
Definitely a "hair raising" moment for the two contestants.

That is all I am saying at the moment
Come on old timers, chime in on this
If you really are a Baja guy/gal from the 70s you clearly remember this old guys with the wooden box and the two leads.....

Don Pisto - 7-31-2023 at 04:16 PM

Quote: Originally posted by thebajarunner

That is the one
It was supposedly the coil out of a "T"
Definitely a "hair raising" moment for the two contestants.

That is all I am saying at the moment
Come on old timers, chime in on this
If you really are a Baja guy/gal from the 70s you clearly remember this old guys with the wooden box and the two leads.....

you can still find these on Revo!

Santiago - 8-1-2023 at 08:23 AM

Didn't the family also build Papagayo?