SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : Potential Buyer Says Tavern Won’t Change

An Orange County restaurateur is negotiating to buy the Swallows Inn, the rough-and-tumble San Juan Capistrano watering hole that symbolizes the city’s dusty rancho past.

Ralph Furra, owner of three Orange County eateries, promises that he will leave the saloon unchanged if the sale goes through.

The venerable tavern’s existence had been threatened when the city, which owns the building, put the structure up for sale with no requirement to preserve the bar business inside.

But after months of uncertainty, it appears as if both current business owner Tacy Lee and the city have been determined to keep the Swallows in its downtown location on Camino Capistrano all along.

When Lee realized she couldn’t afford to purchase the building, she contacted Furra, who had made a bid on the bar 10 years ago. Lee said Friday that she has signed an agreement to sell the Swallows to Furra, and that he is tentatively set to take over the business by Oct. 1.

The deal is contingent on Furra working out the sale of the building with the city. But both Furra and city officials said Friday that the building is close to being sold for $500,000.

“We could open escrow at any time--I’ve been very pleased with the negotiations,” said Furra, who owns Woody’s Wharf in Newport Beach, Goody’s in San Clemente and Shooters in Mission Viejo. “The city wants to maintain it as the Swallows Inn, I want to maintain it like that and so does Tacy. . . . This is one of the few cities that said, ‘Yeah, we want to keep a bar.’ ”

The prospect of losing the well-known drinking establishment has worried many longtime residents, including Larry Bucheim, a former city councilman who says he has been kicked out, passed out and ridden a horse through the bar.

“This place is too tough to die,” Bucheim said. “It’s a real fixture in the community and a lot of people would raise a lot of hell if it was gone.”

As San Juan Capistrano has changed over the past five decades, so too has the Swallows. Cattle ranch hands have been replaced by Marines, business executives and bikers. The tavern’s wildly diverse clientele is matched only by its gallery of curiosities.

Tacked to one wall is a collection of photographs of biker women. An empty artillery shell hangs from the ceiling next to a pair of panty hose. An eight-foot-long highway sign pointing toward Los Angeles is nailed to a far wall. Each item has meaning to someone, regulars say.

Furra said changes will be limited to repairing a leaky roof and adding a new coat of paint to the exterior. Patrons also can look forward to air conditioning being installed.

“It probably won’t be good for the beer business,” Bucheim said. “I’m sure he’s going to fix up the place a little. But as long as the character remains the same, that will be good.”

For Lee, the sale will be bittersweet. The Swallows has been in her family for 14 years, and she said she’ll have mixed emotions when it leaves her hands.

“One of the hardest things I had to do was gather my employees together and tell them about the sale,” she said. “Most of these people have been with me forever. I consider them family.”

Furra plans to keep any worker who wants to stay, but said some will probably leave because his management style differs from Lee’s.

“I’m a little more formal (than Lee) and have different expectations,” he said. “You try to keep everybody, but there’s always some fallout.”