Jacque Kepner, local radio personality, takes on Triplicate Community Calendar

Hello fair citizens of Crescent City, California and nearby Brookings, Oregon!

It’s me again – yes, Jacques Kepner, back in print after a long hiatus. This new, social column is

more of a “what’s-going-on-in-town-and-who-is-doing-it“, type of column!

Each week I will highlight regional characters, businesses and events- for those that make our coastal communities so fun and vibrant!

So…. let the tour begin!

For me, it all starts with “Ink, Art, and Local Characters”, and no place earns its personality without a newspaper. The Crescent City region has the venerable “Triplicate”, owned by good folks and friends, Dan and Phylis Schmidt.

The Triplicate is one of California’s oldest and most entertaining newspapers. It has chronicled storms, celebrations, controversies, school plays, fishing tales, and the eternal civic question: who is fixing up downtown…. and when? Among its most cheerful ambassadors is Jim “Doc” Belardi, a man so friendly and articulate that everybody seems to know him—or soon does! Doc calls himself the “newspaper boy” for the Triplicate, which is either modesty, showmanship, or a perfectly balanced serving of both.

Next,

I’d like to raise a frothy glass of beer and toast “Port O’Pints”, a squeezed-in craft-brewery operation that locals love to frequent and drink! Now with two distinct locations, the one common link is owner and good friend, Dr. Kirk! John is an OB-GYN by profession and a purveyor of conviviality by inclination. This combination is worth toasting: the physician who helps bring new life into the world… and helps the rest of us discuss it over a thoughtfully poured pint of craft beer!

For dinner, fellowship, music, and billed as having “35 craft beers on tap and a full liquor cocktail bar”, that can be no other than “Enoteca Restaurant and Bar!”

Owned and operated by my healthy, affable friend, Darryl Winklemann, this establishment remains a downtown Crescent City favorite! Enoteca has the warm glow of an establishment where folks arrive intending to stay for one drink and dinner- and later wonder what happened to the weekend!

SeaQuake, another beloved restaurant and brewery, keeps the local good-times-seismograph registering somewhere between “pleasant tremor” and “order another round!” It is the kind of small town institution that turns visitors into regulars before they have fully unpacked their suitcase.

Want a bowling-night-out? “Tsunami Lanes” is the region’s only bowling center, where strikes, gutter balls, birthday parties, and heroic tales of “I almost rolled a 300” all lie under the same roof!

Down in the harbor, where fishing boats rock noisily in tight corset-like slips, you’ll find one of the city’s oldest venerated “Crescent City Art Gallery”. Its welcoming artistic lights have been on since 1961. It remains a well-stocked favorite, a great stop for art lovers and window-shoppers alike.

While there, say hello to “Philip Wadsworth”, president-of-the-board and one of the town’s standout artists, whose work helps keep the local landscape vibrant even when the fog rolls in.

That’s it for now! Stay tuned for next week when we visit “High Note Winery“, “Jambalaya“, “The Chart Room“, “The Mighty Steelheads“ “Birdy Finch“, “David Sedgwick“ and many other FAB–O folks-take center stage in this ongoing social narrative! In the meantime, get out and enjoy our lovely slice of coastal paradise!