I worked for the Knowley’s for a while in the mid 90’s. Jannette Knowley remains one of my favorite former employers to this day, years after I stopped cracking skulls for a living.
I was a bouncer at Port O’ Call* and a bartender/bouncer/barista at Anchors Aweigh*. I lived in the Shubrick above the patio bar. Jannette was like a surrogate mother for a lot of the staff, always checking in; catching up, taking care and, as a mother should, disciplining the unruly children when they stepped out of line.
I was working the door at The Port when the 2002 Olympics announcement was made. I had one of the best, yet most dramatic, relationships of my life almost entirely inside the walls of the Shubrick/Anchors/Port. I met my best pal Sgt. Jake when we worked there together.
Some of the best, most entertaining, most violent stories of my life, nearly 35% of my old tough guy cred, came from the time I spent working for the Knowley’s.
I first saw The Professional when I lived at the Shubrick. The Professional (Jean Reno)!
Several of my friends have held wedding receptions at the Port; several of my candidates held successful fund raisers at the Port.
Port O’ Call, for me, has been a natural go-to for casual meetings, reunions and some of the best food in Salt Lake City. Pardon the cliché – Port O’ Call has always felt a little bit like home, and I’ve always been comfortable there.
Watching the drama surrounding the Fed’s appetite for downtown real estate has been nothing short of painful. When the giant chunk of land across the street on 4th South was turned into a parking lot, instead of being bought to provide for the federal expansion, a lot of hands hit a lot of foreheads.
I am so far outside of this topic that I don’t know who to be mad at. Considering how long Kent and Jannette have been employers downtown; considering how much better that block has looked, year after year, with their ownership of those buildings; considering that Utah is supposed to be the dominant top in it’s relationship with the federal government … why the hell are we reading this story?
Where is the Chamber? Where is Salt Lake City? Where is anyone actually sticking up for the business owners that are getting screwed by the Feds right now?
Why is anyone, drinker or not, calm about the destruction of an original, responsible, profitable, tax-paying business that is going to be replaced by a parking lot?
Why the hell didn’t I get angry and do something long before this? I honestly, and erroneously, thought that Port O’ Call was indestructible.
Jannette, Kent – thanks for the jobs. Thanks for the Port. Thanks for being there so many times when I needed it.
SALT BLOG – Port O’ Call: Out by March 15
TRIBUNE – Port O’ Call must close by March 15
ABC4 – Port O’ Call’s last call
The real villains are Hatch and Holding, who are preventing GSA from buying the parking lot.
It’s like a kick in the stomache. Port O’ Call is a downtown landmark. It’s like replacing the LDS Temple with a Walmart. You just don’t do that to historic, law-abiding, tax-paying parts of the community. Is there really NO OTHER option? We’ve supposedly run out of space in a specific part of town that just happens to serve alcohol?
Closing on my birthday, so sad.
It should be noted that PoC is not wholly innocent. They came to an agreement in principle with GSA a couple years ago to leave and tear down the building but have been haggling over the price most of the time. If they wanted to, they could have been more forceful in advocating for the preservation of the building and their business, but they made their deal with the devil many years ago.
All I’m saying is that too much of this story is not in the public domain yet.
I hate to see them leave their current location, but I am also hopeful that they will take time to carry the air hockey table (last high quality table in Northern Utah!) with them to the new location.
Oh, and the beer.
Total banal trivia to follow:
I wonder if the Port O’Call ghost will travel with them, or stay to haunt the parking lot?