MIKE MODRICH owned the Red Coach Inn at 15475 San Jose-Los Gatos Highway (as Los Gatos Boulevard was then called) from 1951 to 1970. He later went on to open other restaurants and is now retired and living in Almaden Valley. At age 82, Modrich is still active; the day I gave him a call, he was about to leave on a duck-hunting trip.
The Red Coach Inn was in the location now occupied by McDonald's restaurant. The Red Coach is remembered by many older Los Gatans as a favorite place for dining, especially for its huge prime rib steaks and for its bar and a tiny dance floor in back.
"We had many employees of IBM who came in regularly," Modrich said. "When Thomas Watson Sr. was in charge of the company, he didn't want IBM people drinking, even off duty, but then I guess they relented after the son, Thomas Watson Jr., took over."
Prime rib steaks were $3.25 on the menu, Modrich recalled. Other prices as he remembers were: New York sirloin, $4.75; pork chops, $2.75; pork loin chops, $3. "Drinks were 35 cents a shot," he said.
The little dance floor, which was rather dark, was a stimulus for many a romantic attachment.
The building had been a nursery before the inn moved in. "It had very high ceilings, and the roof leaked," Modrich said. "We kept pans on the floor to catch the water. Our patrons considered them part of the decoration."
Mike's sister, Jenny Olenczuk of Los Gatos, worked several years as a waitress at the Red Coach beginning in 1967. "I remember Lillian Fontaine and her theater friends coming in," she said. Jenny's son, Mike Olenczuk, worked as a busboy. "It was very well known on the peninsula, especially for prime ribs," he said. "I remember Herb Caen mentioning it in his column."
After the Red Coach Inn closed in 1970, Mike Modrich and a partner opened the Hamilton Lounge at Hamilton and Bascom avenues. "It was famous for its beautiful, 6-foot-tall waitresses," he said. "The 49ers used to come there." He later had the Red Coach Coffee Shoppe on Hillsdale Avenue.
SNOWBOUND in Washington, D.C., were Sue and Howie Anawalt of Los Gatos, as was everyone in the nation's capital in the recent blizzard. Attorney Howie Anawalt was there to present an amicus (friend of the court) brief to the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of Borland International, a software maker. No buses or taxis were running; Metro, the subway, was sporadic, and they were walking on nearly deserted Pennsylvania Avenue. "I said it was time to stick out a thumb," Sue said. "A four-wheel-drive vehicle stopped for us. Sen. Bob Dole was in it."
The Anawalts and the Kansas senator chatted about the weather. Dole got off at the Capitol, and the Anawalts went on to the Supreme Court. In a split decision, the justices let a lower-court decision stand in the complex copyright protection case. The Los Gatos couple managed to catch the Vermeer exhibit at the National Gallery, one of the few public places open with the government shut down from political, as well as weather, causes.
MEMBERS OF the Los Gatos Yacht Club are feeling the loss of one of their longtime members, George Gromeeko, who died in December. The Saratoga resident, a clinical psychologist, was an avid sailor from the time he began sailing in San Francisco Bay at age 11. He held all the offices in the LGYC before becoming club commodore in 1990. Born in Berlin, of Russian heritage, Gromeeko was often called "Yuri" by friends. He served in the Air Force and Army in World War II. He called sailing "great therapy" and took part in many LGYC trips and races.
GETTING RID of gophers, moles and ground squirrels can be a problem for gardeners, farmers and livestock ranchers. The Macabee Gopher Trap Co., the town's oldest business, has survived for more than a century. Walter Reimer, who lives in Monte Sereno, has come up with a rodent exterminator that works by means of asphyxiation with carbon monoxide gas. A flexible metal tubing from an engine's exhaust pipe is introduced into the rodent's burrowing hole. Reimer calls it "simple and safe to use."
WE MAY have had some rain here, but former Los Gatans Harvey and Pauline Orndorf saw more of the wet stuff after a move to Tualatin, Ore., a community of 18,000 in the Portland area. "My backyard rain gauge indicates 16 inches of rainfall since Thanksgiving Day," Harvey Orndorf writes. He tells of an ice storm and and a "huge wind storm that blew down several 60-foot pine and fir trees." He also writes of the beautiful forest scenery there. "We very much miss our quaint downtown Los Gatos and the sunny walks around Lake Vasona and the park," he adds.
A LARGE audience enjoyed the versatile talent of clarinetist Todd Palmer, accompanied by Dina Levine, Jan. 14 in the Los Gatos Community Concert Association's second presentation of the concert season. "The audience was very enthusiastic," said Norman Stoner, LGCCA president. The next community concert in the Los Gatos High School auditorium will be April 21 when a group called Khenany performs Latin American and Andean music.
THERE WAS a big turnout at Lakeside School on Black Road for a winter holiday program Jan. 4 as the children of the mountain school presented winter celebrations from around the world. Kindergarten teacher Anna Rainville pulled it all together with the aid of many volunteers.
IT MAY NOT be kite-flying time, but there are colorful kites to be seen at 2wenty-9ine East Main Street Cafe. Artist Dolly Cahill Johnson is showing an exhibit of her Skysong Kites. Hours at the cafe are Mon.-Thu., 11:30 a.m.-9:30 p.m.; Fri.-Sat., 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m.; and Sun., 11:30 a.m.-8 p.m.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, January 24, 1996.
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