Popular vinyl bar moves from SLO to Paso Robles. Take a look inside its new home

A popular vinyl bar has moved to a new location in San Luis Obispo County, where it can have the “freedom” to blast its records from resident DJs.

Jan’s Place opened its new doors in Paso Robles on June 1, and closed its old doors in SLO on June 27. The vinyl bar said goodbye to its home of two-and-a-half years in the SLO Railroad District, next to My Thai restaurant and across the street from Sally Loo’s Wholesome Cafe.

The reason for the switch of locations? The noise, co-owner Jeff Root told The Tribune.

“In San Luis, I was always being like, ‘Hey, can you guys keep it down, we’ve got neighbors,’” he said. “We don’t have neighbors here. We’re not in residential neighborhoods. The biggest thing is that I’m way more relaxed in this space than I was down there.”

Jan’s Place relocated to 842 Norma’s Alley in Paso Robles with its high-end sound system, acoustically treating the space with wool from New Zealand — an homage to Root’s wife and co-owner Lisa Salmon’s homeland.

The listening lounge and bar contains large ambient lighting, a full bar lined with wine bottles instead of a traditional paper menu and a DJ set of vinyls, with records scattered all throughout the space. Seats comfortably fit 30, compared to the 24-person-max space in SLO.

“Down in San Luis, things had sort of stopped growing,” Root said. “We had reached the limits of what we could do in that space. I just couldn’t sit and have it stay the same all the time, so I had to look for new growth and new space, new avenues for pursuing new ideas, and this space allows us to do that.”

Jan’s Place’s tagline is “music at a polite volume,” where conversations can be had in the business’s space, while still hearing the music.

“Here, we’re very focused on the music,” Root said. “We want people to hear new things and hear familiar things in sort of a new way, and perhaps a sound system that’s a little bit different than what they’re used to.”

A dozen resident DJs play every month at Jan’s Place, bringing a multi-genre of music taste and curated records every night Jan’s Place is open. While the music remains at the polite volume, the vinyl bar’s space allows for the sound to be turned up a notch when requested, according to Root.

“If we want to turn the music up, we can,” he said. “There are times when people want to hear something a little bit louder, and here we have the freedom and we can do that whenever we want.”

How did vinyl bar get its start in SLO County?

Root and Salmon opened their vinyl bar in SLO on Jan. 1, 2024, taking over a hair salon and SLO bar named Jan’s Place at 1817 Osos St., originally owned by Jan Horn. They transformed it into a vinyl bar with a small space filled with a variety of records, a menu of tinned fish and craft wine and beer.

Root and Salmon kept the original bar’s name, because “awnings are expensive,” and flipped the pronunciation of Jan to “Yahn.”

“It just happened organically in the bar just goofing around,” Root said of the name switch. “People started calling it ‘Yahn’s’ and we said, ‘OK, it’s ‘Yahn’s,’’ and that happened just a few months in.”

What’s on the menu at vinyl bar and listening lounge?

Jan’s Place’s bar highlights local wines and beer, and ot expanded both its wine and sake program after moving to its new spot in Paso Robles. Hot sake will be served in the winter, and wines are displayed right on top of the bar.

The spot does not have a kitchen, so its tinned fish menu contains 25 different types of tinned fish, even a vegan option. Root described the grub as a Spanish and Portuguese-style menu, with the fish served with crackers, parsley, arugula, cherry tomatoes and hot sauce.

“Everything is shelf-stable,” he said. “Whenever you have boundaries, that’s where creativity comes from, those boundaries, right?”

For more information

Jan’s Place at 842 Norma’s Alley in Paso Robles is open Monday and Tuesday from 5 to 10 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 5 to midnight, with a first-come, first-served mentality. For more information about the vinyl bar, visit its website at jansplaceslo.com.