The Feesh Is Migrating

First, the bad news: The Kingfish Pub (5227 Claremont Ave., Oakland), a beloved dive bar in Temescal, is going to have to move in order to make way for a new condominium complex.

The good news: The pub’s owners have already found a new home for the tiny, 92-year-old bait-shop-turned-watering-hole, practically right across the street. Later this year, they hope to move the Kingfish — to literally pick the whole building up and set it down again at the new site. If all goes according to plan, the new Kingfish will be the same as the old — the same green paint job, shack-like exterior, oversized Seven-Up sign, and happy customers.

Talk of demolishing the Kingfish in order to make way for condos has been going on for years, but the project was initially waylaid due to the down economy. But the owners of the property have now sold it to developers who are moving forward with the condo project, and they’ve given the pub their ten-month notice.

Owners Mike Bowler and Emil Peinert, two longtime bar patrons who took over the Kingfish’s lease in 2009, saving the pub from being lost to history a first time, now hope the proposed move will save it again. They’ve agreed on terms to purchase an unused building at 5239 Telegraph Avenue, a former Ethiopian restaurant located next door to the Tool Lending Library. The plan, Bowler said, is to tear the restaurant down, leaving behind just enough space for the Kingfish. There should even be enough room in the lot for the bar to add a small outdoor patio in back.

The pub’s ten-month grace period ends on January 1, 2015, but Bowler and Peinert said they hope to complete the move sometime in the fall. In the meantime, the Kingfish will remain open at its current spot.


The Kingfish is one of my favorite bars in the Bay. Maybe its because Mike is from the Cape and will gladly shoot the shit and throw on a Boston game when all my drinking buddies meet up after work. The place just drips character. From the old timers taking up the stools at the bar, to the shuffleboard table that leans as much as the floor, to the piss trough and shitter the sits right next to it with no lock on the outside door. The place is gritty, grungy, and if you find a cute girl in there you know she is a keeper. Drinking there takes a special breed. But hey what can I say? I love free popcorn and $1 oly's. I have no idea how they are going to move that shack, but it better stay the same. Right down to the above picture that can be found next to the juke box.

ps- I should bring back those shirts, right?