Moss Beach Distillery is a restaurant in

Moss Beach, California Moss Beach is a coastal census-designated place in San Mateo County, California, with a year 2020 census population of 3,214. Located in Moss Beach are the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve, a marine sanctuary; the Half Moon Bay Airport, the historic Mo ...

, located on a cliff which overlooks the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

. It is officially designated as a

California Point of Historical Interest California Points of Historical Interest are sites, buildings, features, or events that are of local (city or county) significance and have anthropological, cultural, military, political, architectural, economic, scientific or technical, religious, ...

. Originally established in 1927 as a

speakeasy A speakeasy, also called a blind pig or blind tiger, is an illicit establishment that sells alcoholic beverages, or a retro style bar that replicates aspects of historical speakeasies. Speakeasy bars came into prominence in the United States d ...

, it converted into a successful restaurant after the repeal of

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...

in 1933.

History

The restaurant dates back to the

Prohibition era Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacturing, manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption ...

when it was a speakeasy called Frank's Place. Owner Frank Torres built the club in 1927. Reportedly, illegal whisky was brought from ships, to the beach, and into vehicles for transport to San Francisco during

. A variety of people came to Frank's including the governor of California to Hollywood celebrities, such as actor

Fatty Arbuckle Roscoe Conkling "Fatty" Arbuckle (; March 24, 1887 – June 29, 1933) was an American silent film actor, comedian, director, and screenwriter. He started at the Selig Polyscope Company and eventually moved to Keystone Studios, where he worked w ...

Haunting

According to the restaurant's employees and guests, the "Blue Lady," a female apparition dressed in blue, is reportedly seen in and around the restaurant. However, on a 2009 episode of

paranormal TV Paranormal television is a genre of reality television that purports to document factual investigations of the paranormal rather than fictional representations seen in traditional narrative films and tv. Over the years, the genre has grown to be ...

series '' Ghost Hunters'', when the TAPS team was asked to come in and investigate, they found an elaborate system of devices meant to scare people, which the staff calls "haunted effects". The Blue Lady was a woman who frequented the bar who always came dressed in blue. She was known as the "Blue Lady". The story goes that the lady was married and was having an affair with Torres' piano player named Charlie. One night, her estranged husband came in looking for her and caught them at the bar. He caused a scene and was tossed out by the bouncers. Later, that night, the lovers took a stroll down on the beach when a man, believed to be the husband ambushed them and stabbed his wife in the back. The next morning, she was found dead and her lover unconscious. This story was featured on ''

Most Terrifying Places Most or Möst or ''variation'', may refer to: Places * Most, Kardzhali Province, a village in Bulgaria * Most (city), a city in the Czech Republic ** Most District, a district surrounding the city ** Most Basin, a lowland named after the city ** ...

'' which aired on the

Travel Channel Travel Channel (stylized as Trvl Channel since 2018) is an American pay television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, which had previously owned the channel from 1997 to 2007. The channel is headquartered in New York, New York, United S ...

in 2019.

References

External links

Moss Beach Distillery website
1927 establishments in California Buildings and structures in San Mateo County, California Restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area Restaurants established in 1927 {{SanMateoCountyCA-struct-stub