The Kingfish

The recently re-opened Kingfish Pub & Café on Claremont Avenue east of Telegraph is essentially a squat, low-ceilinged fisherman’s hut inexplicably marqueed with a large ad for 7-Up. The paint-job is marine green—pretty much the color of Ariel the mermaid’s tail—with white trim. There are the requisite neon window hangers advertising Camel cigarettes, Corona, Sierra Nevada, and of course Pabst. There’s a couple 8.5×11 printouts also posted to the façade, directing patrons where to smoke (by the standing ashtray several yards down the sidewalk from the entrance) and to please keep it down. After closing its doors in January 2008, the Kingfish reopened in August to the delight of dedicated regulars and dive-seekers alike. The owners were going to tear the structure down and build condos, but in the economic downturn, the project fell through. So “the Fish,” as some call it, started pouring draught again, and a full menu of booze, too—an improvement over the earlier incarnation. One thing you can’t get at the Kingfish is bait, which is what it sold when it opened in 1922.