A downtown Orange landmark is getting its second new look. The Capistrano, which opened in 1941 on Green Avenue, was designed in a Spanish mission style with stucco. Early in the summer the new owner painted the building black. Thursday, painters were changing the color to a terra cotta shade.
The business was a restaurant-bar for decades before becoming a bar only with some food for the last 20 years.
Current manager Amanda Bates said the new owner, who bought the building a few months ago, had a vision for how the building would look at night. He had the outside walls painted black. Colorful lighted neon letters spelling “The Capistrano” stood out in the dark against the black wall.
Bates said the owner planned for a lighted awning that would also show off at night to give a unique look. But the awning kept being back-ordered and was never delivered. Instead, the owner gave up and decided to repaint the building to blend with the historic train depot restoration across the street.
Bates described the paint shade as “a cousin to the depot.”
The century-old Southern Pacific train depot is being restored to its original red brick shade with a green trim. Bates said the trim on the Capistrano will be a darker shade of the terra cotta and not a green like the depot.
The black shade had surprised many people. The color drew complaints on social media and even talk at the city’s Historical Preservation Commission. The Old Orange Historic District boundary is the north side of Green Avenue. The commission or the city planning department is supposed to approve any exterior paint shades or exterior changes in buildings within the district. However, the Capistrano is on the south side of Green Avenue outside the district.
The Capistrano opened on August 21, 1941. The Orange newspaper said “hundreds of Orange people who have watched the beautiful new Mission type building being erected at 1211 Green Avenue will probably be on hand to see what the inside of this very different type of restaurant is like.”
The restaurant had a special draw for the time. It was air-conditioned. It was described the inside—“a blue and yellow color scheme is carried out in the interior decoration and the building is attractively lighted with neon on the outside.”
Henry Bland was the owner and operator and the family owned the business for almost 40 years. The name came from the California mission city of Capistrano where the sparrows famously return every year. At one time, a neon sign on a pole near the street had the restaurant name with little birds of light that appeared to circle the sign.
The restaurant also had a drive-in in what is now the parking lot. Carhops would take the orders and deliver them on trays. Bates said her mother, who is now 76, once worked there as a carhop and jokes it was the only job she was fired from. “She wasn’t cut out to be a waitress,” Bates said.
J.B. Arrington owned the restaurant in the early 1980s and then Eddie Lemoine bought it. Lemoine added a room to the west side in 1988. When the construction was under way, workers found an old door that had been signed with graffiti from shipyard workers in World War II.
The Capistrano is now a full bar with pool tables (free on Thursdays), digital jukebox and dance floor, open from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. six days a week. It’s closed on Sunday.
The restaurant is adjacent to the train tracks and Bates said they offer “train shots.” A small drink costs $1 every time a train passes.
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