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Speaking of Restaurantes...
updated: Aug 25, 2012, 8:14 PM

By Edhat Subscriber

Recently there have been Edhat responses to menu and memories of the fine dining at the Talk of the Town restaurant. But how many readers have memories or pictures about the renowned "Las Conchas" for years on Haley Street? Stories abounded about the place and for years I'd drive by with curiosity, until one week night I was determined to go in and see for myself. It was a pretty tame weekday night, but my curiosity was sated. Am glad I had the guts to follow up.

Comments in order of when they were received | (reverse order)

COMMENT 312669P	2012-08-25 08:44 PM
Wonder if most of the Edhat reader responses will be anonymous. Could Las Conchas be anywhere near as naughty as its reputation? Will Haley Street have its day and night of gentrification?
ROGER DODGER	2012-08-25 08:51 PM
I worked there for 2 days as a security guard.
COMMENT 312682P	2012-08-25 08:54 PM
What must it have been like to work as a security guard at Las Conchas?
SBJULES	2012-08-25 10:14 PM
didn't it used to be the swing club? If it was, they used to have fish fries on Thursdays.
ROGER DODGER	2012-08-25 10:33 PM
I did not stay I almost got stabbed after that my boss let me take Greg Motors that was fun.
COMMENT 312711P	2012-08-26 01:19 AM
Was that the "nightclub" at Haley & Anacapa that was once known as The Club Latino? They wanted you to check your knives at the door but no one did. Lots of stabbings there.
COMMENT 312717	2012-08-26 06:47 AM
My hispanic friend always told me the back room was a transvestite bar.
ROGER DODGER	2012-08-26 06:54 AM
It was a scarey place. I don't know about the back room but I never used the bathroom there. There was alot of cocaine the guard that took my place was reporting it at first. After a few days I think he started using it. I worked alot of parties at West Side Boys Club got beat up acouple times. I liked working the Motors much better.
COMMENT 312719	2012-08-26 06:55 AM
I also worked there as a guard,for Presidio security, didnt speak a lick of Spanish, it WAS as bad as people say, & yes, the back was for trans-sexuals & "others".
COMMENT 312733	2012-08-26 07:56 AM
He she bar
LUCKY 777	2012-08-26 11:51 AM
For a memorable decade in the late 1980's-90's my tattoo studio was located across the street on the corner of Haley & Olive. I was SO grateful that anyone was willing to rent to me, I had NO IDEA what I was in for. The prostitutes were definitely transvestites, and the memorable Queen of them all was Claudia, the Marilyn Monroe of Mexican hookers. She'd stand out in front in thigh-high stiletto heeled boots with diminutive little geisha boys at her side in case she started to teeter. She once got the "World Wildlife Fund" panda logo as a tattoo from me, I loved the symbolism of that. There were numerous stabbings in the bar, and I finally called it quits and left the neighborhood after the night a man covered in blood came barging into the studio roaring incoherently........... we chased him out, locked the door, and called for an ambulance because we thought he was wounded and so high on crack he didn't know it. The ambulance came, then he was taken off in a squad car. I was told later it was the blood of two people they found dead the next day in Ortega Park. Funny thing the killings never hit the news, and many times I saw ambulances leave there. Sometimes the cops asked to sit in my front room and observe. Those were lively times, and I'm grateful to have survived them.
AQUAHOLIC	2012-08-26 03:27 PM
We used to call it "club unconscious"....for obvious reasons. The area is also known as the 'knife and gun club' for good reasons as well, although I think things have calmed down a bit over the years.
AQUAHOLIC	2012-08-26 03:29 PM
@LUCKY 777.....just read your comments. Yes!, 'Claudia' was part of the fabric that made up Haley St. in those days. We knew her well and she always waved and said hello as we passed...
COMMENT 312886	2012-08-26 03:51 PM
Chicks with *icks
COMMENT 312935	2012-08-26 07:51 PM
It's a restaurant called Las Palmeras now, it's not the best looking place but the food is decent :)
ROGER DODGER	2012-08-26 09:02 PM
In the early 80's someone opened fire in there I think one or two people might have died. I knew a woman who was wounded in the shooting for a few years , She sobered up after she got shot she was in aa. I think she stayed sober the rest of her life.
COMMENT 313081	2012-08-27 01:05 PM
All I remember is it was a haven for illegals and transvestites, not my cup of tea.

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