4086 18th Street
San Francisco, Califonia 94114
(415) 431-8616
SFMixBar.com
Status: LGBT Bar
Previously: Uncle Bert’s, The Village
In Their Own Words: The neighborhood bar in the Castro is The Mix. Come in and throw back some pitchers or cocktails, pick out your favorite pop songs off the Internet jukebox, or play a friendly round of pool. Our open-air back patio (with a second bar and bench seating), laid-back attitude, friendly bartenders and unpretentious patrons are well known throughout the Castro.
History
Summary
| Name | Dates of Operation |
| The Mix | 2005? – present |
| Uncle Bert’s | 1988 – 2005? |
| The Village | 1976 – 1988 |
Details
The bar, which appears to have been built in the garage of a Victorian house, opened as The Village in 1976. That lasted for more than a decade before becoming Uncle Bert’s in 1988. Articles in the San Francisco Chronicle repeatedly characterized Uncle Bert’s as San Francisco’s number one (and perhaps only) gay sports bar, though it’s unclear that the bar ever marketed themselves that way.
On the morning of Saturday, October 24, 1998, owner Horst Hans Grahlmann, aged 57, was found murdered execution-style on the back deck of his Russian River home. Jason Bojore, one of his employees at the Rainbow Cattle Company in Guerneville who was apparently repairing Grahlmann’s roof, was found murdered inside the home.
Grahlmann reportedly came to San Francisco from Germany as a hippie in the 1960s, where he began to invest in both gay and non-gay businesses. At the time of his death, he owned at least 39 properties and nine businesses in the Bay Area and Hawaii, including the Zeitgeist, Lucky 13, Uncle Bert’s Place and the Rat and Raven in San Francisco as well as the Hiding Place, the Rainbow Cattle Company, and Stumptown Brewery along the Russian River. Establishments that he formerly owned included the Rainbow Lounge in the Castro and the Early Bird on Polk Street.
He apparently had an abrasive style, and in the mid-1990s paid a large settlement to an African American man for his racist comments.
Grahlmann did not leave a will and his estimated $15 million estate was disputed in court by Peter Hackett, who claimed to be Grahlmann’s heir, though the claims were resisted by Bill Brown, the estate’s executor. There were rumors that Grahlmann had married a British woman in Kansas, but efforts to find her and their rumored children were in vain. The estate was first inherited by Grahlmann’s mother, Hildegard Grahlmann, who died the following August at the age of 80, and then at least in part by his brother Dieter, who was reportedly disabled and institutionalized in Germany.
In May of 2002, Zachariah Judson Ruthledge, a Monte Rio massage therapist and handyman, was arrested for the murders. He was acquitted in 2006, and in 2007 filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Sonoma County sheriff’s investigators and prosecutors, claiming that he was falsely arrested and tried. He argued in court that that evidence had been falsified and investigators had withheld evidence from his defense team that would have cleared him.
Around 2005, the bar was sold to Larry Metzger and became The Mix. In 2012, Metzger and two other business partners, J.R. Kleysteuber, and Linda Holl, a bartender at The Mix, opened the Dancing Pig, a barbecue restaurant on Castro Street. The restaurant closed a year later and eventually became Dante’s Table.
Sources
Aguila, Justino, “Unsolved killing spawns hunt for mystery family,” San Francisco Examiner, November 22, 1999.
Flournoy, Raymond, “Business Briefs: Saying hello to new shops and goodbye to old friends,” The Bay Area Reporter, February 9, 2012.
Lee, Henry K. “Man acquitted in Monte Rio shootings sues Sonoma County,” San Francisco Chronicle, August 24, 2007.
Matier, Phillip and Andrew Ross, “Leno’s new Capitol office no joint,” San Francisco Chronicle, December 8, 2002.
Ostler, Scott, “Gay bar still loves 49ers: Hearst slur noticed, dismissed — but loss to Eagles really hurts,” San Francisco Chronicle, November 26, 2002.
Podger, Pamela J., “Guerneville Bar Owner, Employee Slain,” San Francisco Chronicle, October 26, 1998.
Podger, Pamela J., “A Shattered Peace: Death of local characters shakes laid-back resort town,” San Francisco Chronicle, October 28, 1998.
Podger, Pamela J., “Private Investigator Hired To Solve Guerneville Slayings,” San Francisco Chronicle, December 28, 1998.
Podger, Pamela J., “Handyman arrested in ’98 slayings: Fired worker accused of shooting Russian River bar owner,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 9, 2002.
Uncle Donald’s Castro Street, accessed online June 6, 2014.
Zamora, Jim Herron and Ray Delgado, “Gay club owner, pal slain,” San Francisco Examiner, October 26, 1998.
Location
4086 18th Street, San Francisco
Does anyone remember the sign over The Rainbow cattle Co in San Francisco?I cannot recall what it said .
was it good eats and Shit kicking music?
“…came to San Francisco from Germany in the 1960s as a hippie; then “paid a large settlement ( in the 1990s) to an African-American for racist comments.” This was so typical of the people who claimed to be “hippies” – “hippiecrits” would be more appropriate. Castro Street and the gay scene also became really racist around 1979 onwards; it had been sporadic before this time.