Mother's on Bacon

“We’re gonna have live music, but we’re gonna change the atmosphere,” says Colin Wickersheim. “Not so much the heavy metal anymore.” In December, Wickersheim’s wife Shelby, owner of Canvas Hair Studio on Garnet Avenue in P.B., became the new owner of Dreamstreet in Ocean Beach.

“But it was my idea,” says Wickersheim, 41, who owns a silk-screening and embroidery shop in Mira Mesa. He says he had fond memories of Dreamstreet. “Me and my wife played pool with Frasier Crane [actor Kelsey Grammer] and his wife here in 1993.”

Wickersheim is overseeing what is by his estimation a $200,000 renovation of the Bacon Street building that will include a kitchen.

The purchase of Dreamstreet did not include the land or title of the building; that remains the property of Sachiko Swall, a local realtor who opened the first Dreamstreet during the 1990s, says Wickersheim. But the building has a history.

“This used to be a strip club called the Red Garter. I found the old original sign in the back,” he says, standing amid construction debris in what will be the parking lot. “We called it the Red Gutter.” The Garter dates back to the 1960s and also hosted live bands. “I’m gonna put the sign up in the club.” For a while, he says, it was also called G Lounge. The new name? “Mother’s Ocean Beach.”

Wickersheim says the name comes from Mother’s, the bar in the film About Last Night. “And Mother’s used to be the name of a biker bar in Seal Beach.”

In its final months of thrash, Dreamstreet was open only a few days per week. BizFind.us listed the venue’s estimated annual revenue at $400,000. The asking price (Wickersheim would rather not say) included an unrestricted liquor license. “That means we can be open from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m., have dancing and live music, pool tables, and stay open after-hours when the bar is closed.” Wickersheim says he’ll book the live entertainment himself and plans to open by August. “My goal,” he says, “is no cover charge.”