Landlord Strife: The Pitcher House abruptly closes after 74 years in Redondo

Paul Mance with his twin sons James, and Paul, at the closed Pitcher House July 29. Photo by Garth Meyer

by Garth Meyer

The Pitcher House bar has been open in the South Bay since 1951, across two locations, until it closed July 20.

Owner Paul Mance grew up at Mickey’s Deli in Hermosa Beach, his father and uncle the second generation to run it. 

Mance co-owned and managed the Pitcher House on the second floor of Redondo Shores Shopping Center for 23 years.

“The landlord took a total turn of attitude,” he said.

“Business was going good, going strong,” Mance said, then the pandemic arrived, followed by a month-to-month lease starting last October, after the property owners, Haagen Co. (Los Angeles), began a multi-million dollar exterior remodeling of the shopping center, putting new fronts on all of the stores.

“‘You’re kind of a dive bar, you don’t really fit here,’” Mance said he was told. “We were a dive bar, people liked that theme.”

The rent was $12,700 per month; across the corner from Whole Foods and kitty-corner above “Frou Frou.” 

Last October, the landlord asked Mance to take things down off of the walls.

“Get rid of the dive bar-look and make it upscale and trendy,” Mance said. “We gave everything away, to our loyal customers. People put their names in for what they wanted.”

French doors were slated for the entry to the new patio out front, which is now almost complete. 

Interior work was done too, paid for by Mance.

“We put in a new floor, took out the sub-ceiling over the bar, upgraded the bathrooms; we did what they wanted us to do,” he said. “All while we were open.”

The agreement, Mance explained, was that he would pay for the $120,000 in interior work and in exchange, Haagen Co. would keep the rent at the same rate for three years.

The landlord began to list the space for lease in March of this year. In the same month, Mance and his business partner, Pat Estabrook, were about to meet Haagen’s architect at the bar when Paul got a phone call from Estabrook’s wife saying he had died of a heart attack. 

On July 16, late on a Wednesday afternoon, Haagen’s vice president of leasing, Greg Bradbury called, with Don Kelley, president and chief financial officer, on the line too, to say there was a leak in the kitchen. 

“You can’t operate. You are going to have to be out by Sunday,” Bradbury said.

“For good?” Mance said.

“For good.”

Aftermath

Mance and The Pitcher House are now moving out. Helping are his twin 23-year-old sons, James and Paul, who both have worked at the bar.

“I was totally overwhelmed. Totally upside down,” said Mance. “I notified my employees. Sunday night (July 20) was the last night.”

“I have 32 kegs of beer and 400 pounds of chicken wings. I’ve called the food bank, the church/homeless shelter on PCH… The guy that bought the old Poop Deck got the ice machine. I called the jukebox guy, DIRECTV, Lotto… The Pitcher House had a great run, since 1951, and now finds itself out in the cold because of changes in the cost of doing business… I’ve always paid my rent, for 23 years.” 

Will he reopen at another location?

“I own the liquor license, so I want to put it somewhere,” Mance said.

He and his sons are looking.  

Landlord’s view

“Paul surrendered the premises,” said Don Kelley, Haagen Co. president and chief financial officer.

“We were doing a big remodeling, and, frankly, the Pitcher House was more of an adult (establishment). We wanted something a little more family-oriented. We negotiated an amicable parting. We have nobody lined up for it.”

Kelley said the Pitcher House was on a month-to-month lease for the past nine months. 

“No agreement was ever signed,” he said.

Mance did pay for the interior upgrades?

“That’s typical of landlords to have tenants upgrade interiors. It wasn’t complete,” Kelley said.

“We were negotiating an extension on the lease and it never happened… We haven’t forced anything. There’s no lawsuit, he surrendered possession.”

“There were leaks, causing damages to tenants downstairs. (Mance) wanted to put a seal-coat in which was not sufficient.”

The former tenant now has until Sept. 2 to fully vacate.

“We have given Paul 45 days. That’s the time period now,” Kelley said. “We were trying to close him before the (July 20) weekend, but he wanted (that Saturday) because of some big MMA fight.”

Roots

Mance first opened at Redondo Shores Shopping Center as “Paully’s Upper Deck” in 2002, before the owners of The Pitcher House joined forces with him after it closed at the St. Rocke building, in 2005, following 54 years at the location – a former bank for which its vault was converted to a walk-in cooler. 

The Pitcher House at the original site was owned and operated for its last 20 years by the late Gary “Tootie” Cullen. 

“Where am I going to go? The poor house, not the Pitcher House?” Mance said of today’s situation.

“The Hulk (Hogan) just died. He was younger than me and in better shape.” 

“I think they’re trying to bring someone else in,” he said, referring to the space being listed for lease, first showing it to prospective new tenants in the spring of 2024. All the while, Mance said Haagen Co. gave him a proposed lease to continue.

“(In the end) I felt like an 18-year-old kid, the day you turn 18, you gotta go.”

Mance contends that between January and June 2025, sales dropped $189,000 vs. last year because it was “nothing but scaffolding out front, plastic, jackhammers. No lights, blacked out, no sign. ‘Are you even open?’ I tolerated it for six months, believing I’d have a nice patio. As soon as the patio was done, they kick me out.”

It followed another financial event.

 

“$110,000 in October to my ex-wife,” Mance said, one half of a forensic accountant’s appraised assessment of the value of the business.

He now has a month to clear out all of the furniture and equipment from the bar. All food and liquor is to be removed by this Sunday. 

“What am I going to do with 30 T.V.’s? I don’t even watch the one I have at home,” Mance said. 

Locks will be changed Aug. 4.

“Respectfully, can I get a key, to sell my pizza oven?” Mance said. 

“It wasn’t a fair farewell,” he said. “We deserved better, we really did.”

“Why make me put all of this money into the place when they knew I would get booted?”

Haagen company lists the space available for lease with a rendering of a “Draft House,” including  a refined, open-air patio at front.

“He was operating on a month-to-month basis,” Kelley said. “We were working with Paul, trying to find people to buy the business from him.”

“I brought in several potential partners,” Mance said. “They kept changing the goalposts. We were looking at both options; bring in a partner and I keep running it, or sell it; to recover our losses. It was fight or flight.”

Was there a chance The Pitcher House could have stayed at Redondo Shores Shopping Center?

“Yeah, there was a possibility. Sure,” Kelley said. “They’d been our tenant for a long time.”

Had Mance done the interior work/made the changes Haagen wanted?

“They’d done some of it. If you look at it, it was subpar,” Kelley said. “It wasn’t anything exciting at all.”

Haagen Co. now waits first for the food and alcohol to be removed from the premises.

“I want it out so we can get our contractors in to fix the leaks,” Kelley said.

 “The Pitcher House is gone now,” Mance said. “Unless I find a home for it.” ER