Fremont country venue a coronavirus casualty
For almost 44 years, the Saddle Rack club offered Bay Area residents all the trappings of a rural honkytonk: line dancing, Tex Mex food, a mechanical bull.
Now the Fremont venue is closing permanently, the latest casualty of COVID19 and a stinging economic shutdown.
In a note posted on their website, managers of the Saddle Rack said they’d considered various ways to contort the business so that it fit in a new era of social distancing. After weeks of painful discussion, they decided it could not be done.
“Even when the coronavirus goes away, how are you going to tell people they have to stand 6 feet apart on a dance floor or in a close bar?” asked Andy Buchanan, one of the original club owners, who retired in 2017.
His concerns reflect a much larger quandary
“How are you going to tell people they have to stand 6 feet apart on a dance floor or in a close bar?” Andy Buchanan, one of the original owners of Saddle Rack club
for the nightclub world, which for generations has been defined by close contact — with people packed tightly in a bar, or in a booth, or beneath a disco ball.
Buchanan has many fond memories of the club, which he helped build at its original location in San Jose. The first building was a smorgasbord with an attached bar, and the owners kept tearing out walls until they had a 26,000squarefoot space that could be either a nightclub or a barn.
Over the years, the club featured live performances by the royalty of country music as well as rock acts. Merle Haggard, Alan Jackson and Blue Öyster Cult all played at the Saddle
Rack. Famous acts including Brooks & Dunn dropped by for afterparties after headlining at the Fillmore, Buchanan said.
They moved to Fremont in 2003, and the business continued to thrive, drawing up to 1,800 people a night. The club offered twostep and linedance lessons, and live bands performed on Saturdays.
Owner Gary Robinson wasn’t immediately available to talk over the weekend. He and his employees expressed “overwhelming sadness” in their farewell note.