A gray February is behind us, and Sunday is the First of March. It’s spring — well, almost. Time for a trip combining history, literature and strong drink. We’re thinking of Heinold’s First and Last Chance Saloon in Oakland’s Jack London Square.
For my money, it’s the best preserved saloon around. It’s a weathered old building right on the edge of the Oakland Estuary — sailboats and big ships on one side, railroad tracks on the other — the bar’s interior packed with curiosities, sailor’s hats, pictures, life rings. The floor is slanted, the bar stools are kind of crooked, and the ceiling is black with the smoke from a million cigarettes. The bar looks pretty much like it did when Johnny Heinold opened it in the spring of 1884 and Jack London bought his first drink there in 1890 when he was about 14.
“It’s a museum where you are lucky enough to get a drink,” Carol Brookman once said. She was the owner for many years and is semiretired now…