At 2800 Bayshore Blvd. in Brisbane, near Geneva Avenue and right at the San Francisco line, is a building with more than 160 years of stories. The business itself says 7 Mile House is the Bay Area's last "mile house" still standing where it was built.
What was a mile house?
In the mid-1800s, travelers on the Peninsula's bayshore stagecoach route needed regular breaks. Mile houses were stagecoach and wheel-exchange stops, hotels and sundry shops where horses rested and riders recovered. Each was named for its distance from the city. 7 Mile House says it was built around 1858 as a toll gate about seven miles from Portsmouth Square. Bay Area News Group reported that owner Vanessa Garcia's research moved the founding date from 1853 to 1858.
A notorious past
The building has been a saloon serving steam beer, a restaurant, a boardinghouse and a Prohibition-era speakeasy. According to the business's history page, an illegal poolroom ran behind the pub in the late 1890s. Some form of gambling went on there from the 1910s into the early 2000s. During Prohibition, the owner was arrested in a federal raid for having a whiskey still. By the 1980s it was a Teamsters hangout, known as the "Rykoff bar" for its many S.E. Rykoff employees. Later, the FBI raided it over the old owner's alleged link to bookmaker Ron "The Cigar" Sacco. Owners have included the Micheli, Testa, Nieri, Frugoli, Stuehler, Flynn and Villacarlos families.
Today
Vanessa Garcia, a Filipina immigrant, bought the property in 2004. She runs it with her mother, known to regulars as "Mama Cleo," and her daughter. It's now a restaurant, sports bar and live-music club serving Filipino and American food. Garcia and co-author Regina Abuyuan wrote a book on the building's history, See You at the 7: Stories from the Bay Area's Last Original Mile House. San Francisco Chronicle columnist Carl Nolte wrote the foreword. Hours vary, so check the restaurant's website before you go.