Historic SLO County bar is reopening this week after a 14-month closure

Editor’s note: This week, The Tribune is publishing a series of stories looking at California’s June 15 reopening and what it means for San Luis Obispo County.

About 14 months of being closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the staff of Mozzi’s Saloon in downtown Cambria was scurrying to finally reopen on Tuesday.

That’s the same day California removes most of its coronavirus restrictions, including mask mandates and social distancing rules. The state is also dropping its color-coded tier system, which limited business operations by county.

Although some bars had been able to reopen because they served meals with drinks, thanks to onsite kitchens or access to food trucks, Mozzi’s Saloon owner Mitchell Gregory said that wasn’t an option for his business.

The bar at 2262 Main St. doesn’t have a kitchen.

In fact, the only food Mozzi’s has served through the years, besides the ubiquitous bar snacks, is hot dogs that can be prepared in a steamer for 17 weeks a year, during football season.

Although Gregory has paid for a San Luis Obispo County food-serving permit for about two decades, county health officials told him that hot dogs don’t make a meal by state rules, he said.

Therefore, Mozzi’s had to stay closed.

Hiring a food truck simply wasn’t an option for Mozzi’s, Gregory said, “because I couldn’t block the alley behind the bar and couldn’t block the crosswalk.”

In July, many of the prime spot parking spaces in the historic East Village, where Mozzi’s is located, and other downtown areas were occupied by newly created parklets. Restaurants established outdoor seating areas in those parklets.

Across the street from Mozzi’s, Linn’s Restaurant transformed its rear parking lot into a new outdoor dining area.

Exacerbating the parking crunch, another vehicle area by the French Corner Bakery was blocked off for quite a while after an Aug. 1 fire destroyed the nearby A Matter of Taste culinary shop.

As North Coast food businesses sprinted toward the full lifting of seating restrictions June 15, at least one outdoor dining area was being reduced in size.

Linn’s manager Aaron Linn was maneuvering a tractor along some downtown streets so he could relocate the heavy plants the restaurant had used to accent the ambiance of the parking lot dining area.

History of Cambria bar building

The building that houses Mozzi’s Saloon is renowned for its unique front features, including stained glass, intricately rugged masonry and arched windows and entry.

The words “CAMOZZI 1922” is embedded near the roofline. And there’s an arched plaque between the bar’s front door and the entrance to the upstairs apartments, installed by the Cambria Historical Society, that proclaims “Camozzi’s Bar and Hotel, 1922, Adriano & Rosalia Filipponi Camozzi.”

According to a 1997 report written by historian Dawn Dunlap for the Cambria Historical Society, a general merchandise store was built on the site in the late 1870s, but it burned in the 1889 fire that destroyed much of Cambria’s downtown.

The building was rebuilt to house the Cambria Meat Market. Sometime between 1905 and 1915, an entrepreneur figured out the best use of the building would be as a saloon with tables where people could play cards.

In 1922, owner Adriano Camozzi had that building demolished and paid $15,000 for a contractor to build a two-story stucco hotel, card parlor, pool hall and barbershop complex.

After Prohibition ended in 1933, the Camozzi family removed four of the six pool tables, and put in a long bar and a small kitchen.

The bar remained under Camozzi family ownership until 1965, when Rosie Camozzi sold it to Thomas Murray. Several different people owned the building and business after that.

Mozzi’s Saloon prepares for reopening

Gregory bought the bar business in 2012 from former partner Kellie Williams. William Newman of Michigan owns the Old Camozzi’s Saloon building.

Now that Mozzi’s has reopened, Gregory said his fiancée, Coast Union High School graduate Jillian Zellmer, will manage the bar, aided by returning bartender Jess Yaple of Cambria and another longtime local, Max Poteet.

Gregory said he’ll help there when he can, but his long-established North Coast window washing service already is “booked up with long days into August.”

That business, he said, kept his family afloat during the bar closure. He and Zellmer have a 3-year-old son, Kevin.

Gregory said he combined his window-washing business with Cambria Window Cleaning in January, when he bought that company from founder Andy Loveless, who has retired.

During the forced closure of Mozzi’s Saloon, Gregory said he and Zellmer were able to get some things accomplished — such as painting the inside, having some historic items from the 1940s properly framed and urging county officials to clean up a huge mess and health hazard in the alleyway behind the saloon.

Apparently, some homeless people had been storing items there, he said, perhaps sleeping there and using the area as an occasional latrine.

“We filled up four and a half dumpsters with stuff,” Gregory said. County officials also ordered the unhoused people to move along and stay away from the private property.

That’s not only a boon to patrons of the newly reopened bar, but it also makes life a whole lot more pleasant for residents of the six small apartments above the saloon.

According to Gregory, Mozzi’s Saloon will be open 1 p.m. to 11 p.m. on weekdays and Sundays, and 11 a.m. to midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.

This story was originally published June 14, 2021 at 5:05 AM.

Kathe Tanner

The Tribune

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Kathe Tanner has been writing about the people and places of SLO County’s North Coast since 1981, first as a columnist and then also as a reporter. Her career has included stints as a bakery owner, public relations director, radio host, trail guide and jewelry designer. She has been a resident of Cambria for more than four decades, and if it’s happening in town, Kathe knows about it.