The Club

The Club was an extremely popular Davis locals/biker bar back in the day before The City decided that real non-student bars were an evil thing. Many people who grew up in Davis still remember the place fondly. It stood on G Street next to the Davis Barber Shop where Woodstock's Pizza is now. Men used to sit at the window table and watch the girls walk down the street when they weren't playing pool. It was also a popular place to play card games. At the time that Vigfus A. Asmundson sat on the Davis City Council, council members and City Manager Howard Reese frequently stopped off after meetings to have a beer in a back room at The Club.

The Club was opened up in 1956 by brothers Ernest and Edward Mattos. The bar was sold to Bob Baker in 1968 and continued to operate until January, 1986.

2011-09-09 09:43:16   I remember this place before it closed in the early/mid 80's (I believe '85, since per their website, that's the year Woodstock's purchased the building) They had a Budweiser (or some brand of beer) chandelier over the pool table, and the place was always filled with cigarette smoke. There were seemingly always 2 or 3 motorcycles parked out front, and the bikers were of course seen smoking, drinking, and playing pool inside. The big picture window that openly showed what the place was all about is still there (now Woodstock's of course). In the last couple years before it closed down, with the town already pretty well established as a progressive, family oriented community, it seemed so out of place for Davis to have a (very visible) biker bar downtown. —OldDavis73

2016-10-01 17:39:50   My father worked there for years running The Club when we lived in Redding. He would drive back and forth each week before we moved here permanently in 68. My mother opened Senior B's [where Symposium is now] a mexican restaurant and my dad had The Club. Any regular of the bar [meaning you were there more than once] could have their picture taken,framed and hung on the long beams running the length of the bar. I have wonderful memories of being maybe 6 and up and being allowed to stay up late hunkered in a darkened kitchen-made into a darkroom to watch my Daddy develop and print the dozens of pictures of mostly Vet students UCD Rugby players and the most wonderful and kind Bikers on the planet. My Dad had a massive stroke in 73 and for another 12 years that bar was a lifeline for him. Those rowdy, raucous people in that smoke filled bar only seemed intimidating or out of place to those who never stepped foot inside. For many of those last 12 years my Dad could hardly speak and was visibly disabled -The patrons watched over him and were respectful. The Police Station across the alleyway helped Im sure. But then again the odd officer would come in and chew the fat over a cup of coffee with the daytime regulars as well. It was closed on Christmas day and Thanksgiving only- and was often the sight of our huge family holiday dinners. I remember many people who started out as patrons at the bar and ended up at our family Thanksgiving table Welcomed heartily. No one who came to the bar hoping it was open on those Holiday nights went without an invitation to stay for dinner and I cant think of any who declined. Its like will never be seen again. It was a very unseemly, unlikely, magical ,seedy little spot to grow up around- Thankyou Davis ;) —furygirl

2018-03-08 01:25:46   I grew up in Davis in the '40's and '50s. My earliest memories of The Club were that it was in a smaller location a few doors north of the current Woodstocks site which sat empty for a number of years with a sign "The Club" suggesting that the bar moved to the smaller site before I became aware of it. Then at some point it moved back. When it was at the smaller site I think it was perhaps Davis' only real bar and could only serve beer due to the law then in effect that prohibited anything stronger from being sold within 3 miles of the campus. I was too young to go there but I do remember the smell of beer and cigarette smoke when I walked by. —trailwalker