Eli’s was once one of Oakland’s liveliest neighborhood nightspots, putting on shows by local and nationally known blues artists almost every day of the week. It has changed hands several times over the years and, while the club still features the blues every Monday, it also showcases rock, funk, R&B and Latin acts, as well as DJs. In the last few months, however, the club has struggled to stay afloat.
“Every minute of my time is occupied with defending our space,” said Matt Patane, one of the owners of Eli’s Mile High Club.
“Our demographic is local blue-collar people, blues fans and artists,” Patane said. “We made it a point to make it a reasonably priced place to come. Even though the overall costs of utilities, food and the general upkeep have gone up, we tried to keep it affordable. Our commitment is not to the profits, but our connection to the community, which is so deep that we remained sympathetic to the need for a place of affordability. It’s a self-sustaining business, but the profit is minimal to none.”
Everything changed last November, when someone complained about the patio in the back of the club not being up to code. That space had picnic tables and was a hangout for club regulars and a place to eat and relax, as well as a place to host local fundraisers for nonprofit organizations and markets for local craft persons. Various club owners and their patrons have used the patio for many years.
“The City of Oakland is making us reapply for a conditional-use permit for the patio,” Patane said. “We are working together with the city to bring the place up to code. They’re making us prove, within the city’s records—which we’ve already given them—that the prior owners were allowed to serve food and alcohol on the patio, going back to the owners long before the club became Eli’s.
“We handed them a permit and zoning reports dating back to 1920,” he added. “So this means, if we reapply for the permits, we’d lose all the grandfathered-in rights that we already have, and that can make us subject to further conditional use of the space, which affects the way we serve the community. This would be a major setback and further limit our business.”
In other words, the regulations are extremely complicated. “The laws are dated so far back that there are few people in the City of Oakland offices that know about them and understand the rights of small businesses,” Patane said.
“We have submitted the permit and zoning records to the building departments,” he continued. “We understand that they are understaffed and dealing with a lot of similar issues. However, our case has been open for two or more years, which is putting a lot of stress on us as business owners and on the business itself.”
Patane said they’re going up against two separate things. Bringing it up to code is a fairly easy process and the city is working with Eli’s owners to help them comply.
“The conditional-use issue is something we need to establish,” Patane said. “If we don’t have it, we can’t use the patio space, which will cost us a good portion of our business. It’s a complicated issue and it’s overwhelming and hard to understand. People have seen the patio space operating like this for decades, which makes it harder to understand what the city is asking us to do. What we don’t want to happen is to get choked out of using a space that’s been around for 50 years.”
The process has kept the patio closed, which has resulted in Eli’s losing more than 60% of its business. “People keep asking me, honestly, why we keep fighting to save the place. It’s about the community and the legacy of the place,” Patane said. “We’re in a neighborhood that doesn’t have a lot of commercial business, so keeping the thing going is essential to who we are as owners.”
Patane and his business partner had a meeting with the fire marshal, their architect and three members of the city zoning and planning department. They determined that the club needed to go through the process of reapplying for permits to bring the space up to code.
“That’s not to say it’s not up to code,” Patane said. “We had acknowledgements from the City of Oakland, going back for some time, saying that it was up to code. They’ve been working with us, in real time, as we’re trying to define why certain things were built, at the request of our neighbors, so we can all live in the neighborhood together.”
Patane and company even went the extra mile by creating sound and sight barriers, to offer their neighbors privacy.
“We’ve been keeping Eli’s going for almost a decade,” Patane said. “Giving up hasn’t been an option. The community loves the space so we extend that love back to them, and it’s been difficult. We’ve had to reduce our staff and the hours we’re open to remain sustainable. Myself and my business partner have put so much money into the place to keep it going and remain part of the community, that we don’t want to give up.”
As business owners, Patane and his partner dealt with the crises with the help of the community.
“People have asked us to speak up and make people aware of what’s going on,” Patane said. “I started a GoFundMe page at the request of people in the community who wanted to help us and provide some relief from the financial stress we’re under. It’s part of a joint effort for us and the community, to help us come up with the money to get through this.”
Meanwhile, Eli’s still keeps the music going and still draws a diverse crowd of all ages, races and musical tastes, with shows taking place four times a week. View the schedule at: elismilehighclub.com.
To help cover the expenses the owners are incurring to keep the club open, visit: gofundme.com/f/keep-elis-mile-high-club-alive-in-oakland.
