It is truely bazzar to me that this place was still around and in full operation till it permanently closed new years day 2012. They were actually speaking of bulldozing the place in 1989 but I guess the recession and property crash of 1991/92 put those plans on hold till now. This review is a historical reflective since I worked at this place in 1988/89 as a Bartender at what was at the time a upstairs Piano Bar/Casual dining with Fine dining on the main floor and a seedy sports bar in the basement. The small upstairs bar with side fireplace that I worked at had from the pictures on here, not change from what I remember of it.
I worked at many bar restaurants while putting myself through school but the experiences here are by far the most memorable and eclectic as the place was.
In 1988/89 it was operated at the time by a big, scary Argentinian guy named Sandro who was very good friends of the family running the nearby House of Lancaster (exotic dance bar). The Piano bar only got really busy after around 9pm when the Piano/lounge singer entertainment got started. Not to worry, I had a steady list of after work, happy hour regulars as well as exotic dancers from the House Of Lancaster who would often come to the bar for a few drinks before heading off to their stripper dancing gig. Often times at around 1am, I would be asked to close the bar and get everyone out quickly because we were going to reopen to private invitees that included many of the House of Lancaster's exotic dancers. Conveniently, many patrons ended up in the seedy attached Motel. Unfortunately, the place was mismanaged and I walked into work one day to find that the properties owners had with bailiffs in tow, assumed control of the place before a women named Teresa assuming operations from 1990 to its present day closing.
Oh, the food. It was more than 20 years ago, but the seafood and steaks were amazing and cooked on open apple wood fired grills but the fine dining part was stuffy and boring. The Casa Mendoza truely lived its glory days!