Playhouse Village entertains idea of 2-way Mentor Avenue

Pasadena city officials and residents gathered to celebrate the grand opening of the Playhouse Village Park on Sept. 17, 2022. The event was held on the park’s performance stage, which was dedicated to the band Van Halen, whose members Eddie and Alex Van Halen grew up in Pasadena. Photo by Trevor Stamp

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Playhouse Village has always had to keep up with the Joneses, the overweening neighbors that are Old Pasadena and South Lake, but such is life in the branded-neighborhood business. East Washington and Lincoln Avenue, both honorary Altadenas South in these post-disaster months, are up-and-comers as well in the living and shopping and dining departments.

But one leg up the Playhouse Village Association has on the others, folks were noting the other night at an Ice House fundraiser for the group, is on the entertainment side of the ledger.

First, the Prime Mover of the district is of course the Pasadena Playhouse itself, a treasure currently on a crazy roll. Winning a Tony for best regional theater. Celebrating its 100th birthday. Brilliantly buying back its entire South El Molino Avenue campus, pieces of which were variously lost in the bad old days when the curtain was temporarily down.

But it’s more than the grand old playhouse. The party, with a headlining performance by the (hilarious) Maz Jobrani, was the first time I’d been in the entirely remodeled Ice House, which has been in the funny business since 1960, since it was bought by Johnny Buss of the Lakers family and put through a $4 million overhaul. As he noted from the stage that night; 2019 was not a fortuitous year to buy a comedy club. But post-pandemic the famous brick-lined room, with a stage that launched legends from the Smothers Brothers to Steve Martin, has also been on a roll. The bar, the food, the architectural opening up to Mentor Avenue — the Ice House is now a great venue.

And, as former City Manager Phil Hawkey, now chair of the Playhouse Village Foundation, reminded me that night, right up the block is the phenomenal Boston Court theater, a fine stage for drama and music, and around the corner on Colorado is the venerable Academy movie theater. Plus a dozen restaurants within two blocks.

Is there perhaps a place in Pasadena for a new entertainment district centered on Mentor? Phil mused.

One obstacle; association leaders believe, is the cold hard fact that for vehicles Mentor is a one-way street. 1960s-era urban planning theories that this made traffic flow more efficient are now passe. On the Ice House lobby wall were renderings by the architects Moule Polyzoides that showed a two-way, calmer, tree-lined more picturesque Mentor.

Let’s do it.

These days, of course, to change a traffic pattern in Pasadena is about as simple as demilitarizing South Sudan. It will take ridiculous years. There will be hearings. But it can be done. Green, Union, Hudson — maybe they should stay uni-directional. Mentor can swing both ways.

And I think, given the Ice House’s renaissance and the ongoing success of Boston Court, that a new entertainment district within the Village can rise as well. After the success of LitFest, also returned this year to the Village, I walked across Colorado to check out the new AC Hotel at the suddenly hopping corner with Madison. The rooftop bar there will be entirely prime Rose Parade viewing (as will the guest rooms). And it joins the newly repurposed Pasadena Hotel & Pool, the former Constance on South Mentor, as fun PV staycation spots on the parade route.

So the Playhouse Village is where it’s at. Makes me so nostalgic for the days when the newspaper office was there, too.

Wednesday at random

It was while driving to the PV this week that I discovered that my churlish complaining over the last year about the four broken clocks on the Gold Line tower at Lake and the 210 Freeway has led to the demise of said clocks. I asked a simple thing — that they be fixed. There was some work in that direction. But now all four clocks have simply been removed and replaced with Metro logos. Venice, for instance, can keep a clock on a Piazza San Marco clock tower ticking since the 15th century. Our culture’s apparent time limit: 23 years. That’s appalling. ... Wow did it sizzle at Just Like Heaven at Brookside on Saturday: 100 degrees when my girl Courtney Barnett hit the stage. Fortunately, she’s Aussie and can rock on. This coming Saturday when my girl Aimee Mann reunites with ‘til Tuesday at Cruel World down on the golf course, it’ll be a cool 64. Plus, Devo! Go Go’s! As Rose Bowl boss Jens Weiden told civic group Civitas last week, the No. 1 attraction, Brookside music festival-goers say when polled: the setting.

Write the public editor at lwilson@scng.com.