Welcome to the "original" Trident Restaurant's web log!  This site would like your help collecting photos, stories, and memories, from employees, patrons, and anyone that frequented this unique establishment/ experience from 1966 to 1976. 

The Kingston Trio's Trident, at 558 Bridgeway in Sausalito, uniquely reflected what was going on in the late 60's and through the mid 70's in the Bay Area.  Janis Joplin had her own table when she came in.   In 1974, after their concert, the Rolling Stones held a private party thrown by Bill Graham.   The night the Trident closed in 1976, most of the employees had taken some sort of mind altering substance ,and the "kind" was freely indulged in throughout the evening ... without any incidents or trouble from the Sausalito Police who were in attendence.
What a trip!

Have the times changed?  Your thoughts, stories, photos, and memories are welcomed!

Email photos, stories, or videos to : Endorfunns@aol.com  or post your comments on the site, and enjoy the conversation.

I realize there are many interpretations for or of "getting your freak on", but until I saw this photo did I really ever understand...if anyone has a clue what's going on here, please fill in the blanks....

     It was the archetypal fern bar, the creme de la hip Sausalito saloon that floated on sex, drugs, and Rock and Roll.  The Trident  was open from 1961 to 1980.
     Launched as a Jazz Club by the Kingston Trio, it was refurbished in 1968 by the group's manager Frank Werber, who sought to catch the spontaneous, give peace a chance spirit of the day.  It became a mecca for rock stars,celebrities and hipsters, young and old.
     "It was like riding a hurrican," says Werber, now 61 and living in Maui. "The Trident was definitely a manifestation of it's time and a forerunner and trendsetter for multitudes of restaurants, and it's effects are still being felt in the cool 90s.  Staffers were like family members who regarded the place as a chapel, it was a spiritual experience."
     The Trident hosted impromptu concerts by Mick Jagger, Janis Joplin, threw legendary parties and provided the setting for a scene from Woody Allen's "Play It Again Sam""    
It's story attractions included platoons of attractive waitresses hired as much for their good looks as their ability to charm customers.  Robin Williams, then a struggling comedian, worked there for a time as a busboy, getting the job "because of his antics," Werber said.
     Employees were hired after Trident executives reviewed Polaroid pictures of them.  A prospect's persona was also critical.              
     Among the Trident's hallmarks were handcrafted wood, stained glass, art and music.
     Organic food laced an eclectic menu.  The menu - a psychedelic work of art that now sells for $100 a print - exclaimed: "Welcome to our space. Positive energy projection is the trip."
     Located at 558 Bridgeway beneath the old Ondine's and now the home of Horizons, the Trident was favored by Woody Allen, the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Clint Eastwood, Tommy Smothers, Groucho Marx, David Crosby,StevenStills, Pink Floyd, Allan Watts, and scores of other noted customers.

Article by Nels Johnson IJ Associate Editor

The ever popular Trident Matches....this way you don't have to turn your monitor upside down...unless of course you want to.
And, who was the Artist?  These matches served many creative purposes, including ...oh well, ..nuff said. 

May 2010 be your best year ever!

          Hi everyone, Patrick Pendleton here…the nearly normal night-shift manager.  (Maintenance!) I started working for the Kingston Trio Inc. in May of 1969, a few weeks after my 21^st birthday. My god…has it really been more than forty years?

          I’ve tried several times over the years to describe; no, to recount, explain and capture what it was like to work or even “be on the scene”  at the Trident. Even now, I think there’s a book in this at least. As I age, I’ve noticed that nostalgia isn’t what it used to be and I wonder if I haven’t over-romanticized the whole era. Yet when I stumbled onto this website while fooling around in Google, I realized that so many of us who worked there were on our way to becoming something or someone and that it had a huge impact on us. So nice to connect with you all again! 

        Night times, the right  time! For seven years more I think, I thought I had the best job in the world. After the big 1000 watt custom-made, improvised work lights – cobbled together from old studio microphone stands came on, after the last alcoholics-in-training had been sent home (You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here), the waitresses, busboys, bartenders have all gone home (mostly) and the night managers have doled out all the blow and boo they’re going to…that’s when the real fun began. It was like a club within a club. Membership was small – there was Milt Hunt, owner and operator of an enterprise known as Great Northern Maintenance Co. Milty didn’t like to come in at night – he had me for that…but he was a great friend ,and man could he make you laugh!  

         He was also a very useful buffer between the maintenance crew and the Trident brain trust. C’mon, you can say it…Frank could be uh, Difficult? Challenging?  Then there were the boys, my troops. Chris Lowe, who we used to call “Chicago” for reasons which escape me now, he was really from Kansas was there for a few years. Then there was Chris Leitz, and Henry Socorso, collectively known by their nom de guerre, Cosmic Popcorn. They were a couple of New York kids who came to California to start a rock band and the last time I heard from them, they were living in LA. When I first started, Clem Borraseau, who started doing the plants when Brian and Frank had a falling out, was the gardener and Thomas Charles Ribar AKA “Squeege Sam” was the window washer. That cat grew the best herb I’ve ever smoked. He’d been a Navy Aircraft Mechanic in the service and he was wound rather tightly. Later on, his duties were expanded to include caring for the over four hundred plants that were rotated in and out of the Trident. We would all gather at the big table just beyond the kitchen and everyone would have something to smoke, and often there were more exotic substances. The point was…this was a place and a time where we weren’t supposed to be caught not high! What a concept! We had the radio blasting, KMPX or KSAN playing all that incredible music that we now call “oldies”. George Horn, who was a recording engineer with Columbia Records, put together what was for the time, a very exceptional sound system.         
         Of course, from time to time, there would be visitors…I remember one night in particular when Steve Elvin had his scaffolding set up to finish his ceiling mural. The work on sweeping and mopping couldn’t begin until he’d finished so to pass the time, I got up on the scaffold and helped him paint. A local Chronicle reporter asked him if he ever felt like Micheangelo painting the Sistene Chapel, and he replied, “Listen, I paint exactly the way Micheangelo would if he had taken peyote and lived with the Indians.” 

        Anyway, on that particular night, Grover Boaz, who had done a significant amount of the carpentry and who was at the time one of the night-managers, came in with Don Lewis, Roger Lewis, Ramblin’ Jack Eliot, and John Stevens, noted songwriter and drunk. (No meetings for him) They’re all three sheets to the wind and fixin’ to hoist another sail. Needless to say, the booze and blow flowed. And the music…wow. Every time I hear “912 Toulouse St.”, it brings me to tears simply based on the emotional charge that experience bestowed on me. Somehow, no matter how much dope was consumed, or how late the parties lasted, or how late the ladies stayed, “Club Swell” was always left shiny and clean the next day. We were rewarded with what are arguably the most amazing sunrises I’ve ever seen. Later on, as I recall, Lisa Sharp’s brother, Mel joined the crew. Someone told me he is still there…is that true? About the time Frank was doing his six month stint in stir, I lost my license for a couple of months and also had to do my bit at the Honor Farm.  Mel Sharp and Betty Laverene would pick me up and drive me to work. What a beauty! There were a lot of girls actually… I may have fallen in love with twenty or more during the seven + years I worked there. As I die and my strange but rich life passes before me, I’ll remember fondly some of those ladies. Small wonder…during that whole period of my life and many years afterward, I was, for all practical purposes, a caboose for my penis. It seems funny to me now when viewed against the grey schmere that is contemporary California political correctness. The place I grew up in and loved just isn’t there anymore. “.We have met the enemy and he is us.” And I still say there is a book here.           

            I remember well the night of the robbery. These guys came in about 2:30 am wearing wetsuits. The papers started calling it the “Frogman Robbery”. They threw dish aprons over our heads (there was only Squeege Sam and I there that night) and made us sit on the floor in the men’s room and told us to stay there until morning but we only waited about forty minutes before calling the police at about 4:30am. We subsequently had to look at mugshots and testify at the robbers’ trial. It was supposed to be a scary deal because one of the defendants was allegedly affiliated with crime boss Sam Giancana but it ended up working out okay and I was able to get the DA, Ernest Zunino, to quash a bunch of old traffic warrants for me. That isn’t the only time there was an attempted robbery either. One time, Robin Williams, myself and this beautiful blond hostess, Bonnie were smoking a joint across the street in what was the maintenance shop and my dog, Einstein, started barking like crazy and this raggedy guy with a gun wanted the combination to a safe he believed was upstairs in Frank’s playhouse. We all kinda talked him out of it though. Who knew the job could be so dangerous?  

            There sure were a lot of good memories in that place. I gradually started working more and more as a carpenter and cabinet maker. I think we worked on this big tour bus for Neil Young for about two years…that was a lot of fun. I now live in a little seaside beach community in New Hampshire and I have never been able to adequately describe the crazy place in which we all once worked. I bet Dagney  could do it!        Cio for now. And , Merry Christmas
Email Patrick at: Gizmo754@aol.com

Sharlee

Did you know about Manager John my roommate at the time, who got coked out and stole the contents of the safe?. However he left enough money in banks to open the restaurant the following morning!   Next, the opening manager Skipper Cutty cleaned out the bank money before calling Lou, Frank, and the police ... so, when we all had to take lie detectors in a suite they booked at  the Alta Mira ... Skipper was going to fail, so John confessed.   Frank didn't turn him in, but confiscated the stash John bought, and Frank shared it with staff commenting on each line what poor taste John had.  I didn't think it was that bad.

The punch line?  Rip-Off John ended up, and still may be the DA in Sonoma County?  All because Frank didn't charge him.

By the way, for the Trident talent show Sharlee did a strip tease as the finale.  Her main talent.

I was also held up at gun point twice in my Trident history, and I was working the time the nude streaker guy ran down the bar surface, across the floor, and dove into the Bay. 

When I met Mick Jagger at a private party he asked for a margarita and I turned him onto a Tequila Sunrise which Billy Rice and myself invented in 1970,  when the Trident served more tequila then all the other bars in the US combined.  There is documentation on this somewhere.  Anyways, Mick took the drink across country in 1972 and promoted it.

And of course I was tending bar for the Hell's Angel's Sunday afternoon take over and subsequent fight with the offensive line of the San Francisco Forty Niners.  The next day it made the headlines of the San Francisco Chronicle. And,the San Francisco Forty Niners won! The Hells Angels used glass coffee pots from the bus stations as frisbee type weapons and damaged some players.  Which became the reason thereafter we only used metal coffee pots.  I never used a pyrex pot again in my career. Dangerous weapons!

More excerpts from emails:

Frank's original lawyer was Michael Metzger, Metzger was brought in by the Feds from NY to prosecute Frank.  He lost.   Metzger quit the prosecutors office and then got divorced, and then joined Frank's law team, and took up with the Trident waitresses. The Feds then busted him and Frank, at the DeSilva Island house and it made a big stink in the newspapers.

Shirly, aka Thunder Pussy, Styles, and Debris was among the most exotic girls to work at Trident.  Hard core sixties Gate Fiver.   One week Lou ordered her to do cocktails on deck against her wishes, and she went out and changed into a riské Pre WWII sleazy cocktail outfit.  A tiny red crinoline sticking out perpendicular from the crotch and not much more, but very artsy.

She also starred in the non commercial porno "Marriage of Captain Garbage andThunder Pussy"  filmed in the mud  location at Gate Five around 1969.  In that era non commercial meant for fun of it.  She also sang with "the Tubes" for years.

BTW:  After the Jazz Club days up to the beginnings of the Trident Frank's nick name in the press was "High Priest."   Tommy Smothers was also in attendence for the trial with other celebrities like the Reverend Cecil Williams!

Email Bobby in Maui at: bobby@lahaina-maui.net

 

       
Trident Interior                                          Bobby in Maui                           Bob's Blue Max in Maui

Join the conversation on Facebook: Search: the Trident

        

        I don’t know if this is true with all vocations but I know from personal experience that there comes a time in every struggling musicians career when you just have to say “this is the shits…I’m tired of constantly being broke” and go find a “day gig”. Well….armed with a lofty resume and a great opening interview line..”Hi! I’m a  20 year old  struggling musician, high school drop out w/ a grand total 3 yrs. dishwashing experience”……fortunately for me the girlfriend of one of my bands mates had taken note of my situation and said “hey, why don’t you go apply at the Trident in Sausalito where I work. They take applications on Mondays and they’re lookin’ for dishwashers”. So I went the very next Monday and applied & was hired on the spot. Little did I know just how drastically this “career choice” would affect my life’s path…even to this very moment. I learned an incredibly diverse array of skills in a relatively short span of time (and no, it wasn’t the fine art of de-glazing a brandy snifter after some asshole had demanded a “Spanish Coffee” or the art of not actually getting in “The Big Soup Pot” after they cooked up that God awful cold fish soup (I don’t know how to spell it but I’m sure y’all know what I’m referring to) but still getting it spotless and w/o smellin’ like a huge dead tuna. Most of the kitchen staff were pretty cool about showin’ ya the ropes. Especially the sauté (or “hot side”) guys. I think mostly because they wanted their stuff prep’d just so. I got real proficient with an assortment of cutlery. I began to diversify my budding mechanical career fixing “Old Hobart” at least once a week (until that time it had been strictly automotive born of the 16 year old need to drive….Father to son ..”if you can make that POS run I’ll buy it for you….all of $175  for a ’48 Ford F1 flatbed w/ a Chevy 283 V8 in it….what a mutt!) and if you wanted extra work, you could come in on Mondays and work w/ ace handyman Chuck Fallo on all kinds of stuff. (Ron Good/Busperson)           All that was and still is useful, but the knowledge gained and experiences I value the most are from the interactions with the people that I worked for & along side during my 8 year career at Trident. Christ! What a character study! Like a Goddamn Fellini flick! From Pierre the chef to Iraj (aka Roger), Terry Lawson, Bobby Lozoff at the bar, Lou Gannapoler & Dagne to Big John, Mike Toomey & the late Jim Sassani to Richard L, Marshall Bloomstock , Dennis Wright & Lisa Sharp……..and the supporting cast in the kitchen and on the floor the names of whom will undoubtedly arise somewhere in the following text. And then of course, there were……the women. Ah yes…the famed “Trident Waitresses”. This, I have to admit, was definitely a new development & addition (and a welcome one boy howdy!) to my food services employee experience. DAMN!

These weren’t just “good lookin’”…no, more like….exquisite……stunning… ….ravishing………….WOW!  Needless to say this could be heaven or some sort of cruel torture for a 20 yr old walking hormone. I probably could have made a fortune selling my “dry side” shifts as well! For those of you who didn’t get to experience the dishwashing environment, “dry side” was the dishwashers station parallel with and had a direct view of, the waitress station side of the kitchen. I’ve often wondered if the amount of dry side breakage increased substantially during the warm summer months.  

        All adolescent hi jinx aside I have to say that their physical attributes not with standing, most of these ladies were and still are some of the sweetest, caring human beings I have ever known. 

Post by Evan Palmerston and Images by Jiro/Melvin

Evan's email: psyckn@sbcglobal.net

Jiro's  email: bookofshadows4@yahoo.com

          As it seems to be a natural evolution of sorts, as one gets more proficient and confident with the task at hand, suddenly (well…maybe not too suddenly) you get the itch to advance, try different and more challenging tasks & skills…..hang out in the dinning room where the real action is. By this time I had become the lead “dish maintenance tech” aka King dish dog on whatever shift I pulled. This had definite advantages over being the “new boy”. The most useful was being able to delegate any number of the “not so desirable tasks” to the newer (but not yet wiser) dish cadets. The more significant fact at this juncture was that  Pierre & most of the cooks had decided they wanted to groom you for either prep, cold side, and possibly even “hot side”….but that was a stretch ‘cuz the guys they had back there were institutions, they were like fighter jocks with sauté pans instead of machine guns, micro wave ovens instead of airplanes (and in top dog Pierre’s case the Enola Gay aka big soup pot) with all the “attitude” and “swagger” one would expect from someone in the ah…restaurant business. So one day I was told that they thought I was doin’ an outstanding job and would I like to “train” to do cold side……but I had already been beckoned by the lure of “the floor” with it’s promise of actual interaction with the “Trident Waitresses” (as in actual verbal communication instead of the looks of pity you get as a “dish dog”) interaction with consumers, better tips, etc., etc., So yes, I went the way of the college drop out turned pro athlete (a figurative analogy here folks) and turned them down to be a “busboy”. I must declare here & now that my experience working in an industrial kitchen, especially this one, is directly responsible for solidifying my work ethic (originally instilled in my psyche by my mom). These people worked their asses off! And expected no less from anyone else at the establishment and it rubbed off on me permanently for which I am eternally grateful.          But none the less I accepted the offer to get “on the floor” and put that work ethic to use as a Trident busboy! Whoa! I was actually there…….and this job turned out to be just as jammin’ as doin’ wet side or anything else for that matter. But it was different. You were treated different, not better or worse, just different. If the hot side guys were fighter pilots, the busboys & dish dawgs were ground support. The waitresses were Vegas showgirls & the bartenders gunslingers! It was a stage, a show case that people came in droves to witness while dining, drinking or just “hangin’ out” (which there was a lot of) and just when you thought you could catch your breath and take in some of this spectacle, the unmistakable sound of “carry out” would find you at the very deepest recesses of the dining room. I could even detect the faintest hint of a  “carry out” at the farthest ends of “the deck”. These requests would invariably come when your hands were full and your momentum was carrying you in the exact opposite direction but hey you just dropped what you were doing and did the carry out….that was the gig. When there were 4 and I think once in a great while (I may be wrong here about numbers) 5 busboy’s on the floor  and they were all hustler’s, the room ran like a well oiled machine. You worked your tail off but it was rewarding when you knew you had kicked ass and “run the room”. I think that is one of the main factors the made working at the Trident so unique. Instead of just going through the motions and waiting for that pay check at some funky greasy spoon, you actually strived to make it easier on the waitresses & bar crew (this is my opinion of course). Of course I’d be full of BS if I claimed that I looked forward to going to work at the “Dent” everyday I was scheduled but I never felt that it was boring or useless. And I think the diversity of the staff was what kept things interesting. All walks of life, with lots of different takes on the whole scene. And low and behold if you were an artist….of any type you were openly accepted and even encouraged to pursue your art. I never felt I had to conceal the fact that I was carving out a life as a musician and that the “Dent” was just a stepping stone for a lot of us. So if you “got hot” as the saying went and did your job everything was cool. Though every now and then there would be someone who would test the strength of that institution but that was fairly rare.  

Post by Evan Palmerston: email: psyckn@sbcglobal.net

Photos by Jiro Yoneshige: email: bookofshadows4@yahoo.com

 You Want Me to What?!!!

      Bussing was not without it’s hazards though. There were a lot of “events” that occurred on my watch but there are but 4 that really stand out in my mind. One: Picture a summer Sunday brunch with beautiful weather……place is packed, we’re slammin’ and all of a sudden a manager beckons me over to the phone booth (popular rendezvous spot for secret conversations…among other things) and in a slightly shaken whisper announces “I need you to go look for a bomb”…….Well, you can imagine the multitude of questions running through my head not the least of which was “you want me to what?!?” which I asked in no such whisper. But when asked again I had grasped the situation and like a trained robot went off and looked for what I thought a bomb might look like (visualize Wiley Coyote here).  As I was walking around all the places I thought someone could possibly put such a device the police had been summoned and the restaurant cleared and no bomb found by either yours truly or the police. This happened one more time in the same year I think which made it obvious that it was some disgruntled former employee calling in these threats to wreak havoc during the rush. Not funny! (Photo late seventies)
   Two: One year, I forget what triggered the idea, it was decided that someone had too “streak” through the restaurant at the height of the rush. I think it was the opening day of yacht season and possibly to compliment our annual topless woman in an Indian headdress buzzing the deck on a very expensive looking yacht. Anyway I’m not sure how it came about but Eric Shuggar was to be the “streaker”. The plan was for him to bolt from behind the cashiers box  run to about mid room, execute some complimentary pirouettes & and exit to the bench at mid deck where myself and I think two other streaking assistants were waiting to toss old Eric off the deck into the bay. This was all fine and very trendy until I realized that I hadn’t really thought about how we were gonna grab a naked dude with enough grip in a place where we wouldn’t hurt either him or his pride, to “toss him up and over the bench … clearing the deck railing and the flag poles that stuck out every few feet or so. As he came racing out and towards us I just kept saying to myself…”self, if ever there was a time for you to be extremely accurate this is it”……..and so into the drink, went Eric… maybe not as gracefully as he could have but to our relief all hand prints were accounted for on his back and lower legs and his voice retained the lower register…….whew!      Three:  There were just everyday type hazards associated with this type of work as well. Cuts, burns, etc,. and even if you’re as careful as can be there will be something that gets ya sooner or later. One of the most feared hazards were the ever present “black holes”. These were small pools of water on the floor from spills or plants draining, any number of causes. Because the floor was wood and coated with an incredibly hard thick plastic finish you couldn’t always detect them. One fine summer day I happened to find one of these little buggers as I was coming out of the kitchen doing the “One handed goblet tray balancing while running act” passing just in front of a packed dinning table. Of course it it was the height of the rush….and I did not see the large, multi pronged “black hole” directly in my path. The table referenced here is one of two very large tables capable of seating at least 10… anyway, down I went. It was so fast that I didn’t remember the trip down, just that one moment I was cruisin’ the next I was on the floor with my right arm buried in a pile of broken glass. The goblets I was carrying were big heavy glass mugs on stems. I think you could only get 12 on a tray but they were heavy so when you were carrying them to any specific place, you wanted to pick ‘em up transport and deliver in as few moves as possible…..which I did…just minus the third or delivery phase. The sound was as though a bomb had gone off. It literally froze the room. You could hear a pin drop and I’ll never forget the look on the faces of my direct audience seated ring side. Picture this: the audience reaction to the number at the end of the first act in Mel Brooks “The Producers” called “Spring Time for Hitler” same look, but some were terrified because apparently it looked by the way I was holding my arm when I got up, as though it were broken and I was bleeding pretty good from all the chards of glass stuck in my forearm.   
     
Gary/ Espresso Bar 

Jan McDonald                                           Sue C.

Post by Evan Palmerston: email: psyckn@sbcglobal.net

Photos by Jiro Yoneshige: email: bookofshadows4@yahoo.com
 
 

I’ll never forget my final shift as a Trident busboy. I had already advanced to the “espresso bar” & been there for almost a year (I think) and was still doin’ some bus shifts when the “Dent” had to close for repairs to the deck or more importantly the pilings that held the whole place up. This was December of 1975 I think and there was a closing party that they need people work. Well nobody wanted to work that shift of course because there was just too much partyin’ to be had. I don’t remember if I volunteered or they asked me to bus but I wound up working that night which in and of itself was odd because I usually only worked days due to my musical commitments. Now that I think of it I believe it was the bar crew that asked specifically for me to bus. I had always hustled extra hard for the bar guys because the better you took care of them the faster they got the drink orders out and the happier the waitresses were. I would appreciate that myself I would come to learn a few years down the line. Anyway, long story short, it was mayhem. The place was absolutely packed. Busier and more crowded than I certainly had ever witnessed. We were just slammin’ all night long..no let up (until it was over)  The kitchen & bar staff were trying to empty the place of inventory and it was pretty evident they were going to be successful. The trick was getting to the areas where the stock was when all access across the floor was blocked by increasingly well lubricated party goer’s.  
     

FOR OPTIMAL VIEWING CLICK ON HQ (HIGH QUALITY)
ON YOUTUBE'S LOWER TOOL BAR
Special thanks to Rob Lawson, Terry's brother, for providing the video (SHOT BY TERRY) and the additional footage that's recently surfaced. Rob Lawson works for West Coast Mortgage and can be reached at: 415-328-8866 Email:Robert@WestCoastmtg.com

From LaDonna in Florida

Watch in "HQ" on the lower toolbar for best effects...

Chris and Lorin talk about moving to California and falling into the West Coast music scene.  From their first album record party release at the Trident restaurant in the early 70s to the release of their new album Now and Then. May 28, 2009

May 24, 2009 the San Francisco Chronicle ran this two page article in the Sunday Pink Section about Chris and Lorin:
The Rowan Brothers: Rubber Soldiers

And, check out their web site: Rowan Brothers

May 28, 2009   Chris and Lorin knock out a Beatle's "MashUp" and an original song from their new album: Now and Then

Rowan Brother's Web Site

Special thanks to Horizons Restaurant for their gracious hospitality!

There's a gravitas you feel when you stand in a place where something important happened. 

The Sausalito Historical Society's April 23 fundraising dinner for this year was a sellout, with every table packed with people ready to turn back the clock to recreate the legendary Trident Restaurant of the 1960's and 70's.  The event was almost surreal, since it was held at Horizons Restaurant, the current incarnation of the Trident's building, which still features much of the look of the original 1960's and 1970's decor: beautifully hand-carved woodwork, wall and ceiling murals and gracefuly curved arches and windows.  The feeling was amplified by many guests arriving decked out in their memories of the clothing of 40 years ago, some with stunning accuracy.  I wondered if the people sitting at or near "Janis Joplin's table" knew its significance, but the place was so packed it was impractical to work my way over there to ask.  For the rest of this story go to: The Legendary Trident Rises Again!

The Rowan Brothers Web Site

Rene titled this photo: Hippy Family. And, here's what Rene had to say," After a year on the big island I returned to Marin broke but brown in 1973.  I got a job washing dishes at Scoma's, and within a few weeks Lou and Frank hired me to wash dishes next door at the Trident.  I knew them both in North Beach in San Francisco when I worked for Enrico at the Hungry I during the late 60's.  When Lou's son David quit I filled his slot as a bus boy along with Robin and Eric.  At some point someone gave me a 50 pound bale of Guajira Gold and suddenly I could afford to hang out at the Trident !  (Pictured: Rene, Laureen, Michelle, and Shannon Pittet)

On Thursday April  23rd, 2009 there was a fundraiser for the Sausalito Historical Society at Horizon's Restaurant.  The "Theme" was  the Trident Restaurant from it's early days as a Jazz Club through the late sixties into the seventies as one of the most unique, creative, and wonderful experiences to ever take place along the Sausalito waterfront.  Click on the orange links below for more information and a link to photos of the event that can be ordered through that photographer's web site:
The Legendary Trident Rises Again!

The Rise of the Legendary Trident event Photos

In 1971 and 1972 I lived on a houseboat at Gate 5 on Waldo Point and loved to go to the Trident and share a brown rice and steak dish with my boyfriend. My mouth still waters thinking about how good it was. But it wasn't quite as mouth watering as the musician I was dating who played lead guitar and sang with his band at the Trident. I had just moved out to California from Chicago right after graduating high school. It was an incredible time and very surreal... Marin County was the mecca of creativity and talent and the Trident was one of the main stomping grounds. The whole town of Sausalito buzzed and Gate 5 was totally tripped out. I lived next door to Shel Silverstein and I was a waitress at the Sweetshop just down the road. I often waited on David Crosby and friends for breakfast and lunch. Almost everyday this great looking sandy haired guy would come in and bring me flowers. It turned out he was this incredible musician at the Trident who also played a lot of clubs in San Francisco. I can remember a lot of great things about him, but there are a lot of things I can't remember from that time, and I can't remember his name or the name of his band... One of my favorites songs they sang was Van Morrison's, "Crazy Love." The Trident had incredible musians play there as well as patronize it. I was pretty naive, but every thing was so laid back and over the top...it was just another day in the life to have Jerry Garcia or Grace Slick or, well, you name it, come into to town and come to the Trident. I know that having so much creative energy from that time still influences me as a singer songwriter today. The Trident will live on with great memories for all of us.
www.AnnettesMusic.com

There was a party on a beach near Point Reyes. There were a bunch of Trident people there, though I think it might have been Terry's chef/friend Joaquin who threw the party, (he would collect mussels at low tide, and use them in the Paella he cooked right on the beach). It had been a windy day, and the waves were quite choppy. Terry however, jumped in to someone's kayak, and started paddling around. After a little while, we noticed that Terry was waving to us. It became apparent, as he kept going further and further out, that he was caught in a rip current, and couldn't get back in. Someone (it might have been Richard) hiked back up to find a payphone to call police. The Coast Guard came down, and said it was too dangerous to go out in their zodiac, so they radioed out to a big tanker off shore. It seems it was a Turkish ship, and no one spoke English. They did eventually get the message, and plucked a shivering Terry out of the channel, and dropped him off at Treasure Island after they docked, sometime the next day. What a story he had to tell.  There were certainly angels watching over Terry Lawson that day, as I am sure they are now.


Teren and Terry 1974 North Beach Photo Fair

 I was only a casual background item at the old Trident. I did work there when it was Horizon's, and my mother even worked there (around 1960) when it was called The Yacht Club (I remember her calling it "The Yacht Dock" though). Most of my memories come from dating the infamous bartender Terry Lawson.
Remembering Terry Lawson...
Can you believe that Terry Lawson would have been 60 years old this week?

I started dating Terry in 1974 when I was barely 17 years old. He used to smuggle me in to the dark corner bench seat at the far end of the bar. Sometimes I would have to sit in his old VW with his dog "Say Man" waiting for the weekly meeting to end (that was back when they still let him park on the parking deck). I remember watching Robin and Eric come out the kitchen door, cutting it up and making me laugh. Terry moved with me when I went to college in LA in 1976, then I accompanied him to Maui in 1978. We hung out with Bobby L. at The Blue Max, who even invited us to a private performance there by Stevie Nicks. Terry and I stopped living together shortly after that. But we remained friends until the end. Later on, (I think it was 1980, but those times are hazy at best) I went to work at Horizon's as a "Hostess with the Mostess", but didn't last long.

I used to call Mary Lawson each year on this day to wish her a Happy Birthday after Terry had passed, but now that she is gone too, I thought I would honour his memory by posting my thoughts here.

Happy Birthday Terry!

YOU!

Teren (Umphress) Lawler
Marinite27@aol.com

      My name is Michael Toomey.  I worked at the Trident from 1970 until the last days in 1980.   I found this site by accident.  I don't know where to begin, except up to this date it was the best job I ever had.
      In one of the pictures you'll see a North Bay Produce truck and that's where I've been the last 24 years.  I still have one friend that I stay in touch with.  That's Jones Pollard.  He was a busboy at that time.  Above my bed I still have the Trident menu framed.  
      I started off on the broiler and was making $5 an hour.  It was a decent wage for the times.  I worked with Jim Susana and Big John.   I remember the Trident closing briefly in 1976 by Ron, the owner, for repairs.  Shortly thereafter Jim Susana died in a motorcycle accident.  We were all across the street in a meeting when Jim's brother walked in and told us the horrible news.  We were all in shock.  It gets worse.  In 1974 Pierre was diagnosed with cancer and that's when I became Chef.
     I think I was 25 years old and had no idea what I was doing.  Add to the fact that I was doing one hundred cross tops a day and all the other stuff that was going around then, I don't know how I managed to get through the day, or should I say days?  I didn't have a clue what food costs were, and all the other responsibilities that went along with running a kitchen.  If it weren't for the kindness and the compassion of Lisa Sharp I don't think I would have made it.  Lisa, I just want to take this opportunity to say, "Thank You!"
    Between the years of 75 and 76 it was apparent that Pierre was losing his battle with cancer. One afternoon he looked at me and said, "Goofy, come into my office." In his office he handed me a folder with all the Trident recipes.  He looked me straight in the eye and said, "the management will try to procure them, whatever you do, keep them to yourself."  He also gave me all his knives and other apparatuses.  He came in less frequently until his death in 1978.
    Pierre lived about two blocks away from the Trident at the time, and after work I would go to his house periodically and talk about what specials I'd served that day.  It's so devastating to see a man deterorate so rapidly.  As predicted  they did come after the recipes, and I never did give them up.  In the last two years the menu started to change along with an era.  I was fortunate to be a part of it, and the memoirs that parallel.
     Yes I worked with Robin Williams.  We closed the restaurant for the Rolling Stones and the mighty Led Zeppelin along with many famous people that passed through..  the women were something to die for.  I was married at the time and swear I never touched one but came pretty close.
     Sundays were always coke night.  My wife at the time was working down the street at a T-shirt place called Stevens.  We'd go back to my place and pull all nighters.  Before you knew it, here comes the sun.  The Trident was closed on Mondays, and was a prep day. Anyway, I'm 55 now but look back on those years as the best days of my life.
Mike Toomey can be emailed at: toomboom@comcast.net

HAPPY HOLIDAYS from The TridentRestaurant.com!
May peace break into your house, and may thieves steal all your debts.
May the pocket of your jeans become a magnet for $100 bills.
May love stick to your face like Vaseline, and may laughter assault your lips.
May your clothes smell of success like smoking tires.
May happiness slap you across  the face,
And, may your tears be those of joy!
May 2009 be the best year of your life !!!   

 

No L?  Holiday Salutation on Bridgeway in Sausalito.....NOEL!

 Hello Stranger!

This is Carla Heine. My dad Edmund Heine was chief architect for Kingston Trio Properties. He designed the Trident Restaurant, and Frank Werber's house on De Silva Island.

My brother and I found an eight car garage full of classic cars from the 60's in the wine country. Amongst them was Frank Werber's car, the bright red convertible Cadillac! If that car could talk!

Carla's email is: sonoma1@hotmail.com



PS: My Trident memories are not of the Rock and Roll Variety, I came with my dad for the Trident's famous Shirley Temples when my dad came in on business, However:

Do you remember the trap door under the Trident?
I remember it. The secret passage into the Trident from Frank Werber's sailboat.

Do you remember the tattoo on Frank's wrist?
I had never seen an Auschwitz tattoo before. I asked him if it was his Social Security Number, and he thought that was pretty funny. Later my dad told me what that kind of tattoo meant.

Do you remember when Tommy Smothers spoke as a character witness for the trial, after the authorities caught onto the trap door and the Sailboat trips to Mexico for quality and quantities of some very righteous weed?
Tommy told the Judge that he had known Frank for years, and that he was a much nicer person since he started smoking marijuana. The courtroom was crammed, and even the Judge laughed.

Did you know that the original Trident wood-worker artists had a working reunion in Sonoma in 1972, when the mortuary that is now Deuce Restaurant on Broadway was converted to a restaurant? All the wood and wrought iron there were done by the same men!

Do you remember Ronnie Shell's audition with Frank for the Kingston Trio? He came in right before John Stewart. After the audition, he said: "Well, I have to go now. I have another guitar lesson in twenty minutes."

The Trident sure was the Eye of the Cyclone!

Do you remember when John and Buffy Ford fell in love, and didn't surface for five weeks? That was a panic!

The first time I saw Nick he was parked in his new sports car on the deck-parking lot of the Trident, and he was picking his nose. The last time I saw him was at his son's little league game. We were lying on the lawn and I asked him why he wanted to move to Oregon. He said he needed the change, and the whole Sausalito scene was getting too built up, and he had had a good run with the Trio, but he wanted to move forward with his own life. He was chewing the white pulp of a green grass stem and looking off into the future.

Were you at the Hungry I, when Frank was working there in North Beach as a dishwasher? He was up to his elbows in suds and dishwater in the back, and he heard these three kids from Stanford singing out front, and he cornered them after the show and outlined his plans for them and signed them on the spot, and quit his job. That's how he told it to me.

Did you go to the KFRC Magic Mountain Festival in the late 1960's? Frank was instrumental in putting that together. He was there so far in advance that he had a big Indian Tee-pee set up just a short distance from the stage. We were burning several jumbo joints, and his girlfriend was a little nervous, because she had seen this black net shirt at Marin Army Surplus Store, and asked Frank to buy it for her, and he said he would, but only if she promised never to wear anything under it. Which was why she was a little nervous in the tee-pee.

That was a great concert. We were in the tee-pee when we heard a helicopter, and Frank said "That's Donovan; he's always late."

Another great tee-pee line was : "Who the Fuck are the Doors?"

And: "Canned Heat and their Canned Shit!"

That's about it from me, for Trident Memories.

Carla in Sonoma

(If you'd like to know more about the Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Festival on Mount Tamalpais - check out my site with the Marin Independent Journal newspaper at:  Marin History   * * *  scroll down a couple of post for photos...and then scroll down further to a copy of the program...this was the first large outdoor Music Festival - before the Monterey Jazz and Pop and before Woodstock - once more, Marin County leading the way...and, the Doors playing before their first large audience.... only in Marin!)

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of Nick Reynolds who passed away at the age of 75. Bob Shane, John Stewart, and Nick Reynolds are pictured here in a January 31, 1967 photo of the Kingston Trio. Nick was a founding member of the Kingston Trio that jump started the revival folk music scene of the late 1950s and paved the way for artists such as Bob Dylan and Joan Baez.

(These are the first offerings of photos provided by Suzanne...more will follow in the next couple of weeks)

I love the warm nostalgic feeling upon viewing the The Trident pictures, and reading all the comments.  I don't know what possessed me to look The Trident up, but I am so glad I found this site.   What a treasure to have worked there.  Susan Holsapple and Carol trained me I believe.  I made many friendships there, and remain in contact with a few.   Bless all of you.  I remember The Trident as working with truly beautiful people, inside and out.  I have worked with Aerosmith for the past 20 years, and many others, and I love it!

http://www.suzyshacklechick.com
Suzyshacklechick@aol.com


Suzanne


Halloween Group Shot


Suzanne, Kathy, and Dale


Trident Waitressess

(Suzanne worked at the origninal Trident, and continued on in the subsequent versions of the Trident after it's initial closing in 1976)

Thanks again to Lisa and Mel Sharp! Here you go, Pierre's Cheesecake Receipe (food stains and all). Scroll down past Pierre's handwriting and Lisa has included a translated version.  Lisa has wow-ed family and friends with this cheesecake who say this is the "Best Cheesecake they've ever had!"  Enjoy!

Graham Cracker Crumbs, butter, 16 oz. Cream Cheese, 1 pt.Sour Cream, Lemon, Vanilla,Honey and 3 Eggs
________
Crust: Preheat oven to 350 degrees, prepare crust according to box or mix, 1/4 cup crumbs with 1/4 cup melted butter. Line 9" pie plate with mixture & bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Let cool.
________
Preheat oven to 375 degrees, mix softened cream cheese with 3 beatened eggs, 1 teaspoon lemon juice, 1 teaspoon vanilla: then blend in 3/4 cup honey (electric mixer makes it smoother), pour into crust and bake 25 minutes.  Cool completely to room temperture.
________
Preheat oven to 425 degrees, mix sour cream with approximately 2 1/2 tablespoons honey, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice, pour over baked part and bake 10 minutes.  Allow to cool, then refrigerate for 6 to 10 hours (the hardest part!) Enjoy!

Photo 2008 by Paul Chinn - San Francisco Chronicle

Found this accidently in "My Documents" not sure who the source is?  Mel Sharp?

     I don't have any photos or stories about famous folk, just boyhood memories about the Trident. My father, Joe Morin, worked there and often my mother, sister and I would visit there.  Memories include the best steak teriyaki ever, a meal i have tried to re-discover in the ensuing 40 years in vain.  Then there was the feel of walking across the timbered dock parking lot and the salty smell of the bay.  My sister and I would go crabbing from the barnacled pier, letting down our traps and later pulling on the rope to reveal some wonderful clawed monsters moving about in their little cages. Back indoors were more tasty smells, a seat at the bar (Shirley Temples for my sis, a Roy Rogers for me), a glimpse of Lee Marvin out on the deck, staff Christmas parties, playful banter with the usual outrageous bunch of restaurant staff and good views of the July 4th SF marina fireworks display (when it wasn't foggy).      Al Morin    ta.morin@virgin.net email

     On January 20th, 2008 John Stewart of the Kingston Trio passed away.  He was 68 years old. John became a well known figure in the 1960's folk music revival as a member of the Kingston Trio.



     John recorded 13 albums as a member of The Kingston Trio, but his biggest success was "Daydream Believer," a   song he wrote but didn't record.  It was a number 1 hit for the Monkees in 1967 and went to number 12 for Anne Murray in 1980. John died a day after suffering a massive stroke or brain aneuysm.
     The Kingston Trio web site announced that, "The world has lost one of its best men, but a man who lived well and made many people happy with his love, his wit, and his music!" (see link below)
     Stewart joined The Kingston Trio in 1961, three years after the band released its verison of an old folk song, "Tom Dooley," that went on to become a hit.  Stewart replaced the band's founder Dave Guard, who had left to pursue a new musical direction.   After the band disbanded in 1967, Stewart went on to an acclaimed solo career that included recording more than 40 albums.  John's wife Buffy and children were at his side when he died. Memorial services, at this time, have not been announced.
     Our thoughts and prayers go out to John's family and friends.  God bless!

Los Angeles Times John Stewart Article January 21, 2008

USA Today John Stewart

The Kingston Trio's Web Site John Stewart Tribute

Trident Deck



Is the 3rd person over in the top row from the left and the 4th person over on the bottom row the same person?


Rodger and Dagney
Lou and Belle

      In the summer of 1960, Louis Ganapoler commuted daily in his dull green 50's Pontiac from his home in Pompton Lakes, New Jersey over the George Washington Bridge to Greenwich Village, New York.  Here the scent of espresso coffee from Little Italy mingled with the scent of marijuana from Harlem.
      Lou managed the seminal Jazz nightclub called the "Village Vanguard" owned by Max Gordon.  At the Vanguard the greatest names played nightly to crowds of beatniks, mobsters, hustlers and intellectuals all gathered to hear and see the cutting edge of entertainment.  If you wanted to see Miles, Coltrane, Dizzy, Cannonball, the Weavers, Peter Paul and Mary, Woody Allen, Mort Sahl or Lenny Bruce, you went to the Vanguard.
      Lenny Bruce had just finished a week as a comedy headliner.  Each night after Lenny was paid, he would go down to Alphabet City to cop a fix.  Each night, after he'd gotten high, street thugs rolled Lenny for what was left of his pay.
      Lou said, "Lenny, why don't you put your bread in your sock before you split?"  When they tried to mug Lenny the next night they didn't get his pay, instead Lenny got smacked in the eye for pissing off the hoods.
      One night Lou and Lenny went to a Gypsy to get Lenny's fortune read.  After a few minutes of what seemed like bullshit to Lenny he got up to leave without a word, and his way was blocked by the Gypsy's two sons (Lenny was notoriously cheap, and the madam wanted her money).  After an awkward moment, Lenny leaned to Lou and whispered something.  Lou said to the Madam, "Lenny wants to know if they'll ever cure his deafness?" 
It was a punch line, but like everything else in Lenny's life it was a defense against his own worst impulses.

      The Kingston Trio was scheduled for a week long engagement at the Vanguard.  Frank Werber who was the manager, visionary and baby sitter of the Trio that had booked the gig for prime dough because at that point, the boys were a sensation. "Hang down your head Tom Dooley" had crossed over from college radio to mainstream, and had gone gold two years before.
      Lou liked the kids and their manager.  Back in 1957, they had come east from Palo Alto, California, played clubs like the Vanguard and the Hungry I, and started to make a name for themselves. They were broke then, and Lou knew it.  He reached into his pocket and gave them some cash and told them about a flop house they could crash in nearby.  They never forgot that goodwill.  After the 1960 gig had finished, Frank told Lou about a club they had bought near San Francisco as a tax write off.  That's how wealthy they had become. "We'd like you to come out and see the place.  Maybe you could recommend someone to manage it for us."
      Now Lou stood on Bridgeway Street, the fishing town of Sausalito.  From this vantage, he could see the outline of San Francisco through the drifting fog on the bay.  Sailboats tacked lazily to avoid the return of the fishing fleet.
      The "club" that the Trio owned sat over the water on creosote soaked pilings.  Named "The Dock", it was less a night club than a way-station for mariners wanting drinks and snacks.  Sawdust covered the floor to soak up the spilled drinks and vomit.  But Lou could see the potential, and he trusted Frank's vision.  After sizing it up, he met with the guys.  "So what do you think Lou?" Bob Shane asked.  "Could be a gold mine.  Lotta work though..."  "Can you recommend a manager?" Frank asked.  "Yeah,"Lou said, "Me."   There were no papers signed, no money discussed.  Hand-shakes all around was all.
      Lou had always liked the Coast ever since he and his young bride Belle had spent time there during the War.  Before Lou shipped out to Hawaii in 42, they had vowed that one day, they would come back.
      Lou flew back to the East Coast to give the Vanguard notice and told Belle to sell the house and car in Jersey, pack up all their stuff and get ready to move the three kids to California.   Lou carried some of the beat style of New York with him to Marin County.  Black suit, white shirt, skinny black tie and goatee was his signature look.  In the daytime he looked out of place, but against the setting sun, he cut a rakish figure.  He was 42 years old.
      Lou had always worked in restaurants.  His parents owned a deli and sitdown restaurant in the Bronx called "Janoff's".   Janoff's had an advertising slogan: "At Janoff's it's good.  You always get the very best food".  Lou had worked there throughout high school and stayed on even after while his older siblings had gone off to college.   Then the war came.  But Lou knew how to run a kitchen and a floor crew.  He knew how to manage people and most important, he could make money in a restaurant.  Not a lot of people could.
      As the carpenters cleaned up The Dock for it's reincarnation to The Trident, Lou hired a young Escoffier trained chef named Pierre Flaubert.  Pierre and Lou worked out the menu.  New York steak, escargo, beef ragout, fresh fish, soups and stews, salads and sides.  It was an agreement of style and substance.  Pierre was a multiple level black belt Karate master who was invited back to Japan each year by the pre-eminent Senseis to judge and award degrees to the creme-de-la-creme of black belts who competed.
      Most of the bus boys, and dishwashers that were hired for the opening of the Trident were Korean.  Guys with names like "Park" & "Sook".  They were all martial artist who could kick higher than their own heads.  They all knew Pierre could kick all their asses jointly, or severally.  There was an air of respect that flowed through the kitchen onto the floor of the Trident.  It came from top down.   And most of all they loved " Mr. Lou" (MistahRooh) what was always there to explain what, why, and how something had to be done.
      There were only waiters in the original Trident.   In those days, waiters could make a good living for themselves, and their families.   All the floor crew wore matching starched gold or turquoise single button coats with white shirts and ties.   This was a classy joint.  No more sawdust on the floor.  Lou began a practice that ensured that the place always ran smoothly.  He told the captain, Joe Morrell, and the waiters that tips were to be pooled and shared with the busboys and dishwashers.
      When the Trident was busy, as it was almost every lunch and dinner rush, the place ran like a beautiful, simple machine.  And, everyone looked forward to those little manilla (tip) envelopes at the end of the shift.
      Lou used his contacts and reputation from the Vanguard days to book the acts into the Trident.  Local talent was used as much as possible and there was plenty of it.   In those early days Vince Guaraldi, Jean Hoffman,  George Duke, Flip Nunez, Don Scaletta and Denny Zeitlin lived near enough to play on weekends.  Headliners included Jon Hendricks,   Sergio Mendez & Brazil 66, Bola Sete, Willie Bobo, and Bill Evans.
      Round about 1967 the Jazz scene was in decline.  Even Miles had begun to play what would become known as "Fusion" music.  Acid was still legal, and the Haight Ashbury district had become a Mecca to kids everywhere.  Frank once again saw it coming and made a decision.  They would re-invent not just the Trident, but innovate for restaurants and bars everywhere, for all time.

Jon Hendricks Trident Contract



The Origin of the Trident, Part One   by Martin Ganapolar    mganapoler@earthlink.net  

Thanks to Rob Lawson, Terry's brother, we have about 1 minute and 15 seconds of video posted on YouTube. Rob is a Mortgage Broker for West Coast Mortgage in Marin County.  This was first shot on 8mm, then transfered onto  tape, then digitalized for YouTube.  It's grainy, muted, but it's all we have at this time.  Much thanks to Rob and his family!  robert@westcoastmtg.com  Rob's email

So  I'm  too-da-ling  along  on  the  net  and  ran across this picture....must  admit it brought a little tear to my eye! Talk about an  era  gone  bye...in  picture 

      Early spring 1972.  Welcome to the dumping ground—the dark end of the kitchen—the place where high and mighty busboys sneer at you as they dump another bin full of dirty dishes on the bottom shelf.  But I had done this kind of thing before the Trident, before the Army, before this dishwasher heaven where you got to do it and watch the soft parade of beautiful young women as they came into the kitchen where Pierre would drill them with his disdainful devil eyes as though every one of them was bad, and just barely tolerable.  I looked at them somewhat differently.  After all, there I was backstage at a hippie playboy club, and how bad could that be?  And, oh those girls.  Wearing everything from the diaphonous to the skin tight. The impossible to miss hundred pound party girl Nancy MacAllister in those shiny pink pants—the impossible to forget Kathleen Delahanty in her well fitted, subtle but sexy I. Magnin gabardine slacks and crepe de chine tops—Noreen, the sweetest woman since Donna Reed in "It' a Wonderful Life", floating unflappably above it all, and Lynn, the cool, imperious cocktail waitress in her tight cowgirl jeans that none of us could help but notice after she walked by.  So many wonderful women.  But I was still just one of the trolls toiling in the shouting and clatter of the bright white cave.  The busboys got to follow these goddesses out into the rocking and rolling rounded wood and draping greenery of the big sun-splashed room, where the customers were merely the necessary extras who had to pay to watch the show. 

 

Frank Werber (1930 - 2007) for more information about the Memorial Services please go to: www.WerberMemorial.com
                  

On May 20, 2007 Ken Flagg wrote, "Hello, I found your web site while searching for Frank on Goggle and thought you would want to know that he passed away Saturday in Silver City, NM.  He suffered a stroke in February of 2004 and his health had been on the decline ever since.  He is survived by his children Chala, Bodhi, Aari, and Miska and two grandchildren.  I think it is wonderful that you are keeping his memory of the Trident alive, as that was one of his proudest accomplishments.

From the Kingston Trio web site:  "We are sorry to report that Frank Werber, the Kingston Trio's original manager, passed away at his New Mexico Ranch Saturday afternoon, May 19th.  His loss is deeply felt by us all.  Frank helped make the Kingston Trio what it was and is today, and was our dear friend for over 50 years.  Frank we will miss you greatly, and you will live on in our hearts and souls forever.MUSIC mogul. Trend-setting restaurateur. New Age guru. Back-to-the-land pioneer. Holocaust survivor. Small-town newspaper editor. Defendant in a star-studded Marin County drug trial.

ALEC PALAO on FRANK WERBER: http://www.acerecords.co.uk/content.php?page_id=1316

KING OF COOL'S WILD REIGN   By Paul Liberatore,     Marin Independent Journal's  June 15th  headline

Frank Werber, who died May 19 at 78, was all of those things. To hear the stories being told about him in the wake of his passing, he was a few others as well.

Werber made pop music history as the savvy manager of the Kingston Trio, turning three clean-cut college boys into superstars, the biggest singing group in the world in the early '60s, igniters of the folk music boom.

He was the charismatic creator of the Trident, a jazz club that he transformed into a legendary Sausalito fern bar and organic restaurant, a "Hooters for hippies," as one former employee describes it, where the braless waitresses wore see-through blouses, a young Robin Williams worked as a bus boy, the Rolling Stones celebrated Mick Jagger's birthday, Janis Joplin had a special table by an arched window overlooking the bay and Woody Allen shot a scene for his 1972 movie, "Play It Again, Sam."

The Trident closed in 1980. The building, at 558 Bridgeway, is now occupied by Horizons Restaurant.

"There was a time when Frank Werber was the center of what was going on,"

recalled comedian Tommy Smothers. "The girls were cool, the place was cool, the music was great. He was a guru, a Svengali kind of guy. He was a guy who could spin a story and make you laugh. With Frank, there was always something interesting going on."

Kentfield psychiatrist and jazz pianist Denny Zeitlin was one of the musicians Werber booked to play for the Trident's fashionably hip clientele.

"Frank's spirit pervaded the whole place," Zeitlin recalled. "I remember his energy, his sparkle, his openness to music. I thought the Trident was one of the all-time great jazz clubs. It was as special as any place I've ever played."

In a 1990 interview, Werber told the Independent Journal that those days were "like riding a hurricane."

"The Trident was definitely a manifestation of its time and a forerunner and trendsetter for multitudes of restaurants," he said. "Its effects are still being felt."

Werber's reign as the king of cool began to thaw in 1968 when he was busted for having hundreds of pounds of marijuana stashed in his lavish Marin County home - an ultra-modern mansion on Richardson Bay's Da Silva Island.

Reflecting the tenor of the times, his 1970 Marin Superior Court trial was a counterculture circus. Pot was so pervasive in those days that half of the first 10 prospective jurors admitted that they'd smoked it.

With a half-dozen of his comely, miniskirted girlfriends in the front row of the courtroom, the bearded defendant would often appear in court with his long hair pulled back in a pony tail, wearing leather pants and embroidered shirts with hippie beads around his neck.

His attorney, the combative celebrity lawyer Terrence "KO" Hallinan, argued, unsuccessfully as it would turn out, that his client used marijuana for spiritual purposes and therefore was protected by Constitutional guarantees of religious freedom.

Among the character witnesses were philosopher Alan Watts, prostitute union founder Margot St. James and Smothers.

"I testified that I'd had some religious experiences with Mr. Werber," the comedian remembered. "As I recall, we went out and smoked a joint between one of the sessions. That was the mindset at the time."

The jury, which included two admitted pot smokers, found Werber guilty of marijuana possession. He was fined $2,000 and sentenced to six months in jail. In San Francisco, a federal jury acquitted him of marijuana smuggling charges.

Even as a child, Werber's life was extraordinary. Born in Cologne, Germany, he arrived in the United States in 1941 with his father. The story goes that they escaped from a concentration camp after the elder Werber was spared execution - along with his son - because he was such a good cook that the Nazi commander didn't want to lose him.

In San Francisco, Werber developed a talent for show business, managing Enrico Banducci's famed North Beach nightclub, the hungry i.

During that time, he went to see an unknown collegiate singing group, the Kingston Trio, discovering them at a little club in Redwood City, the Crack Pot.

"Somebody had told him about us and he loved what he saw," remembered the Kingston Trio's Bob Shane, now retired and living in Phoenix. "We made up a contract with him on a paper napkin."

Shane credits Werber with coming up with the Trio's button-downed image and squeaky-clean persona.

"As much as we were, he was responsible for getting us started," he said. "He helped mold us, got us rehearsing on a regular basis, got us working on a show, helping us get our outfits together so that we'd be a visual act, too. We went to Stanford, so they had us billed as America's clean-cut college kids, but don't think any of us even knew one."

Werber may have been a wild flower child, but Nick Reynolds, another original member of the Kingston Trio, thanks him for keeping the group's phenomenal success in perspective, encouraging them to invest their fortune - in the Trident, in a number of homes and properties in Marin and San Francisco, including the Columbus Tower, now owned by Francis Ford Coppola.

"We were the biggest group in the world for four or five years," Reynolds said from his home on San Diego's Coronado Island. "We had five albums in the top 10 at one time. The main thing I can say about Frank is that he kept us safe. We stayed in San Francisco, we didn't move to L.A. We never had any mob scenes around us. We all kept our sanity. I know I did. He kept us together. He was like a second father to me."

By 1967, the Kingston Trio were on their way out, replaced on the pop charts by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and the rest of the British invasion.

In the early '70s, with his trial behind him, Werber moved to a little mining town, Silver City, in southeast New Mexico.

"When he first got here, he did a lot of hanging out in the hot springs, playing the pseudo cult leader guru, smoking a lot of weed, probably doing a lot of acid," Werber's daughter, Chala, 35, recalled.

"In typical Frank Werber fashion, the first thing he did was open a health food store, the Sunflower, so he could have a place to get good food. It was the first health food store around here."

After a year or two, Werber tired of town life and moved his family to a remote ranch two hours away, becoming a pioneer in the back-to-the-land movement.

"We had chickens and goats and horses and an organic garden that was at least an acre," Chala said. "We'd only go to town every month or two. We were pretty much self-sustaining. It was a great place to grow up as a kid."

Werber eventually moved back to town, rescuing a failing newspaper, the Silver City Enterprise, publishing it for a few years.

But his health had steadily been failing since he developed diabetes in his 50s, his daughter said, and he suffered the first of several strokes three-and-a-half years ago.

When he died of heart failure at home last month, he had his four children around him - Chala, Mishka, Aari, Bodhi - and a number of others who were close to him.

"We all gave him parting gifts of water from the spring, crystals, beads, Buddhas, cologne, good drink and good smoke," Chala said in an e-mail. "He had the ashes of his dog, Jet, at his feet. He was the center of everybody's universe. He was very much himself to the end."

A memorial service is planned for October.


http://www.kingstontrio.com/html/kt_news.htm

From SFGate.com  (San Francisco Chronicle web site) 
To view or sign an online Guest Book, click link below:

http://www.legacy.com/SFGate/DeathNotices.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonId=88361221


Frank Nicholas Werber Born Cologne, Germany, March 27, 1929 Died Silver City, NM, May 19, 2007 Survived by his children, Chala, Bodhi, Aari, Mishka and Daniel; his grandchildren, Anahi and Mylena; and the children's mothers, Diane and Cathrine; as well as a myriad of other loves and friends who's world has become more empty with his passing. His life full to overflowing, Frank was among other things: a Holocaust survivor, refugee, Navy sharpshooter, student of architecture, hobo, beatnik, photographer, music and entertainment entrepreneur, night club owner, race car driver, marijuana advocate, hippy visionary, restaurateur, health food pioneer, single parent, conservationist, newspaper owner and hermetic guru. He passed away at his daughter's home in NM, and per his wishes was laid to rest the next day in a natural burial on his ranch in the Gila Wilderness. Sometimes credited with having started the folk music movement, and possibly best know as the manger/producer of the Kingston Trio, Werber was also the creator of the famous Trident Restaurant, a 1960s and '70s Bay Area hot spot which was long considered one of the top restaurants in the country. While many of the most famous and influential people of the era counted him as a friend, fame and fortune were never a most important measure of esteem to Frank. Tiring of the California "scene" he purchased a remote hot springs ranch in the mountains outside of Silver City, NM, in 1974 and slowly turned his energy inward toward the wilderness and his family. Frank will be greatly missed, but his light burned so brightly that those who truly knew him will always feel the glow. A memorial is being organized for this fall. For info, or to offer a donation please contact werbermemorial@yahoo.com
Published in the San Francisco Chronicle on 5/27/2007.

San Francisco Chronicle June 8, 2007

If anyone ever lived up to the image of the swinging 1960s hipster, Frank Nicholas Werber was the man.

The original manager of the Kingston Trio and a successful restaurant and business owner, he had been living it up for several years by the time the Summer of Love rolled around. The bearded entrepreneur wore beads and a tweed coat with a flower in the lapel. There were sports cars, miniskirted young ladies, a penthouse office in San Francisco, sailboat cruises in Mexico and pot.

Lots of pot.

Narcotics agents said six sea bags full of marijuana were delivered to his swanky home overlooking Richardson Bay in 1968, leading to his arrest, two sensational trials and a six-month jail sentence in Marin County.

The charismatic hippy music agent died May 19 of heart failure in Silver City, N.M., where he had lived on a ranch since 1974.

Born in Cologne, Germany, in 1929, Mr. Werber spent time in a Nazi concentration camp during the Holocaust.

He told his family that he and his father were at one point lined up to be shot by a Nazi firing squad when an officer ordered the elder Werber pulled from the line. As the story goes, the officer didn't want to lose the camp's best cook. Because his father wouldn't leave without him, Mr. Werber, too, was saved. The father and son later escaped, although details about that are vague.

Mr. Werber learned to cook from his dad, and from then on, good food played a major role in his life.

He immigrated to the United States. After high school, he joined the Navy and served as an aviation photographer, midshipman and sharpshooter. He later attended the American Academy of Art in Chicago and the University of Colorado.

Family members said Mr. Werber worked as a commercial artist, gold miner, cabdriver, horse rancher, ski-lift operator, construction worker and press photographer.

He eventually landed in San Francisco, where he met Enrico Banducci, the renowned North Beach impresario who operated the hungry i nightclub. Mr. Werber impressed Banducci and was hired as manager.

He stayed at the nightclub for four years and then happened upon a group of young Stanford singers at a bar and signed them to a management contract. The Kingston Trio soon blossomed into a national sensation, ushering in a folk music movement that lasted through the 1960s.

Mr. Werber turned out to be a masterful promoter. He created a multimillion-dollar recording studio and promotional development and publishing company called Kingston Trio Inc., which took up two floors in the Columbus Tower office building.

He then established Sausalito's famous Trident Restaurant, which started out as a jazz hot spot in the 1960s. Mr. Werber later turned it into a psychedelic health food restaurant with hanging plants and handmade candles where rock musicians hung out and ogled braless waitresses.

The now-defunct restaurant, on Bridgeway, set aside a table for Janis Joplin, and a young Robin Williams worked there as a busboy, according to Mr. Werber's daughter, Chala Werber.

"Everyone who was anyone hung out at the Trident," she said. "He interviewed all the waitresses, and they had to be super hot. They weren't expected to wear a bra."

When Native Americans occupied Alcatraz from 1969 to 1971, the pier outside the Trident was used to ferry supplies to island dwellers. In 1974, the Rolling Stones held a private party at the Trident thrown by Mr. Werber's good friend Bill Graham. It was, according to several revelers, a mind-altering experience.

Erudite and witty, Mr. Werber had a financial interest in the hit show "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown." He was active in numerous sports, including sailing and scuba diving, which he practiced often in the tropical waters off Puerto Vallarta.

He was, by all accounts, on top of the world in 1968 when federal agents raided his Marin County home and seized 258 pounds of Mexican pot they accused him of conspiring to transport.

Mr. Werber admitted smoking pot, but said he never trafficked in it. He argued that he was set up by dealers who were trying to save their own skin. A federal court jury eventually found him not guilty after a widely publicized trial. He was then tried by Marin County authorities for possession and cultivation of marijuana.

Mr. Werber was defended by Terence Hallinan, who would later become San Francisco's district attorney. The trial was a circus. Sheriff's officers dragged sea bags full of pot into the courtroom, and Hallinan talked about Mr. Werber's spiritual connection to pot rooted in his experiences during the Holocaust. Celebrities marched in and out of the courtroom as a fan club of young women in miniskirts rooted for Mr. Werber, who, participants said, smoked pot a few times during the breaks.

Mr. Werber loved to recount how Tommy Smothers of the Smothers Brothers testified that he had known the defendant for years and "before he started smoking pot, he was a real — hole."

"It was a pretty interesting trial," said Smothers, 70, a longtime friend who got a big laugh when he testified. "It was very stressful for him at the time, but he just moved on."

Mr. Werber retired at age 43 to an old adobe lodge on 160 acres of wilderness in New Mexico once used by Teddy Roosevelt on his hunting expeditions.

"Everything my dad ever did, he did completely," his daughter said. "His philosophy was there is nothing worth doing that isn't worth overdoing. There was never any half-assing in anything in his life."

Smothers said: "He was a little slick, a little slippery and wonderfully funny and entertaining. He was a guy you would go out of your way to visit."

Besides his daughter Chala, he is survived by another daughter, Mishka Werber, sons Bodhi Werber and Aari Werber, stepson Daniel Benavidez and two granddaughters, all of Silver City.

A memorial is planned for the fall.

Letter to the Editor in response to the above article:

San Francisco Chronicle
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Saturday, June 16, 2007

Frank Werber

Editor — The June 8 obituary for Frank Werber seemed to damn with faint praise, suggesting that appreciation of a good doobie was the most significant achievement of this singular man's life. Nothing could be further from the truth. Werber was a pathfinder who wrought still-unacknowledged change within the entertainment industry in the late 1950s and '60s.

Werber took what were essentially three Peninsula frat boys — the Kingston Trio — and turned them into one of the biggest popular-music phenomena of the mid-20th century. However, it was in his supervision of the trio that Werber established guidelines on how a professional entertainer should be treated. He designed the basis of the "rider" that is used to this day whenever a performer appears, to guarantee an environment respectful of both artist and audience.

He took what had previously been the college lecture circuit and turned it into the college concert circuit. Most significant, Werber avoided the crass exploitation that was the overriding hallmark of artist representation in those days — i.e. the likes of Col. Tom Parker — preferring to take care of business in a classy, erudite manner.

No mention was made of his stewardship of We Five, whose Werber-produced 1965 smash hit, "You Were on My Mind," was the highest charting single to emerge from the Bay Area music scene until the rise of Creedence, almost five years later. Nor of the Trident Productions stable, an early and prescient breeding ground for many local rock stalwarts such as the Sons of Champlin.

Because, by late 1967, Werber had tired of wiping musicians' behinds and decided to dissolve his music interests, he is often written out of most histories of the 1960s San Francisco rock explosion. Frank had been out of the biz for many years by the time I got to know him, but he was still as smart and witty and hip — not "hippy" (sic) — as he had ever been. He deserves to be properly remembered for the pioneer he was.

ALEC PALAO
El Cerrito

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/06/16/EDGKOP3HFQ1.DTL

Alec also wrote:  http://www.acerecords.co.uk/content.php?page_id=1316

TridentRestaurant.com : How did it all begin?

Bob Shane: We bought the place in 1960. When we took over it was called the Yacht Dock. It was a jazz club. It was a very straight, conventional kind of place. It had a nice big dock so people could tie up and come in. I think we kept the name until around 1966 when we started changing it—painting the ceiling, putting in all the curved railings and woodwork—going for the hippie style. That was done by Frank with the architect, Roger Summers.

Frank closed the place, but we (the Trio) were on the road for most of that time so we didn't see it taking shape.

When did you guys start playing and how did Frank become your manager?

We started the Trio in '57, and we were playing at a place called The Cracked Pot in Redwood City. It was like a little beer garden—had a little stage, and Frank Werber came in and liked us. He drew up a contract for us right there on a paper napkin. So we started rehearsing with him, and played a couple of places around the Bay Area, and then he got us booked into the Purple Onion. It was a two week gig, and we ended up staying for sixteen weeks.

So how did you end up owning the Trident?

Well, when we started really making money in the '60's we decided we were going to have to have some things to invest in, so we bought the Columbus Towers in San Francisco, and then we bought some property in Mill Valley and San Rafael, and we leased the option for the Trident. Then in '76 I did a stock trade out—I traded my share of the property we owned including the Trident for the rights to the Kingston Trio name. From that point on everything got great for me but I'm not so sure it did for everybody else.

Tom Dooley was your biggest hit, but Scotch and Soda is perhaps the Trio's best and the best known. Tell us where that came from. The music has Dave Guard's name on it but I heard he didn't write write it. What's the story?

It was written back in the thirties by an anonomyous musician in Phoenix, and was given to the Seaver family. Tom Seaver, you know, the baseball pitcher, was about nine when Dave (Guard) was dating his older sister at Stanford. We were driving down to LA, and we had dinner with their parents, and afterwards they said, "We've got this great song for you guys." and they gave us the music. And then later, when we weren't paying attention he put his name on it. It caused a lot of bad feelings later on. But he actually did it in order to give the money to the Seaver family, and they used it to put Tom through college. Of course, he did pretty well for himself later on.

And there's a pretty funny story about Dave. We were on the road and he picked up this chick, and checked into a hotel as Mr and Mrs using his credit card, forgetting that his wife paid the bills. That marriage didn't last.

You have any favorite stories of the Trident?

Back in about 1970 Frank had this really scawny palm tree on the walkway to the front door, and I was coming in the place with Nick (Reynolds—founding member) and I looked at that pathetic tree, and said, "I gotta come out and take care of this." So we went in, had a drink, and I came back out, picked it up and threw it overboard into the bay.   Frank's pride and joy.  I went back in and the manager said to me, "You can't do that.  That belongs to Frank Werber."

I said, "Yes I can, because the Trident belongs to us."

He said, "And who are you?"

"The Kingston Trio."

(March 3, 2007)



Bob Shane's 1965 289 Cobra in the Trident parking lot
Bob, "It's my absolute favorite car that I've ever had!"

      On April 11th, 2007 an email was received from Norma Dale of San Rafael.  Norma wrote, " I was just a teenager in high school the first time I went to the Trident in Sausalito.  There were four of us and we found a handbill that said the Moby Grape and the Buffalo Springfield would be performing at the Trident on Sunday. When we got there we were the only customers!  This had to be early 1967.  The boys I went with were members of an East Bay/Hayward band ,and after a while the groups drummer got up and began messing with the drums.  Before the other musicians could pick up a guitar, members from Moby Grape and the Buffalo Springfield got up, and rather then let the boys touch their instruments said they would play together for us.  We ended up dancing to the "Buffalo Grape" and took away some great memories."
      April 12th, 2007 the Marin Independent Journal published an article called "Those were the days (and nights) where IJ readers shared their Marin nightclub memories through the decades.  IJ reporter Rick Polito reported that "Jazz and Folk shared the bill at the Sleeping Lady in Fairfax.  River City had all the bands right up the street.  In Sausalito, it was the Trident!"  The following quotes were taken from this article:
      Bill Rude wrote, "The Trident in Sausalito was one of the premier and most beautiful jazz clubs in the Bay Area during the sixties.  Owned by the Kingston Trio, it opened in the early 60s and closed for a major hip remodel in late 1968 for about a year (remodeling was slow as creative hip counterculture craftsman were hired) In the 70's, I believe it was a hangout for rock musicians ... while some little old ladies at lunch and tourist dined outside on the dock of the bay.  Don't think the music lasted too long into the 70's, but I was gone by that time.  It was a superb nightclub to work and listen to jazz."
     Terry Garthwaite wrote, "In the 60's, there was the Trident in Sausalito with great jazz groups like the Gary Burton Trio and Jon Hendricks.  Marin had great clubs with some of the world's greatest musicians. We're lucky!"  Wasn't Terry in the band Joy of Cooking?
    Bruce R. Elliot wrote, "Heading north along Bridgeway in Sausalito, one could start at Sally Stanford's Valhalla for some turn of the century architecture, food, and gifted  piano playing.  From there you could walk to the Trident and Ondine,  the old Pacific Yacht Club building, which stretches out over the Bay. In the mid 60's and 70's, the Bay Area music scene ballooned in Marin County, and venues like the Trident hosted many bands like the Jefferson Airplane, the Moody Blues, and the New Riders of the Purple Sage.  Many of Marin's hip older people will have fond memories of the Trident.   The interior of the existing restaurant, Horizon's, looks almost exactly the same as it did in 1976."
      If you have any similar stories you'd like to share...we'd love to hear them!
    

Woody Allen and Tony Roberts enter the Trident

Originally to be shot in Manhatten, "Play it again, Sam" was filmed in
San Francisco in 1971 when NY film workers went on strike.
















Images here are the property of Charles H Joffe/ Joffe Rollins

Eric, glad to see you are well and thanks for your detailed thoughts on the
Trident years.   I was working on the dishwashing shift when you
performed your streak dance.  I remember the 'buzz'  among the staff
whether it was going to happen or not.   I googled 'Trident Restaurant'
after telling a few co-workers of my three years working in this cool
restaurant where I trained Robin Williams on his first day as a
dishwasher.  Of course, the rookies were always initiated on the 'wet'
side. I was very surprised to see myself in the 'Cirque Du Soleil' photo
and remember the event and photo.  I always felt like the younger
sibling working at Trident since I was 19 when I started, living at home
and attending College of Marin. It seemed as though the majority of you
were 5 years older and  forging a living out on your own.  How did you
all support yourself working at the Trident and living in Marin, Sonoma
or the city?  My parents used to pick me up after work and we gave many
employees rides home or to the Bridgeway
101 North entrance if it was not too late.  After my dad bought another
car, I was able to drive the station wagon and work the later shifts
till 2am.  Dagny and Lou were my favorite shift managers to work for.
And the waitresses/hostesses were not only beautiful but very nice to
me. It was nice to see photos of Monica, Lisa and Susan - and the
Russian River outing.  Do you remember Summer Brown, Leigh, Sunny, Flip
and Josie?   I was known to give good shoulder and neck massages at work
for everyone and was invited for after-work massages by some of the
girls.  Nothing kinky or sleazy, only therapeutic massages, friendly
conversation and sometimes a home-cooked meal. The last time I saw
everyone was at Robin's farewell party in Mill Valley before he left for
Juilliard.  I left a few months before to attend school at UC Berkeley.
Visited the Trident just after it changed to Horizon and met a guy who I
used to wash dishes with. He was now a line or prep cook.  I think his
name was Hal. 
Anyhow, back to work.  Thanks again for the blast from the past.  I will
look through my photo collection to see if I have anything to
contribute.  Ciao.          Bryan Yim         

Not too many people know that Cirque Du Soleil began in the parking lot of the Trident
back in the mid 70's.  This also was thought to be a pyramid scheme but was simply multi-level
marketing.   Very clever in its day .....  Herta, Eric, and Robin ...top to bottom...

Second serving of great photos from Melvin and Lisa Sharp
Mel's email is:  melvinsharp@qwest.net




Frank Werber and Daughter in New Mexico
Frank was the General Manager for the Trident,
and 1/3 owner with the Kingston Trio
http://members.aol.com/clackclack/werber.htm 




Sue, Jerry, and Kathy ...  Jerry managed the Rolling Stones Tours for
 Bill Graham, and
provided many free tickets to shows for the Trident.



Carol and Garth



Richard and Marshall



Susan



Trident Women


Lou and Lisa
Excert from Lisa Sharp ... January 2007 email:
I loved Eric’s story; he is a great writer.  I still make Pierre’s cheesecake recipe which
later went on to be Uncle Otto’s Cheesecake.  I remember Pierre would not give anyone
 his recipes but we had a special bond, and I kept asking ,and asking that he give it to me. 
He finally did, with a big smile, and I have the original recipe, in his handwriting. 
I should have written a book back then because I can’t remember it all today! 
("if you can remember the sixties, you weren't there")



The Trident's Women Reunion



Gloria and Laverne

Trident Timeline by Mel Sharp
      The Trident closed for 10 months in 76-77 after Ron McKenna sued Frank Werber for eviction.  One night, after the  restaurant had closed Ron McKenna came in, and began tearing up the flooring for the bar. The manager called the police.   Ron lost and renewed Frank's lease until 1981.  While the Trident was closed Ron rebuilt the outer dining room and dock.  The Trident reopened towards the end of 1976 and rehired a whole new crew.  Only a few original members of the cast/employees returned.  Pierre was back in the kitchen which had been rebuilt.  The kitchen lost it's  colorful paint job so I told Pierre, " that he needed some color", and Pierre responded by saying, "I've got Big John!"
     Like they said Big John was a big man, and  truly one of the more colorfull Trident personalities!
     In 1978 Frank created the Trident lll  . Trident one being the Jazz Club which lasted up to 1969, and the Trident 2 that ran up until it's closure as mentioned above.
    

Susan and Susanne




Mystery Woman?



Cassandra and Lisa



Send in the .......



Peter Espresso Clown and Carol with Wings



ET after a couple of cocktails



Monica and Roberta



Brad and the beautiful Bumblebee



Lisa and Terry....on Halloween...which hopefully explains Terry's makeup



Ed...aka Eduardo



Yes, the chambermaid's pumps are distracting, but please notice the lettering that has somehow since
disappeared. A wonderful sentiment then ... and now.



The Three Caballero's all whipped up in a Terry Lawson concoction ... Terry wins the
best not so innocent smile award ... Marshall and Richard punked before it became
popularized by MTV...



Thank you Mel and Lisa Sharp!  Great Pics!



Lou Ganapoler in the office ...   Funny photo...



Lisa Sharp ...  wow!



Dagny, Manager extrodinaire, also worked for Bill Graham presents

Rodger and Mark Sterns   MarkSterns@earthlink.net
Rodger is now the owner of Milano's Restaurant in Tiburon, California   2006



Dennis Wright experiencing new insights through the magic of mixology and a subtle blend of herbology



Terry Lawson (we miss you) and Mark Sterns at the Trident Russian River Party



Robin and Herta         Playing is the Thing
Trident Russian River Party



 Trident Russian River Party



Eric in his guitar apparel ... later that afternoon the Russian River community enacted a dress code

"Sausalito's waterfront commands a dramatic view that sweeps through a spectacular panorama from Belvedere to San Francisco.  A fifteen minute drive over the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco brings one to Ondine and to the Trident."

Note the Ceiling Mural (early seventies)               Photo: Flash



Arched window in front of tables for two/ dueces
Where Janis kept company sometimes with her friend S. Comfort
Which was provided, on the house.
Photo: Flash

Two redheads ...  Evan and Friend                           Photo and Pumpkin carving: Flash

October 7, 2006 (11:06am)
My memory of the "Stones" party was that it was the first tour with Ron Woods on guitar, and Mick was still married to Bianca.  There was a rift with Bill Graham so the band all wore the same white caps and kept changing jackets with each other so they could divert attention from Mick (the birthday boy).  They were so pleased at the success of their stunt when the cake was placed by (Bill Graham) in front of Bianca, totally dumbfounding him.  Bill Graham wore a purple velvet robe trimmed with ermine, Ron Wood had on a chamios suit, the waitresses had on their most revealing string vests and "hotpants."

Thanks for fanning the embers (with a magnifying glass) on the focal point of an era.  The camp atmosphere was the networking style of a youthful creativity for many seekers.  May many find inspiration in your information.
Brad "Flash" Flaherty

 
The Stones earlier that evening at the Cow Palace
Mick an Ron 
Photo: Flash



Bill Graham generously gave all the Trident employees a pair of tickets to the Stones Concert at the Cow Palace in San Francisco.   The first night Mick said, "Hey Oakland, how're you doing?" and was booed.  The next night he corrected himself. . . no problem.
Photo: Flash

September 2, 2006 (6:52pm)
Hey! I was at the reunion and yes Robin Williams was there and, it was a lot of fun. I can't think of the year, it was more than 20 years ago, but I will give it more thought and get back to you on it.  I remember the meetings before the "official" waitress meetings when we got together at the Alta Mira for a Ramos Fizz.  We worked hard, had fun, and the level of healthy irreverence was wonderful.
LuLu (Louise Wright)

   On February the 13th, 2007 Bruce Mushrush wrote:  "Coming across this web site was a pleasant surprise, a reminder of a very happy time in my life.  I worked at the Trident as a busser right up until it closed. It was all the fun I could handle, and decent money as well. It really seemed to me that getting paid to be there was just icing on the cake.
  Several of the Trident buddies are among my closest friends to this day.  I've also had the good fortune to be associated with the Kingston Trio for many years, working for them on a variety of web/multi-media projects such as:  www.kingstontrio.com
    Herb Gold wrote about "The Trident of Sainted Memory..." I don't think that is an overstatement for any of us!"
   
Photo of Frank Werber and John Stewart of the Kingston Trio
                         Photo from the collection of Bruce Mushrush  bruce85@mac.com 

                         (Link below provided by Lisa 4/4/2007) about Frank Werber
                         http://members.aol.com/clackclack/werber.htm

A link from the Kingston Trio's Website of when Bob and Bobbie Shane came
to the Trident/Horizon's restaurant March 27, 2007 before attending the Enrico Banducci's
Hungry i renunion in San Francisco: http://www.kingstontrio.com/html/san_francisco.html
Note the homes they lived in .... Sausalito and Tiburon!

Herb Caen's article on the Trident Reunion
held at the Cadillac Bar and Grill in San Francisco.









Trident Reunion Cadillac Bar and Grill, San Francisco,California
ML Trident Rant  ... 5 minutes of incoherent ramblings to an appreciative audience
of almost 1000 people
October 21, 1984

<a href="http://www.blogtopsites.com/food-drink/"><img border="0" src="http://www.blogtopsites.com/track_32861.gif" alt="Food & Drink Blogs - Blog Top Sites" /></a>

     Earlier today I had lunch with Bob Shane, his wife Bobby, and the Kingston Trio's web designer and former Trident employee Bruce Mushrush.   Two hours of laughing, eating, and Bob signing autographs for our waiter and the General Manager, who brought out a Kingston Trio Album/jacket for Bob to sign.  Lunch was great and don't even ask about the brownies!
     Bruce came on board the Trident experience after the original Trident closed.  The original Trident closed in 1976.  In 1978, when it reopened, Frank Werber, or the then management, hired a new kitchen staff,new floor people, and only a couple of original Trident alums.  As you might suspect, there was mixed feelings about the new re- incarnation.  Nonetheless, in a spirit of peace - love - and eternal happiness, Bruce suggested that he'd like the people of the Trident 3/post 1976 closing - to have a place here to connect and share their thoughts and memories. 
    Within a couple of years the lease for the Trident had run out, and the building was taken over by Ron and Carol McKenna, and the party was officially over.  
    If you worked at the Trident after the 1976 closing, and would like to share stories or photos email: endorfunns@aol.com and your content will be placed here (just scroll down). Or, leave a comment here.
    So, if you'd like, please be part of the dialogue!

Bob Shane of the Kingston Trio and Bruce Mushrush



Bob Shane and his wife Bobby were in town for the San Francisco Performing
Arts Library and Museum Hungri I reunion with guest of honor Enrico Banducci
and Hungry I Alumni in attendence: Orson Bean, Shelley Berman, Father Malcom
Boyd, Travis Edmonson, Tom Leher, The Kingston Trio, Mort Sahl, Ronnie Schell,
Ernie Sheldon,Glen Yarbrough and more!  
The event: Hungry I ReunionFor more information on the Kingston Trio and this event go to : Kingston Trio
or Kingston Trio Trident Link

Trident 3 Menu 

Appropiately the Trident Restaurant played out in 3 parts. Part 1: Restaurant and Jazz Club   Part 2: Late 60's Rock and Roll and 70's sexual revolution  Part 3: The Last Third (Neil Cassady reference)

Michael Toomey: Who was there for parts 2 & 3 came up with this image below of a poster for the Trident's "Final" Closing in 1980:


Dee Bell

Hi and Thanks for putting together this website on the Trident.

This was the most fabulous part of my mid to late 20s. It was a great group of folks and I was part of the Richard Lipfield’s “All American Girl” phase. We were all health conscious, natural beauties: Carol, Susanne, Kathy, Judy, Janet, Kevin, LaVerne, myself and more. Several of us, including Michael Toomey, ran in some of the San Francisco races as a Trident team. Robin Williams was just becoming famous and often came by after hours when he was in town. He would entertain us during cleanup.  He had been a busboy at the Trident and still had friends on the crew.

A favorite memory was of working “lover’s lane” (which the waitresses called the 80s) on full moon nights. The stunning beauty of the reflection of the moon on the water and all of the moon-affected happenings at these private deuce tables inspired some great stories.  And Frank Werber’s LP jukebox was a stroke of genius.  I was the record librarian and given the task of re-filing the 20 LPs that were removed from this color-coded, LP-record-playing jukebox.  KJAZ radio announcer, Dick Conte was given a free meal once a week to come in and pull a new set each week based on the colors of each slot.  Red coded records were hot rock and roll and were put on to shorten dining time when the wait was long, Green coded records were jazz LPs that enhanced lingering over champagne and cheese.  Yellow was the transition color. A certain number of each of these color-coded albums were put into the play box and then the managers could dial up about 3-10 records at a time that would play through.  The dial was like a telephone face. It was great system and truly manipulated the crowd to ease the flow of traffic.

One of the side stories that ended up as liner notes on my first recording was written by Jesse Hamlin of The San Francisco Chronicle. He wrote on the liner notes of the Concord Jazz Recording (CJ206) “Let There Be Love” with Dee Bell, Stan Getz and Eddie Duran:

“Eddie Duran, the superb San Francisco guitarist was working a gig at the old Trident restaurant in Sausalito a few years ago when he heard a waitress’s sweet voice singing “Happy Birthday” to a friend. Her name was Dee Bell.

Impressed, he asked her if she wanted to sit in with him sometime.  Dee had recently left her home in Indiana with two suitcases and the desire to sing professionally.  She said yes, and before long was sitting in a couple of nights a week at the Trident-after she’d finished waiting on tables.

“There was freshness to her voice that I liked,” says Eddie. “She sang a song without taking too many liberties.  No gimmicks. No acrobatics. And she really sang the lyrics.”

So began the musical rapport that led to this recording.  Dee’s debut and Eddie’s first album as a producer and arranger.  It is an auspicious beginning.

Dee’s voice is pure and tender, at times haunting.  Her approach to the material is straightforward and unpretentious.  She takes you inside the lyrics, and you can almost hear her smile...”......and more.

This story has been retold in countless radio interviews, as it piqued the interest of most radio DJs.  It was the most fun employment I have ever had and I will never forget Dennis, Richard, Marshall, Clark, Michael, Eduard, Lisa, Gloria, Roberta and all of the others, too many to name.

Thanks again for keeping the Trident memory alive!

Best regards,
Dee Bell



Dee and bus person....

Horizons Restaurant, formely the Trident, 558 Bridgeway in Sausalito, California   
415-331-3232

The Deck of Horizons and views of San Francisco   
http://www.horizonssausalito.com/ 

(Excerpt from the Marin Independent Journal)
Horizons makes me think like this. It's been a fixture of the Sausalito's waterfront since 1898.
First it was a yacht club; it became the Trident restaurant in 1959 and lasted as a combination
 restaurant, folk and jazz club until 1980. The Kingston Trio (which owned the place for years),
 the Rolling Stones, the Grateful Dead, Cal Tjader all played or partied at the Trident among
 many other jazz, folk and rock greats

Horizon's Marin IJ Article : http://www.marinij.com/dining/ci_4160558

Kingston Trio/ Frank Werber : http://users2.ev1.net/~smyth/linernotes/articles/prgrm_1/KTpgrm01.htm
(How it all began)

Frank Werber: http://users2.ev1.net/~smyth/linernotes/articles/pgrm1962program/1962ProgramWrber.htm

Frank Weber:     http://members.aol.com/clackclack/werber.htm 


  Photo of Frank Werber and John Stewart     
                       Photograph provided by Bruce Mushrush  Bruce85@mac.com 
                       Kingston Trio Web site:    www.kingstontrio.com

Trident Employees, Patrons, and other miscellaneous photos........


1967 Trident Photo

All material on this website is copyrighted by the authors unless otherwise stated.  Those images not owned are copyrighted by their respective owners.  If you are interested in using materials from this site please contact endorfunns@aol.com
The Woody Allen images are the property of Charles H Joffe (Joffe/ Rollins)
Blogroll links to the Kingston Trio and Marin Nostalgia  are included with their permission.
This web site has no commercial relationships. The web site: www.tridentrestaurant.com is open to the public for submissions, comments,and for nothing more than, pure enjoyment


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