Tales from the crypt

Where else but America can a once mortuary be turned into a Bar & Grill, Yoga Studio and marketing firm? The Holly Street Bar & Grill is one of the finest restaurants in Pasadena. Brunch can be charming, sipping champagne in one of the courtyards and listening to a live music from classical harp or guitar. At night the place sparkles with white tea lights in the wisteria bushes and is enchanting. The food is excellent and if you don't want to pay for wine on their wine list your can bring your own bottle with no corking charge!

Next door in the same building is a the Insight Yoga studio, a beatiful studio with polished hard wood floors. This studio was once the chapel of the mortuary. It's odd to sit and chant sanskrit in front of a stained glass window with a white robe Jesus with arms opens stands in front of you. But the studio is lovely!

Plus, the place is haunted!

I won't tell all the stories in this post but I promise to post more tales from this crypt in future posts.

It's believed (but not exactly proven) that the mortuary acted as a front for a "Speak Easy" during the 1920 Prohibition Era. And they were selling more that illegal drink but female company as well. The restaurant area was once a carriage house and garage where gangsters hung out. People have stated seeing a huge black man dressed in overalls and a yellow shirt walking around, as well as a well dressed man in fancy gangster clothes of the era with his arm around two very scantily dressed women looking like working girls from the period. People have claimed while using the resturant's bathroom in the evening have be locked in.

Voices have been hear in the resturant and courtyard area in the very late evenings.

Talk about food for thought!

Keep coming back for more tales from this crypt!