What is Port Costa?

Port Costa is an extremely small port town about 12 miles due West of Martinez, California. Port Costa was founded in 1871, and because it was a port for the Solano ferry boat, Port Costa grew quickly and became of much importance in this time. The Solano ferry boat was used to ship entire trains into the San Francisco Bay Area, standing 424 feet long and 116 feet wide. The Solano was able to carry 48 freight trains and a locomotive at any given time. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, Port Costa was known as one of America's busiest wheat and grain ports and also home to a once thriving brick company. Port Costa is still currently home to The Burlington Hotel, which was built in 1883 (and still open for business), and The Warehouse bar, which was built in 1886, and still open for business as well.

Above is a train passing Port Costa. Port Costa is to the right of this picture. 

My Trip

I chose Port Costa as my road trip because I had been there once before for about 5 minutes and the town seemed really interesting. Its hard for me to imagine that small towns like this exist in such a populated area of California. So on Saturday May 7th at about 2:00pm, I called my friend Phil and asked if he wanted to check out Port Costa with me. He agreed on the fact that I was buying lunch, and we headed on our way. We really didn't know much about the town, just that it was really, really small, and that it consisted of houses, a hotel, a bar, two restaurants, and two shops.

On our way down to Port Costa, Phil and I saw a broken down and abandoned white '84 Accord on the side of  highway 4. We noticed that it had tow stickers on it and tickets from days past. It was clearly abandoned with the windows open and key on the seat, so we decided to rummage through the car and see if there was anything worth taking. Someone had already gone through it before us and papers were everywhere. We opened the glove box and 2 pairs of gas station quality sunglasses. We were happy with our find but started to get freaked out that we were in a car that wasn't ours, so we hurriedly got out, hopped back in our car, and continued on to Port Costa. Above is us with our prized sun glasses.

We pulled into Port Costa at about 2:45pm and cruised around the town. Unfortunately, there wasn't much to see being that the town consisted of 3 streets. We immediately found ourselves at the end of the town facing the Suisan Bay. We noticed a large yellow building with shops below on the left and a post office and a gray building on the right. The yellow building was the Burlington hotel, which we later found out had quite an interesting past, and the gray building was the Warehouse Cafe and Bar, which was probably the most interesting piece of this tiny town. We walked out to the tracks and walked to the shore, checking out the town.

Above is Philly looking at the Suisan Bay. In the above picture, the town would be to the left. After finding flattened pennies on the tracks, we walked back into town, looked in the windows of the Burlington and looked inside the small antique store closest to the water. A sign on the door read "If you see something you like, call this number: XXX-XXX-XXXX, and we'll be right over." Interestingly enough, the bar across the street owned this store as well as the Burlington Hotel. So, we walked over to what seemed like the only open place in the town: the famous Warehouse Cafe and Bar.

The Warehouse

Above is a picture of what you see when you first walk into The Warehouse.

The Warehouse was extremely old with open ceilings and beams running everywhere. Random knick-knacks were to be found everywhere and it was a fairly large place. Humor obviously ran through this bar as the female restroom read on the door "Please Wait to be Seated". The first thing you see when you walk in is the giant polar bear behind glass. Who has a stuffed polar bear these days? That is, besides The Warehouse. The picture above is of The warehouse. To the left is the actual bar, and directly in front is seating for the cafe portion. An older lady was working the bar, and the place was empty. I said hello and told her what I was doing and she told me a little about The Warehouse. Her name was Helen and she was one of the bartenders.

What Helen told me was that The Warehouse was was built in 1886, making it 124 years old. She also told me two extremely interesting things about the bar. This bar, although very much tucked away from society, offers o variety of over 450 beers. That's right, four hundred and fifty. The list is pictured to the left, and this attribute is what makes this bar so well known. It is currently a big biker bar, and it isn't uncommon to see Harley's parked outside of this rough looking place. Helen then pointed me over to a hanging laminated magazine article, which was a cover and article from Men's Journal, January 2003. The article read "The 50 Best Bars in America", and sure enough, The Warehouse of Port Costa, California was on that list. To be honest, I was completely impressed. Port Costa, although a town of a population of 232, was definitely on the map. I know, totally crazy.

Helen then handed me a book hanging from the rafters by a bent coat hanger called "Port Costa", which was the complete history of this town. I thumbed through the pages, looking at old pictures and Helen would answer any question I had. The book was really interesting, and I got to learn cool facts like how Angelo Coppa, Port Costa's Mayor of 1968 was also the town barber. I got to learn that Port Costa started as a 4,000 acre ranch owned by William Piper, and the Ranch house still stands as the Port Costa Mercantile. I also learned that Port Costa Brick Co. used modified tractors to load and unload bricks. And most interesting to me, the Burlington Hotel used to be a brothel. This explained why The Burlington didn't have room numbers, but room "names". The name of each room was named after the prostitute that used to work in it, or as the book put it, call it "home".

Above is another picture inside The Warehouse.

Above is a photo of the Burlington Hotel. There are shops on either side and the big oak doors are the entrance to The Burlington. 

Above is a room map of The Burlington Hotel with room names.

Interview

Above is a picture of the games and hallway leading to the bathroom in The Warehouse.

After talking to Helen, we walked around the bar some more and went to the bathroom. On our way to the bathroom, we saw a rather sketchy looking fellow wearing a trench coat with leather gloves and steel-toed boots playing Dracula pinball. He was kind of creepy looking, but Phil and I decided to say hello. We introduced ourselves and the young man introduced himself to us. He was a 22-year-old named Austin Harvey and was actually a resident of this tiny town. I couldn’t have picked a better person to interview, and he was more than willing to participate.

Austin, how long have you lived in Port Costa?

"I've lived here since I was 6 years old. My parents and I moved here from Texas."

What's it like living in Port Costa?

"Well, it's cool when you're young because it’s a secluded town with lots to explore. But then it sucks because it's so secluded and small. But when you get a drivers license, it's cool again."

What's your favorite part of Port Costa?

Definitely The Warehouse. Today I just tried a beer from Venezuela. Who knows what kind of beer tomorrow will bring!"

What's it like living in such a small town with big history?

"It's kind of cool. The Burlington is a cool place. In all honesty, the original whore house was on the port over the water, but a fire burned it down long ago. The Burlington was the 'upper class' hotel of its time, and the brothel was later moved into the building it is today. Overall, I like my towns history. The school house is a neat building too, but no, it's not haunted."

Do you think you'll live here forever?

"Hell no! I'm going to DVC as we speak so I can transfer somewhere and leave this town. Don’t get me wrong, it's cool and all, but enough is enough."

If there was one thing about this town you could change, what would it be?

"Plan it so it would be bigger and grow. It's kind of annoying only having 2 places to eat in town."

Above is a picture of Port Costa School, which closed in the 1960's

Afterthought

Above is me outside The Burlington

Looking back, I really enjoyed myself. I thought it would be a cool town and it met my expectations. It's easy to think that a town with a population of 232 people isn't going to be that cool, but it really was. It's really awesome that small towns like this exist. I was talking to a local named George who owned the small art shop in the town (to the left of the Burlington) and his mom J.D. before leaving, and they told me the Sunday before I came, 500 Harley's came through this town. Apparently the Hell's Angels biker gang did a poker run through this town. J.D. told me that this wasn't uncommon. 

It was really neat and surprising to me to hear that not only is this town surviving, but it's thriving. From an old brothel with rentable rooms to a bar with 450 beers to chose from, this town is definitely unique. Port Costa is awesome, and because I liked it so much, my friends and I have plans of staying overnight in The Burlington this summer. I totally recommend this town to anyone whose up for a little adventure. And you get to see a train drive by every hour too!

Historical References

http://www.portcosta.com/

http://cprr.org/Museum/Solano/

http://calbricks.netfirms.com/brick.portcosta.html

http://articles.sfgate.com/2009-01-11/bay-area/17195664_1_port-costa-hotel-concierge-hotel-s-innards