ROBERT GARDNER -- The Verdict

Art Lashelle was one of the better people.

I first met Art when he and a fellow named Joe Guido ran a bar on the

Catalina isthmus named Christian’s Hut. Art had some kind of a background

in the movies. I never was quite sure what it was, but he seemed to know

a good many movie people. Be that as it may, the movie people who

frequented the isthmus made Christian’s Hut a popular place.

Change pace and location to Balboa. For years, actually as far back as

I can remember, there was a club on the bayfront and Alvarado Place

called the South Seas Club. It went broke during the Depression, and Art

and Joe moved their operation from the isthmus to the Balboa Peninsula,

specifically to the old South Seas Club.

There they opened a restaurant called, of course, Christian’s Hut.

Someplace along the road, Joe Guido dropped out of the picture, and Art

ran the place by himself.

It was an instant success. Actually, it was the first first-class

restaurant in Balboa. Oh, we had restaurants, but they were only beefed

up hamburger joints. I should know. I worked in one most of my younger

days.

Art and Christian’s Hut will always have a soft spot in my life

because of the dinner he gave in my honor when I went into the Navy

before World War II. Art served baked Alaska, the first time any of us

had even seen the dish.

Shortly after I went into the service, Art went in too. Art went into

what was then called the Army Air Corps, later the Air Force. As I

remember, Art went in to be a pilot but washed out. However, he stayed in

the corps and ended up in India running a famous officer’s club for the

pilots flying over the Hump and for the 21st Bomber Command of the B-29

program. When the B-29s were transferred to Saipan, where I was already

stationed, and the pilots learned that I knew Art Lashelle, I had it

made.

After the war, Art returned to Balboa and Christian’s Hut. It was

still the only real class operation in town, but this time it had an

added attraction: Art hired Don Vaughn as bouncer, and Don invented a new

concept in throwing out unruly customers. He carried them out to the end

of the pier and threw them into the bay.

Christian’s Hut was destroyed to put in a huge two-story apartment

building.

When Joe Collins built his restaurant and motel complex in Corona del

Mar, he selected Art to run the restaurant, which was, not surprisingly,

a first-class affair.

* ROBERT GARDNER is a Corona del Mar resident and a former judge. His

column runs Tuesdays.