Duarte's Tavern, Pescadero
San Mateo County, San Mateo County, California
Marker Inscription
In the 1890's Pescadero was known as a resort town, boasting two hotels and two saloons. Now, one hundred years later, one saloon still operates. Duarte's Tavern is run by the third and fourth generation of the Duarte Family. Back in the 1890's, Frank Duarte brought a barrel of whiskey from Santa Cruz and set up the bar. The price was ten cents for one whiskey, two bits for three. Business thrived until prohibition hit. In 1934, Duarte's reopened and expanded with the restaurant. Although the original building burned in 1926, the bar was saved and is still in use today.
Erected by Order of E Clampus Vitus, Capitulus Redivivus, Yerba Buena #1
The Story
In the 1890s Pescadero was a small coastal resort town with two hotels and two saloons, one of them opened by Frank Duarte, who hauled a barrel of whiskey over from Santa Cruz and sold drinks for a dime apiece. Though Prohibition and a 1926 fire intervened, the bar survived, and Duarte's Tavern reopened in 1934 with an added restaurant. A century later it still operates under the third and fourth generations of the Duarte family.
Why it matters
The tavern preserves the everyday commercial life of a California coastal town and the multigenerational family businesses that anchor small-town American identity.
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Related people
- · Frank Duarte
Themes & tags
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