Walking Among the Titans at Brian’sBrian Fairley...

Walking Among the Titans at Brian’s

Brian Fairley knows that people don’t choose their bars because of what’s on the walls, even if Brian’s Beer & Billiards in Fullerton does have a Wayne Gretzky jersey and a signed photograph of Bo Jackson crushing his monster home run in the 1989 All-Star Game at Anaheim Stadium.

True, most of the memorabilia in Fairley’s small, casual sports bar is the sort that won’t be found at auctions or card shows. For one thing, most of it says “To Brian,” signed by everyone from Nolan Ryan and Wally Joyner to Mike Pringle, a Cal State Fullerton running back who held a share of the NCAA single-game rushing record for a week in 1989.

But none of that is what makes the place special. As Fairley notes, “If you don’t have the people, it’s just another room with cold beer.”

Brian’s is full of people who’ve made the place a part of their lives. As Fairley surveys the room on a busy Thursday night, his bartenders are bantering with customers--who’ve come almost as much for the conversation (and the outstanding baby back pork ribs) as for the drinks.

Fairley, a former Cal State Fullerton wrestler, opened his bar 11 years ago at the other end of the shopping center from K mart on North Placentia Avenue, and since then he has built a little empire there. A three-store spread, it also includes a Laundromat and a takeout barbecue place.

From your seat at Brian’s big solid-oak bar, you can take your pick of bottled domestic and import beers or wine, or have a draft: Coors, Coors Light, Bass Ale and Guinness are on tap. You can wait for your dinner--its arrival is signaled by a ring of the bell as it is handed through a window from the kitchen next door--or keep your eye on the bank of lights that lets you know when the coin-op dryers two doors down have finished their cycles.

What’s more, there are two pool tables, a couple of dart boards, a pinball machine, a satellite dish that keeps the important sports action on the big screen and a chalkboard to the left of the bar filled with announcements of planned excursions--skiing, a trip to the racetrack, a trip to the ballgame, even to a performance of “The Phantom of the Opera.”

The food is excellent. The ribs ($7.95 for a half slab of six or seven) come with the hearty recommendation of Cal State Fullerton’s assistant football coaches, good people who enjoy Brian’s as an occasional place of refuge (the Titans went 1-11 last season). Fairley describes his barbecue sauce as “more spicy than sweet” and notes with pride that “we make our own potato salad and bake our own bread.”

As for the stuff on the walls, part of the charm of Brian’s is that it is dedicated as much to the Titans as to the sports icons of our time. In the back hallway, Fairley has filled the walls with 61 photos commemorating Titan athletes, famous and not-so. There is Tim Wallach of the Montreal Expos, Mark Collins of the New York Giants, All-American basketball player Genia Miller, All-American wrestler David Jones and All-American gymnasts Tami Elliott and Lisa Dolan.

The whole package can give a people a sense that they belong, even when they don’t.

“It’s kind of old-fashioned,” Fairley says. “People from the Midwest and Back East come in here and feel at home right away. They say, ‘This is a place I like.’ ”

Brian’s Beer & Billiards, 1944 N. Placentia Ave., Fullerton. Open Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to midnight; Friday and Saturday till 2 a.m. (714) 993-1401.