Down the street was Vick’s Cafe, established by Victor Delu and brother-in-law James Marchetti. That year around the corner on Third, The Tropic Cafe pre-tiki nightclub was opened by Jack Ewing ( Gay Nineties, Ewing’s on the Kern). Its bars, cafes, nightclubs and other mob-controlled businesses catered to navy men - straight and gay - with a fresh paycheck looking for a good time. Third Avenue was ‘Neon Row,’ the sailor’s entertainment district. Just within eyesight of Horton Plaza’s electric fountain. The little luncheonette was on the ground floor of the old Gates Hotel building, west of the US Grant Hotel Coffee Shop and Horton Plaza, at the corner of Third and Broadway.
Its location on the main drag of Downtown San Diego had hosted several other restaurants including Randel’s Coffee Shop, one of the first places to legally serve beer after the end of Prohibition. Black & White Cab Company, 1937Around 1936-1937 Joe Petrone and his partner Charles A Pratt bought the troubled Plaza Fountain Lunch at 244 Broadway.