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Business Spotlight

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Casual restaurant offering a menu of traditional Chinese fare,

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A Home Away from HomeThe Barkley Restaurant & Bar Provides Great Food, Cocktails and Live Entertainment in a Friendly Atmosphere

By Kamala Kirk Contributor

Daniel De La Torre had frequented The Barkley Restaurant & Bar over the years as a customer, but never imagined that one day he would become the owner. He already owned The Castle Sports Bar and Grill in Manhattan Beach and wasn’t looking to take on a second business, but while chatting with Luis Cruz, one of The Barkley’s owners, he discovered that Cruz and his partner were interested in selling the place.

“I was born and raised in the San Gabriel Val-ley, and The Barkley was a place that I would vis-it every now and then,” said De La Torre. “I came in one night with a bud-dy and was chatting bar business with Louie, who mentioned that the place had been struggling. I felt it had so much po-tential and he suggested that I make him an offer. I thought he was joking, but he gave me his phone number as I was leaving and that’s when I real-ized he was serious. I was a little apprehensive, since my background was in the bar industry and The Barkley was more of a restaurant, but lo and behold, we started negotiating.”

De La Torre had al-ways told his friends that someday he wanted to own a place similar to the bar on Cheers. He

loved the idea of having a spot that would be like a clubhouse where he could book different bands and provide environment that felt like a second home to customers. He ultimate-ly convinced his brother Frankie to invest in the business with him, and after almost a year of go-ing back and forth with the owners, he closed the deal on the place.

“Part of the big reason why I finally settled on it was because I didn’t want to see The Barkley go away,” said De La Torre. “It was tough at first, but the place stayed alive, employees stayed em-ployed and it worked out for the better.”

The Barkley has been open since 1951 and was originally named The Crossbow. In 1993 the restaurant was pur-chased by radio person-ality Roger Barkley, who renamed the place after himself. He eventually sold The Barkley in 1997 to former busboy Luis Cruz and waiter Carlos Quezada, who ran the business together until 2012, when they sold it to De La Torre.

For decades, The Bar-kley has remained a fa-vorite among both locals and out-of-towners, and is known for providing great food and cocktails, outstanding service, as well as preserving and enhancing the tradition of warm hospitality and

generosity that it has been known for through-out the years. South Pas-adena Mayor David Si-fuentes even proclaimed June 17, 2009, as “The Barkley Restaurant Day” in South Pasadena.

“At first we kept every-thing the same, including the bands that would per-form here every week,” explained De La Torre. “But as time went on, we wanted to appeal to the younger generation as well. Frankie, who has a band, The Volcanics, and Mark San Filippo, who is in multiple bands includ-ing jazz/soul collective An-gel Town Combo, which is The Barkley’s house band, used their connec-tions in the music indus-try to book different week-ly acts, such as a popular Beatles tribute band, The Rubbers, which drew the crowds. Pasadena Weekly started doing articles on our shows and now we get new customers every month.”

Live music and enter-tainment are offered from Friday through Sunday evening (as well as the oc-casional Thursday), and on Wednesdays The Bar-kley hosts a comedy night in the banquet room. On occasion, famous faces such as Zach Galifianakis from The Hangover have shown up to perform a routine. One thing that makes The Barkley so special is that there is no cover charge or fee to

come in—even for its an-nual New Year’s bash.

“We’ve never once charged a door cover,” said De La Torre. “Even dive bars will charge a cover and I vowed to nev-er do that. Our drinks and food are also reason-ably priced because we want to remain accessi-ble to customers—espe-cially our regulars that come in multiple times a week. We’re their home away from home.”

In regards to the over-all look of the place, De La Torre kept changes to a minimum because he wanted to preserve the authentic feel of The Barkley. He painted the ceiling black to give it a homier vibe, and various bat-themed artifacts that were gifts from customers and friends are located throughout, but for the most part the place looks as it did many years ago—right down to the semi-cir-cular leather booths. It’s also a popular filming location that has served as the backdrop for nu-merous television shows, including Modern Family.

“The joint looks pretty much the same as it did in 1951, which is cool be-cause you don’t want to mess with that,” De La Torre pointed out. “A lot of our customers like the vibe in here, they feel like they’re walking into the past. We’ve even had cus-tomers do their wedding photoshoots here, posing

in the booths. It has a very nostalgic feel to it.”

The Barkley has host-ed numerous wedding re-ceptions, parties and oth-er events, and guests can rent out the entire back section of the restaurant. The private banquet room can also accommo-date up to 40 people for those looking to host a dinner or smaller party.

The food menu fea-tures a diverse range of tasty offerings such as prime rib, filet mignon, New York steak, various pasta dishes, burgers and sandwiches, includ-ing the Monte Cristo—an old classic that uses French toast for bread and is hard to find at most restaurants nowa-days. Lunch and dinner are served daily and all of the delicious cuisine is prepared by longtime chef Pancho, who has worked at The Barkley for 18 years.

“If there is anyone that gets the credit, it’s my entire staff,” said De La Torre. “My customers love the crew and bring them Christmas and birthday presents every year. We have a lot of long-timers like Pancho and Kristin, who has worked behind the bar for 25 years. I trust my team—they’ve become like family. Even when we’re on the clock, it doesn’t feel like work; everyone is hanging out and having fun.”

Another thing that

makes The Barkley so special is that it’s open every day—even on hol-idays. Free tamales are offered on Christmas and a special turkey dinner is served to guests who don’t want to cook at home on Thanksgiving. Holiday or not, The Barkley is popu-lar year-round with all of its loyal customers who enjoy coming in, wheth-er it’s to kick back after a long day or enjoy a fun night out on the town among friendly faces.

“I get a lot of people tell-ing me that they would drive by here every day but didn’t know what The Barkley was,” said De La Torre. “There was some mystery to the place, which had to build up for some time before they finally came in—and now they’re regulars. My customers are like family. One of the recipes for a good bar environment is introduc-ing people to each other, which my crew and I love to do. We’re always engag-ing people in conversation, getting them talking to one another which makes it a fun place. We offer an alternate reality in here. We’re like Disneyland—we make people happy.”

The Barkley Restaurant & Bar is located at 1400 Huntington Dr. in South Pasadena. It is open Mon-day – Sunday from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. For more information, call (626) 799-0758 or visit thebark-leyrestaurant.com.

Photo by Kamala KirkPhoto by Kamala Kirk

Deke Dickerson and The Ecco-Fonics Photo courtesy of The Barkley

The Outta Sites Photo courtesy of The Barkley

The Volcanics Photo courtesy of The Barkley

Photo courtesy of The Barkley