Watching this piece by Simon makes me miss the days when we would get an order of fish and chips from Chelsea and go to the Edinburgh Castle for a half and half to go with it. The Late 70s.
https://www.facebook.com/SimonMajumdarPage/videos/1004456122955712/
You could do this well into the ‘00s. I was a regular here for many years on the Tuesday trivia nights until work and (others’) families took over. I seem to recall that sometime in more recent years management changed and the fish quality changed a bit? Also I don’t think Edinburgh Castle allows outside food anymore but I haven’t been in quite some time.
In the day when a kilt-attired strutted and played the bagpipes – well before hip-hop was knee high to grasshopper, Edinburgh Castle’s bar would even send a runner for fish and chips. Somewhere in that period Chelsea’s ownership turned East Asian, not that anything changed.
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I was a regular at both Old Chelsea and Edinburgh Castle from 1962. Old Chelsea was the first real F&C joint in San Francisco (and had a branch on Columbus Ave. in North Beach in addition to the Larkin St. one). North Beach was my nabe, and I would hit up OC often for pork pies and fried oysters as well as F&C
The Castle was a great singles bar with a lot of expats and flight attendants, and that fireplace was as potent an icebreaker as the booze. It was certainly less dive-y in those days. I heard my first Beatles single at a party at a the house of a British expat whom I met at the EC.
Old Chelsa on Larkin (the one in North Beach had closed ) was bought by a Korean family. When the owner of the Edinburgh Castle died, the place was closed, and later bought and revived by the Korean owners of Old Chelsea.
Old Chelsea closed in 2012 and is now the site of Aria Korean American Snack Bar.
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I was often at the Edinburgh Castle eating fish and chips in the late 70’s too. And the early 80’s. Then after my family started we’d get take out from Old Chelsea and a six pack of Newcastle Brown. Thanks for the memories!
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