Altadena Junction: Coffee Gallery gets the permits it needed

Coffee Gallery back in action: The Coffee Gallery, at 2029 N. Lake Ave., is celebrating its renewed permit status with a more ambitious entertainment menu.

The gallery is actually two businesses: The Coffee Gallery Backstage, an intimate performance space run by former Ice House impresario Bob Stane — of Fork in the Road fame — and the Coffee Gallery proper, a coffee house owned by Julie Sandoval.

The gallery has had a rough go of it the past few months: Sandoval was on the receiving end of the county’s wrath for not having an entertainment license. (If you have somebody playing folk songs with a pawn shop guitar in your business, the county needs its vig). In addition, the building’s conditional-use permit, which covers both businesses, was up for renewal. At about $15,000 for the permit, that’s a lot of cups of coffee to sell.

Sandoval and Stane paid up this week, and Sandoval got an entertainment license, too, so the gallery should be in the county’s good graces for a few years. With the paperwork in place, the coffee house has started themed entertainment five nights a week. There are three open-mic nights: Tuesday is comedy, Friday is anything goes and Sunday is music. Thursdays will offer Artisan Alley, a curated event that mixes a reception for a local visual artist with music, comedy and other acts. Saturday is called Potlikker Showcase, a combination of music and spoken word. Food trucks are woven into the mix, and Sandoval makes her own Southern-style greens and cornbread on Saturdays.

Rotary grants for teachers: Every year, the Altadena Rotary Club provides grants to local teachers to fund special projects. Twenty-five of the $300 grants are unrestricted and 10 are awarded for teaching “Americanism.” Choosing from 40 applications this year, the Rotary distributed 35 grants, totaling $10,500. The lucky teachers will be guests at an Altadena Rotary Club meeting at the end of the school year, where they’ll talk about how their grant was used.

Summer concert series takes shape: The highlight of every Altadena summer is the Saturday night concert series in Farnsworth Park, sponsored by the Sheriff’s Support Group of Altadena. This free series is like a mini-Hollywood Bowl experience, but without all the traffic. Here’s how this summer’s program is shaping up:

July 7, The Irish Volunteers and the Irish Pride Dancers; July 14, the big band sounds of the Downbeat Express (tentative); July 21, local Americana favorites Wreck ‘N Sow (tentative); July 28, the Susie Hansen Latin Jazz Band; Aug. 4, crowd favorites Upstream; Aug. 11, Sgt. Pepper; Aug. 18, Lisa Haley and the Zydekats; Aug. 25, Altadena’s own jazz guitarist Brian Hughes and his quintet.

The grand finale will be on Sept. 9 with the Walking Phoenixes —a Johnny Cash tribute band — and special guests the Red Mutts, who do everything from AC/DC to Weezer.

Sheriff Support Group President Robert Klomburg said beer and wine will be available at the concerts. The group is negotiating with an Altadena restaurant to provide food onsite, but attendees also can come early with a picnic and enjoy the evening. Altadenablog is proud to be a sponsor of the concert series.

Computer reports itself stolen, deputies seize guns: A computer was stolen in a home burglary in Altadena on May 9, 2011. What the thief didn’t know was that the machine had a Lojack for Laptops program, which can track the computer’s location, capture keystrokes and save screenshots. The monitoring company turned over its captured data to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which traced the computer to the home of Raymond Jackson, 57, of Altadena.

Serving a search warrant on Jan. 12, deputies say they not only turned up the computer, but also an illegal assault rifle with two loaded 30-round magazines and a .32 revolver with the serial number scratched off. Deputies also found six iPhones, and traced two to their owners.

On Feb. 24, Jackson was charged with one count of possessing a banned assault rifle, being an ex-convict in possession of a gun and one count of receiving stolen property. He was released on $50,000 bail and his next court date is scheduled for March 12.

After getting that report, we went online and loaded Lojack for Laptops on our MacBook Pro.

Correction: The Feb. 26 Altadena Junction column stated that the Altadena Town Council “refused to issue a conditional use permit to the Arroyo Pacific Academy.” In fact, the town council doesn’t issue permits. The council voted to approve the Land Use Committee’s recommendation that the county decline to issue a permit to the private school. That issue ultimately will be decided by county officials.

TIMOTHY RUTT is the publisher and editor of Altadenablog, found at altadenablog.com. Altadena Junction appears weekly in the Sunday Valley Sun.