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Firehouse Restaurant
updated: Aug 30, 2012, 9:27 PM

By Edhat Subscriber

Does anyone remember the Firehouse Restaurant on Chapala Street? It was an old Fire Station and had the pole still in there. You could go upstairs and slide down the pole. Reading about Firehouses made me think of it.

UPDATE: A reader posted a Q&A about the Old Santa Barbara Fire Department Bar & Restaurant. I wrote a comment with a brief history of the building but here's an old matchbook from the restaurant you can add to that article. By Neal Graffy

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

COMMENT 314610P	2012-08-30 10:02 PM
Only vaguely recall it - what is there now?
MESARATS	2012-08-30 11:08 PM
They would ring a bell and the kids would go up to the top and slide down the fire pole. I guess that made us early pole dancers. Could not do that now due to liability. I think a tire shop was there' but even though I drive down Chapala now I can't recall what is there now.
FLICKA	2012-08-31 06:44 AM
We ate there once in 1970. I remember when it was a firehouse. An old horseman I knew, Benton Hayes, was a fireman there in his working years; he said he'd train horses in back of the station during slack times. Those days firemen sat around waiting for a call.
COMMENT 314643	2012-08-31 07:17 AM
The Old Santa Barbara Fire Department Bar & Restaurant is (or was) Santa Barbara Fire Station #1 which was built around 1923, the same year as our current City Hall. The Fire Department had been in the ground floor of City Hall which was smack-dab in the center of de la Guerra Plaza. Plans for a new City Hall and the destruction of the old building resulted in the new Fire Department at 921 -923 Chapala. About 1960/61 the even newer Station #1 opened on West Carrillo leaving the old Chapala station used for storage. In 1969 it became a restaurant and bar. The building was demolished in the early 1970s to provide an entrance from Chapala Street to the rear of Station #1. If I remember correctly, it was so the larger fire trucks could pull in from Chapala Street and into the station rather than having to back in from Carrillo Street. (the station is open from both sides). - Neal Graffy
COMMENT 314644	2012-08-31 07:18 AM
It was Imperial Muffler. Owner was Jack Miller ?
COMMENT 314663	2012-08-31 08:29 AM
I remember it! We ate there back in the 70s, too. It was really nice.
COMMENT 314671	2012-08-31 08:45 AM
Such warm memories of the place. Thanks for sharing the menu cover!
COMMENT 314674P	2012-08-31 08:51 AM
#644- Imperial Muffler was at 925 Chapala, the building is still there, remodeled. The Firehouse Restaurant was next door, to the south.
COMMENT 314675	2012-08-31 08:54 AM
The old fire station bay area was left behind when the new main firestation #1 around the corner opened. It was Imperial muffler for a long time and later turned into a restaurant and bar then into a Disco type club called, appropriately, "The Firehouse". It always suffered from lack of parking and its proximity to Fisher's gas Station next door.
COMMENT 314694	2012-08-31 09:30 AM
Neal Graffy ROCKS! Anything and everything you ever want to know about Santa Barbara History, Neal Graffy is the man. He can provide information about anything in our fabulous history - and if by rare as a dinosaur bone he doesn't, it will set his Sherlock Holmes nose around, relentlessly until he gets the full background. I wish the Ed Hat would feature more articles written by Neal - I think it would add to the subscriber membership - he knows a lot of people in town - and not all of them drink whiskey from a brown paper bag! :) Shut the Door Neal!!
COMMENT 314696	2012-08-31 09:39 AM
When Sears was at 1221 State in 1967 the old firehouse was Sears Automotive, not Imperial. If you bought tires or batteries at 1221 you would have them installed at the Chapala location. I know this because I worked there at 1221 for about a year in '66 and '67.
COMMENT 314716	2012-08-31 10:58 AM
Ok...making me feel old! Anyone remember when it was a coffee house. Not like we have now, but with real coffee, poet readers, guitarist, etc. Those were the nights!
COMMENT 314734	2012-08-31 11:40 AM
The signature drink at the Firehouse was a nozzle. It was a wine slush drink which seemed quite fun and exotic at the time.
COMMENT 314738	2012-08-31 11:57 AM
The restaurant closed after a child was injured sliding down the pole. I understand why because I went down it as an adult. It hurt.

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