“Although it was a really rough loss, it was such a great experience to be surrounded by such a great group of loyal fans in a local bar,” says Janelle Jacoban, a marketing consultant with the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce & Visitor Center. “It felt fantastic to be in a room full of diehard fans in a gathering place that has withstood generational and demographic changes in town for more than 75 years.”
Longtime 2am Club bartenders Dave Marshall and Amanda Solloway bought the bar from previous owners Dirk Payne and Steve Powers in 2010. They gave it a makeover, including new paint, new floors and lighting, new flat-panel TVs, rebuilt pool tables and new refrigeration equipment and lines for soda and beer. But they did so without losing the venerated dive bar character of the place.
The 2am Club’s history goes as far back as 1933, when Joe Hornsby opened the Brown Jug at Miller and Montford avenues because it sat just outside the Mill Valley city limits and therefore could have a 2am curfew as opposed to a midnight closure inside the city. The bar was made famous in 1983, when Mill Valley native Huey Lewis picked it as the cover photo of Huey Lewis and the News‘ platinum album “Sports.”
Despite the outcome, Jacoban says she knows where she’ll be for Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals.
“I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of watching the game, in spite of the dismal scoreboard result,” Jacoban says. “For those of us who can’t watch the next game at the arena, we’ll take refuge in a home-like environment of the 2am Club.”