11 Dec Baltic Kiss, Renovated for Live Music, Retains Its Ghosts

Suzie Vasco, a.k.a. Miss Suzie, designed every room — including this bathroom — at Baltic Kiss, which she owns with her husband, Tony Carracci.

Story and photos by Hannah Frances Johansson

“Baltic” is monogrammed across the windows at the front entrance. This is the perennial name for the establishment on Park Place in Point Richmond that was once a Prohibition-era speakeasy, transformed many times by generations of business owners.

A silver motorcycle sits in the back room, panels removed to reveal its insides. On the back patio, a wedding arch stands sharp and bare-branched against a muralled tree.

It only took Suzie Vasco and Tony Carracci, a married couple known as Miss Suzie and Chef Tony, seven weeks to convert this once-shuttered, historic building in Point Richmond into Baltic Kiss, a palatial, bohemian restaurant and bar open for live music every night except Tuesdays.

“The whole place is an art piece,” Carracci said, admiring his wife’s handiwork. “Everything in my mind is patchwork,” Vasco said. “Things have to match, but not everything.”

Around once a month, Chaos, the chosen name of bartender Michelle Gibbons, hosts a food burlesque cabaret, one event in their party series: “House of Chaos.” In November, artist Nancy Peach exhibited her erotic paintings on stage, a backdrop to the burlesque dancing and a live reading from Madison Young’s erotic memoir, “Daddy.”

Monday is jam night with an open mic. Vincent Stephens is a bass guitarist and self-described “cat herder” of the event. He has taken heavy metal guitarist Nick Sorrell, one of Baltic’s closing managers, as an apprentice.

Baltic’s emphasis on nightlife works well for Vasco’s night owl disposition. In their weeks of renovation, she says she slept a few hours “here and there” at the bar as she worked through the night. In that time, Vasco designed each room with hand-painted, meticulous detail.

At the time of signing the lease, the couple also owned Black Star Pirate BBQ, a southern comfort restaurant at the Point San Pablo Harbor that has since closed. Already stretched by the sudden popularity of Black Star, spurred by positive coverage in SF Gate, they said another commitment of this size would be “crazy.”

At first, they were not impressed with the venue. “It was the most un-function kitchen I’ve ever been in,” Carracci said.

It was in the long nights of renovation that Vasco said she first noticed the ghosts. Alone at night, she says she heard conversations when visiting the basement, unintelligible. “They weren’t aggressive or violent,” she said.

A handful of the staff members are in agreement about the ghosts. A couple of months ago, Will Woods III, another closing manager, and his co-workers heard someone fall down the stairs to the basement as they were closing up for the night. It was like “someone threw a cymbal,” Chaos said.

They called down and heard no response. Walking down the stairs to inspect the situation, Woods picked up a ship that had fallen from its shelf, but did not find anybody.

There is, according to Woods, Vasco and Chaos, security camera footage of the ship launching itself off a shelf down the stairwell towards the basement. “It’s not like it just falls down,” Woods said. “There’s a full arc to it.”

“I immediately went and put a shot of rum on that credenza for the pirates,” Chaos said, gesturing to it, “and then a shot of whiskey on the piano.”

These events aren’t isolated. Staff say things fly off shelves. Sometimes, the staff feels a tap on their shoulder, only to look and find no one there. Chaos says one of the ghosts has a bad habit of grabbing their butt. As a precaution, they have stopped bending over.

It would make sense. The Baltic was one of the oldest taverns in the East Bay. It has also been at various points a brothel, a funeral parlor and a city hall. It sits next to what was once the city jail, police and fire station. You can still see the bars on the windows next door if you peek your head over the upper deck. Most recently, it was a brunch spot and then an Indian dinner venue.

Rumors of blocked-off tunnels in the basement supposedly connected all the bars in Point Richmond in the Prohibition era.

“My grandfather used to gamble there,” said James Chesareck, a historian with the Point Richmond History Association.

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Carracci didn’t think he was ever going to return to nightlife before opening Baltic Kiss. He has owned three nightclubs in his long restaurant career, including the famed Cat Club in San Francisco.

He also has a long-standing passion for barbecue, which he blended with Cajun cuisine, reminiscent of his time at Cha Cha Cha in San Francisco, to produce the Southern comfort menu at Baltic Kiss. Barbecue is served on the back porch Monday through Friday until 6 or supplies run out.

If You Go:

Baltic Kiss, 135 Park Place, Richmond; (510) 260-0571; Hours: 4 p.m.-1 a.m. Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, 4 p.m.-2 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays, closed Tuesdays; see the menu.