Local dive to celebrate its anniversary in traditional hipster style

Morgan M. Hurley | Downtown Editor

As the owners of Live Wire in North Park, located at 2103 El Cajon Blvd., prepare to celebrate 20 years in business, patrons and past barkeeps (38 to be exact) are making travel plans for a weekend that will be “off the hook,” Live Wire-style.

Named for KCR, the “college radio” station at San Diego State University where its two owners met some 25 years ago, this rather scary-on-the-outside but warm-and-thriving on the inside spot at the corner of Alabama Street is one of the hippest dive bars in town.

Since day one, its jukebox has been spinning the same indie rock and other cool local vibes that Sam Chammas and Joe Austin lovingly spun at KCR, stuff you’d be hard-pressed to find on other jukeboxes around town, and the beer that flows from their 24 taps is just … well … divine.

Where craft beer is now commonplace and most beer pubs in the area tout long lists of new and local brews on tap, Live Wire was the first in the region to do so.

“We decided to open up a different kind of bar, a bar that really embraced the beers that were turning us on and all the beers that were kinda new,” Chammas said. “We went full force into all the best imports and micro brewed beer at that time.”

They opened Live Wire with 10 taps, which was unheard of in 1992.

Since then, the two college friends have helped launch dozens of tasty local beers, with 25 percent of the taps local at all times, by Austin’s estimation today.  They also served not only as a respite for local band members before and after their late night gigs, but as a place to market their music, as new CDs always found their way into the jukebox.

“If you like beer and music, this is where you wanted to be spending your time,” Austin said.

There was even a five-year period where local bands were allowed to pound away for Live Wire crowds from the back of the bar, until ABC decided otherwise.

The location’s seedy past and the sordidness that defined El Cajon Boulevard in 1992 presented the young new entrepreneurs with some early challenges. One of the first things they did was remove a bank of payphones just outside the door, a move that wasn’t very popular with some of the local street life.

“Safety was a big issue,” Chammas said. “But when you’re in your 20’s, it’s funny how much we’ll put our life on the line just to have a good time. People used to run up to the Red Fox Room for [a shot]. One thing the seedy element doesn’t like is foot traffic, and we were crazy busy in the early 90s and it helped push that element along.”

The deep red, box-style, stucco exterior and its signature rusty-looking bike rack (which is actually a custom made iron-art installation of a bicycle that appears to be melting into the sidewalk), at once belie – but in many ways match – what awaits you inside.

Once a patron’s eyes adjust to the low lights, it quickly becomes clear this place has personality.

There is a long bar adorned with perfectly-spaced stools bolted to the polished wooden floors, several deep-red-colored faux leather booths, a couple of “shrines” – one that Austin said reminds him of “a refrigerator” with dozens of odd mementos accumulated over time.

There are stacks of well-lit metal shelves that house all the booze imaginable and encapsulate the 24 quality taps, with two long, sleek wooden counters behind the bar made from actual bowling lanes extracted from the demolished Aztec Bowl nearby.

Employing wood from a local iconic bowling alley is just an example of how important area history is to these native San Diegans. Just take a gander around Live Wire and its shrines; or consider the fact they also took over Golden Hill’s long-abandoned Turf Supper Club, breathing the life back into it for ten years before handing the reigns back to its original owner.

While Austin is off managing his day job and Chammas is busy running their other joint projects (The Riviera Supper Club in La Mesa, Krakatoa Coffee in Golden Hill) as well as his own (The Whistle Stop and The Station in South Park), they say it is their manager, Thaddeus Robles that keeps Live Wire on track these days.

“He is the heart and soul of this place, he gets it,” said Chammas. “He used to stand outside and talk to friends while listening to the bands from outside the door [because he was underage]. Then he started [working] at the door ten years ago.” Four years ago he was promoted to manager.

Their social media gets it, too, and always has.  In the 1990s, long before the internet, Live Wire served the community as the weekly “bulletin board” for the local indie scene, promoting bands, events and even their competition.

The stash of flyers posted every Thursday in advance of the weekend drew a hefty crowd.

Next, they pioneered the weekly email blast and sent their newsletter that way for 15 years.  Today, they have 4,000 followers on their Facebook page, keeping contact with people who still pop in to 2103 University Avenue and even those who have moved away.

“There is something at Live Wire that people keep coming back for,” Chammas said. “It’s no longer for Joe and I.”

Come celebrate with Sam and Joe

Live Wire’s 20th anniversary party will be held the weekend of Oct 19-20, 2012. Friday night will be bartender alumni night, where they “roll back the prices to 1992” offering $3.00 draughts for anyone showing up in a Live Wire anniversary T-shirt (you can buy one from this year, too).

That same night will be their annual bicycle bar tour – with a twist. This year a slew of buses will bring everyone back, but they are mum on the destinations, calling it their “Magical Mystery Tour.”

Saturday night, indie bands aMiniature and No Knife will both reunite for a sold-out Live Wire party held at the Mississippi Room of the Lafayette Hotel, just two blocks away.

Tickets may still be available through radio giveaways and the Lafayette is offering special rates for overnight stays through phone reservations, only.  MIHO will be bringing a custom “taco cart” and other events will be happening up and down the street between Lafayette and Live Wire.

Chammas and Austin hope you will stop in and say hello.