How's the art at Joey's Bar-B-Q? Tangy!
by David Allen


JOEY'S BAR-B-Q, a ribs joint in Pomona, has belatedly signed onto downtown's Arts Colony concept by hanging locally produced paintings in a previously unused room.
For now, the space is semi-officially known as the Joey's Bar-B-Q Art Gallery.

A catchier name is hard to imagine. In fact, it's that unlikely name that drew to me Wednesday's ribbon-cutting like a moth to a flame.

It also got me wondering how other local culinary institutions could follow Joey's lead and get involved in high culture.

The Vince's Spaghetti Actors' Workshop? The Sycamore Inn Symphony Orchestra?

And, dare I say it, the Donahoo's Chicken String Quartet?

Kidding aside, the story of how Joey's finally came to embrace its neighborhood is, like its sauce, actually kind of sweet.

In the mid-1990s, downtown west of Garey Avenue was a ghost town except for second-floor artist lofts, the first step in a nascent Arts Colony.

The next step was filling up storefronts. The Tessier family, the primary landlords, made cold calls to compatible businesses to try to lure them to Pomona.

Joey's, with two other locations, was one of the few that took the plunge.

"They were a big name in Upland and Chino," Cathy Tessier told me. "We considered that a compliment for them to come in here."

When Joey's arrived in 1997, taking over the corner of Garey Avenue and Second Street, it was a pioneer. Virtually the only sit-down restaurant downtown was Chung King. And a startup fine-dining restaurant in the Joey's space had recently failed.

But with its Texas-style beef ribs, tri-tip and catfish, Joey's was a hit. Its fortunes have ebbed and flowed along with downtown's, but the place is often packed, drawing jurors, businessmen, families and hipsters.

One of the quirky aspects to Joey's has been its use, or non-use, of its full space.

The main entrance is from the parking lot north of the restaurant. The storefront along Second was briefly used as a Joey's-run coffeehouse named Cup o' Joe. But that didn't last.

And so for a decade, you could go in or out of Joey's from Second, but that walk took you through the vacated coffeehouse that still had a counter, a few tables and a collection of odd objects, among them, for whatever reason, a carousel horse.

Joey's had literally, and perhaps figuratively too, turned its back on the Arts Colony.

But in recent weeks, that's begun to change.

Oscar Perdomo Jr. convinced his parents, Oscar and Myriam, who operate the Pomona Joey's, to let him turn the coffeehouse space into a bar serving beer and wine.

Meanwhile, next door on Second Street, a new gallery, Selkouth Fine Art, opened. Selkouth's owner is Nate Bell, a friend of the Perdomo family.

Bell, 27, has been friends with Oscar Jr., 26, since their days at Dixon Elementary in Chino.

"If you're going to do a bar and be open on Second Saturdays" - referring to the monthly art walk - "you should hang some art in here," Bell advised him.

And so on Jan. 10, art walk night, the bar opened for business, walls covered with a selection of paintings.

They were still up Wednesday for the Joey's Bar-B-Q Art Gallery ribbon-cutting. My eye was caught by portraits by Rebecca Curren of Frank Sinatra and James Dean, each framed and matted and priced at a mere $200.

I don't think you get a side of baked beans, but maybe that's negotiable.

There's no name yet for the bar. I would suggest the obvious: Joey's Bar.

In the meantime, the Joey's Bar-B-Q Art Gallery will have new works installed for Saturday's art walk, which has what's touted as an anti-Valentine's Day theme.

"Every month we're going to have different stuff up," Perdomo said. He admits he's no art expert. Bell "helps me pick stuff out, hang it up," Perdomo said. "I like art, but I'm an amateur at best."

Bell's Selkouth gallery likewise had a ribbon-cutting Wednesday. Where does the name come from?

"It's a Middle English word. It means strange, marvelous, never seen before," Bell explained, making me more couth about Selkouth.

The Perdomos had been focused on the restaurant but with Bell's coaxing, Oscar Jr. has been going to meetings of the Pomona Arts Colony Association. His bar is featuring live music once or twice a month.

For years, the Perdomos "just came for work. Now that their friend's next door, it's more like community," Bell told me.

Each Second Saturday draws hundreds of people, who wander among galleries, listen to live music, sip wine, eat dinner and meet up with friends.

Besides galleries and a ceramics museum, downtown's 25 art venues include some unusual spots, including a bookstore, a record store and a wine bar. In March, the Sakura Ichi sushi bar will also begin displaying art.

"Second Saturday has become such a big event that restaurants are starting to get involved. It's a great gimmick, a great idea," A.S. Ashley, a downtown artist, told me.

Speaking of gimmicks, I have an idea for the Joey's Bar-B-Q Art Gallery.

It could be the world's only art gallery to hand out Wet-Naps at the door.

David Allen writes Friday, Sunday and Wednesday, dryly.
E-mail david.allen@inlandnewspapers.com, call (909) 483-9339 or write 2041 E. Fourth St., Ontario 91764. Read his blog at dailybulletin.com/davidallenblog