Patrons saddened over the loss of beloved watering hole
Customers of the Quail Canyon Inn on Oak Glen Avenue will have to
wait a little longer to find out exactly what happened to their
favorite watering hole and gathering place as the investigation
into the fire that totaled the bar Wednesday night continues. The
roadside bar, on a strip of land overlooking Chesbro Reservoir,
burst into flames around 11pm Wednesday. Though firefighters were
able to extinguish the blaze before it spread into the rolling
hills surrounding the bucolic area, the damage destroyed the
building.
Customers of the Quail Canyon Inn on Oak Glen Avenue will have to wait a little longer to find out exactly what happened to their favorite watering hole and gathering place as the investigation into the fire that totaled the bar Wednesday night continues.
The roadside bar, on a strip of land overlooking Chesbro Reservoir, burst into flames around 11pm Wednesday. Though firefighters were able to extinguish the blaze before it spread into the rolling hills surrounding the bucolic area, the damage destroyed the building.
“The cause of the fire is still undetermined,” California Department of Forestry Fire Prevention Specialist Chris Morgan said Friday afternoon. “These things do take time. We’re going through this very carefully. Until the investigation is complete, we won’t have damages in dollar figures, but the building is totaled.”
Investigators have been on the site, sifting through the remains of the empty shell that once was a gathering place for doctors, carpenters and bikers alike.
“The arson investigators from the Santa Clara County Fire Department are out there today,” Morgan said Friday. “The case will remain open until Sunday, and likely there will be more information later next week.”
No one was injured in the blaze, but those who spent time in the quaint bar are feeling the loss.
“It broke my heart when I drove up yesterday,” said bartender Barbara Miller. “We are a community; ‘Quailers,’ we like to call ourselves. This is neutral territory for bikers, they are one great big brotherhood here. And we’re not just bikers. We are doctors, lawyers, carpenters, contractors, plumbers, just a bunch of hillbillies who had a wonderful place to gather.”
The Quail may rise again, according to owner Georgia Jeffers, on the picturesque site jutting out into the reservoir.
“It’s so recent, I really don’t know, but I hope we can rebuild,” Jeffers said Friday. “Do you know they are having a vigil up there tonight? Some of them (customers) who are in their 50s now, they were just kids when they first started going there. Many of them are in mourning.”
The Quail Canyon Inn first opened in 1956, Jeffers said, and she and husband, Ray, bought the bar 13 years ago.
“I just loved that place,” she said. “We were blessed to be able to get it. Right now, I’m just dumbfounded.”
The atmosphere of the bar made others equally emotional at its loss.
“Someone left me a message, and when I heard the Quail was gone, I was so sad tears came out of my eyes,” said Jimmy Cedillo of Morgan Hill, who said he liked to stop in while he was out riding his Harley-Davidson. “It was a great place to find a friend, to have a cold drink and enjoy the beautiful view.”
Cedillo, who said he’d been going to the bar for 12 years, said there were never any problems when he was visiting the bar.
“I’ve never seen any fighting, or friction between people, no problems,” he said. “It was always a very pleasant, familiar atmosphere. You could get to know a lot of the people who went there regularly.”
Miller agreed with Cedillo, saying during her three years as bartender, she had become very close to the customers.
“It’s the only place I know where you can get an estimate for car repair, get your farm produce, have your animals delivered,” she said. “I’ve seen ducks delivered there, I’ve even traded a pony there. It really was a community center. I hope (the Jeffers) will rebuild. I know, if those contractors are taking their time, there will be plenty of hammers and saws out there ready to pitch right in and make sure it gets done.”
However, the bar itself had developed a reputation for tough customers according to one Gilroy Police Officer who had visited the area.
The atmosphere at the small bar deteriorated over the years, according to Gilroy Police Officer Stan Devlin, who is a motorcyclist and occasionally stopped at the bar when he was riding in the area.
But not recently.
“It’s a country road, nice motorcycle riding, and the vista is scenic when the reservoir is full,” he said Thursday. “Now, when the reservoir is dry, it’s not worth the stop. Over the years, an element has crept in, something I’m not comfortable with. I can’t remember the last time I was there.”
Devlin said members of the Outlaws motorcycle gang had begun stopping frequently at the bar, and the atmosphere changed.
“When I used to stop, in the early 90s, I was comfortable there,” he said. “It was a friendly place, a nice place to stop. But then that changed. They’ve had their problems over the years.”
In the late 1980s, Devlin said, he was a Morgan Hill Police officer, and he remembers going out to the bar “Code 3,” or urgently, to stop bar fights. He has noticed, during the years he would stop there while on a ride, some enhancements to the property, like a chain link fence, but in recent years, he said, he saw no improvements to the property.
“They tamed it down for a while, but then that element appeared,” he said.
When the fire was first reported, California Department of Forestry crews rushed into the area with two water tankers and seven engines. Santa Clara County Fire Department sent one engine to assist.
Fortunately the fire was extinguished before igniting the dry grass of the surrounding countryside. Morgan said investigators were on scene Thursday morning while firefighters “mopped up” the remaining hot spots.
A cause for the fire was not determined by press time Friday, but Morgan said his department would be taking a “close” look at the cause. He refused to elaborate.
Marilyn Dubil covers education and law enforcement for The Times. Reach her at (408) 779-4106 ext. 202 or at md****@mo*************.com.
