(1942-✔) Arizona Cafe, Pamela Kay Komo and John Gray Small’s longstanding O.B. sports bar offering mixed drinks, beer, pool tables, sandwiches, home of the GTO Burger – gorgonzola, tomato, and onion, and a storied history…
Just a Block from the Beach
You may not have noticed, but Ocean Beach streets are alphabetically named for authors, historians, and philosophers, from west to east, beginning at the boardwalk. J.M. DePuy’s Subdivision of 1885 named Abbott Street for John Abbott; Bacon Street for Sir Francis (or Roger) Bacon; Cable Street for George Washington Cable; etc. Arizona Cafe’s brick building on Bacon Street first housed a cafe, barber shop, and businesses on the ground floor with residences above. In 1937, Jack K. Russell established his eponymously named Jack’s Cafe here, which he operated for three years. Then it went to the dogs.
GM1C Fitzhugh Lee Cowan, USN.
The Dog House
After the First World War ended, U.S. Navy gunner’s mate Fitzhugh Lee Cowan (1897-1971) disappeared in the Philippines, leading his mother and sister, Mildred, to believe him dead — especially when tales spread of an unidentified Long Beach sailor who died in a feverish delirium, calling out “Mildred.” They lived in Long Beach at the time, but the Cowans came from San Diego. However, the young Fitzhugh had simply re-enlisted without informing his family. Eventually, the Foreign Legion located Fitz serving aboard the U.S. Navy destroyer U.S.S. Greer.
Having had several previous marriages by the time he was 40 years old, Cowan married Dorothy Jolley. Was the fourth time the charm? In 1939, Fitz and Dottie bought Jack’s business, humorously renaming it The Dog House Cafe. They both worked the bar, and lived above. Fitz reported that he worked 80 hours a week, Dottie, 40. But that only lasted about a year, and the romance of the sea once more beckoned him away.
So later in 1940 after Fitz was redeployed, San Diego bar king Jovan Nikolas “John” Radovich (1896-1981)— who had opened or operated many post-Prohibition establishments (Fleet Cafe, OK Buffet, Belmont Cafe, Crow’s Nest, Broadway Cafe, Santa Fe Cafe & Cocktail Lounge, Skylark Cafe, Palmer House Hotel) — purchased the Dog House from the Cowans.
Restaurants were the Yugoslavian immigrant’s life. Having started as a waiter in San Diego in 1923, John Radovich made a wartime fortune “selling hooch and food” in his downtown cafes by the 1940s. It was remembered of John that he spent 16-hour days working his cafes.
In 1945, he was indicted for fraud, caught switching cheap liquor into expensive bottles. The following year, his liquor license was temporarily suspended after his conviction. Rumors flew that bribes to state liquor board member William Bonelli were common practice, but Radovich didn’t take that route.
The Great San Diego Coffee Revolt
In 1960, as president of the San Diego Tavern and Restaurant Owners Association, John Radovich announced that the price of a cup of coffee served without food would increase from 10 cents to 15 cents. No one has ever experienced such vitriolic blowback… Thousands of outraged San Diegans revolted, called, and sent flaming letters. “It would be 16 cents with the penny tax,” he explained. “I didn’t realize that the public would be so hurt…” Radovich had to recant.
Arizona Cafe neon sign. Photo, Yelp.
With ownership shifting within the Radovich family, in 1942, John’s brother, George Radovich (1917-2002), converted the Dog House restaurant into the Arizona Cafe and Bar. Aptly named, as the Radovich brothers had both “learned the ropes” in their father’s cafe in Ajo, Arizona. They added a bowling alley on the premises in 1946 with the cafe still attached, which lasted until John Radovich’s death in 1982. Second-generation Robert Radovich sold the place in 2006. He was 66 and had no kids. And his bartender of 60 years, Tony Pandza, was ready to retire at 86.
Today a new generation of hosts have upgraded the old bar with vintage signage, a great jukebox, billiards, burgers, and beverages. Where, just like John Radovich used to say, you can “enjoy life, mixed drinks, fine foods, good fellowship!”
Ocean Beach
Arizona Cafe (2006-✔, John Small, Pamela Komo)
Arizona Cafe (1989-2006, Robert Radovich)
Ocean Beach Bowling Alley (1946-1982)
Arizona Cafe and Bar (1942-1989, George Radovich)
Dog House Cafe (1940-1942, Keith Harris, John Radovich)
Dog House Cafe (1940, Joe Medina, Matthew Monise, Virginia Spencer)
The Dog House (1940, Fitzhugh Lee Cowan)
Jack’s Grill (1937, Jack K. Russell)
1925 Bacon Street
San Diego, CA 92107
Notes
Citation: Martin S. Lindsay. ‘Arizona Cafe.’ Classic San Diego: tasty bites from the history of America’s finest city. Web. < https://classicsandiego.com/restaurants/arizona-cafe/>
Selected sources: City of San Diego, Ocean Beach Community Plan and Local Coastal Program, Appendix C: Historic Context Statement, 2015.
