The Dover Arms. Where we got our start: The Dover Arms was a pub we created one summer. Bored kids of Santa Cruz too young top get into bars so we decided to make out own. I lived on Clay st. with my mom. Our house was a garage converted into an apartment. There was a big regular house in the front and ours was at the end of a long driveway. That is my bedroom window we are standing in front of. There was a tool shed next to it that the landlord kept all his tools in. The landlords moved out and were selling the building so we took over the tool shed. None of us were 21 yet ( the legal drinking age in California) so we could not get into bars and drink legally. So we decided to make our own pub out of the tool shed. we grabbed the picnic table out of the yard but it was too long to fit in, so we took a hand saw sawed off a good foot to make it fit.
Then we could all cram in. We would pool our money together and get a mixer of Guinness and a twelver of Blats or whatever other cheap ass beer we could get our grubby hand on and make black and tans mixing the two together. We were trying to be sophisticated and not be like all the other broke ass teenage punks drinking on the street. But we sure as hell could not afford good beer. So on the fancy weekends we managed this concoction. Everyone brought things from home to donate to whatever an idea of 'A pub" we could manage.
Actual 'Dover Arms Pub' in Vancouver, BC.
Greg had a cloth napkin of a map of somewhere, one of those tourists keepsakes they sell. It looked British or Irish and said Dover on it. So that's how we came up with the Name Dover Arms. It sounded like a pub name to us. We painted signs and built tiny shelves on the inside to put our coveted Guinness Bottles on that we kept after drinking. The caps we would nail around the door frame. Soon enough those bottles made and excellent beer mold which gave our pub an authentic smell.
-Misty
