This story originally appeared in the Thursday morning, March 9, edition of the Daily Post. If you want to read local news stories first, pick up the Post in the mornings at 1,000 Mid-Peninsula locations.
BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
Palo Alto’s largest and oldest sports bar, the Old Pro, is returning to downtown under new ownership.
Guillaume Bienaime, the owner of BarZola, says he has assembled an investment group and signed a lease for the location at 541 Ramona St., where the sports bar operated for 20 years before closing last summer.
“Our intention is to honor and reinvigorate the Old Pro,” Bienaime said in a phone interview yesterday.
The bar doesn’t have a timeline for opening, but Bienaime said he is aiming to be ready within a year. He still has to get permits from the city and do a full remodel, he said.
One side of the restaurant will be turned into more of a restaurant space, serving bar food that is homemade along with dry-aged steaks.
“One of our early mottos is, ‘Come for the food, stay for the game,” Bienaime said.
The decor will be typical of a sports bar. But the mechanical bull will be replaced by a wine cellar, Bienaime said.
“We’re just going for something a little bit different there,” he said.
Bienaime said the Old Pro will share some employees and expertise from BarZola at 585 Bryant Street, but it will be less niche.
Former owner Steve Sinchek closed the Old Pro on June 19 last year because he said rent, payroll and food were too expensive, and tech employees weren’t partying there anymore.
Bienaime said he hasn’t talked to Sincheck. Sincheck, who owns the the restaurant Local Union 271, couldn’t be reached for comment yesterday.
The Old Pro was one of just a few places to catch a game around University Avenue, and it routinely saw a crowd in the evening, especially during Stanford football games.
Many Stanford graduates have fond memories there, and they were sad to hear about the closure.
Bienaime said he’s heard very positive feedback when he tells people about his plans to bring it back.
Before the Old Pro moved to its downtown location, it operated at the corner of El Camino Real and Page Mill Road from 1964 to 2002.
Mr. Bienaime is a first rate person and runs since 6 years Zola ever so well!
This is very exciting! Bar Zola is the most well managed dinner & drinks spot in Palo Alto hands down.
Bring back the Quonset hut please!
I agree. A place which has a wine cellar, and serves dry aged steaks, is nothing like the original Old Pro, a strickly burgers and beer dive housed in a WWII era quonset hut.
Sounds good but ya can’t go back again.
Gone are the days of the 70’s and 80’s 49ers. And sadly and blue collar patrons. Sadly most of the populace now couldn’t tell ya 2 things about football, or baseball.
Cest’ la vie.
Good luck and hope it’s a smashing success.
I have such fond memories of the original Old Pro which I began going to in the late 80s….the couple that owned it, the horrible food, 75 cent pool games, and the framed Sport Illustrated covers on the walls. I also loved Steve’s “New” Old Pro in the early 90s. I lived blocks from it in Barron Park, and proposed to my wife there some 25 years ago before we moved to the Santa Cruz Mountains. I wish the new owners the best of luck, even if the cheap pool and fried shrimp are no longer part of the experience.