PLANTATION — For about six years, most conversations began with “Cappy, lemme have another cold one.” John Capistran rarely heard his first or last name inside his own bar.
Cappy’s Bar looked like a biker joint alongside a lonely stretch of highway running through a ghost town, said “Cappy” Capistran, 47.
But the beer cooler is just a memory. For now, Cappy is ordering beers instead of serving them.
Two months ago the door was locked at Cappy’s Bar. Dust collected on bar tops and red plastic barstool cushions. Color pictures of used Harley-Davidsons remained tacked to the walls, turning a dark gray.
Then it was gone. It became just a lot littered with concrete rubble where front-end loaders lifted pieces of Cappy’s into waiting dump trucks. The small, flat-roofed building was demolished last week instead of being repaired to meet city and state building codes.
“I wasn’t getting rich, but making enough to keep my nose above water,” Capistran said. “That’s all that really matters. I don’t think I can find another bar to rent for as little as I paid here. It only cost $420 a month.”
Plantation code inspectors objected to the exposed pipes and wires; the missing windows; the rotted rafters; the multi-colored selection of car doors and other parts stored out back of the bar at the adjacent Buck’s Paint and Body Shop. They called the property “an eyesore and unsightly” and ordered the repairs be made or the buildings demolished.
For Capistran and Bobbe Schubot, the property’s owner, the decision was easy. Now Cappy is looking for a new place and Schubot is trying to sell the 4 acres. She acquired the property on State Road 7 just north of Peters Road as payment of a $100,000 loan, Schubot said. The demolition work cost $12,000 and efforts to redevelop the property with mini warehouses have fallen through, she said.
As chairman of the city’s Code Enforcement Board, Edd Weiner sees the demolition of Cappy’s as one way to improve an unsafe building. As a Plantation architect, Weiner designed a warehouse project for the property where Cappy’s stood.
But no plans have been active for at least six months, so the building was given a violation notice in July. The end came unceremoniously one afternoon a couple of months ago. Cappy asked his customers to leave, locked the door and gave Schubot the keys.
No tears were shed for Cappy’s Bar — not by city officials, Schubot or Cappy himself.
“That was really our last eyesore in the city,” Code Enforcement Director Len Zargo said.
The bar closed for only four hours each day from 4 to 8 a.m., Capistran said. In earlier times, it was called Papa Joe’s, that name appearing through the fading, peeling paint on the front outside wall.
It was a hangout for members of the Outlaws motorcycle gang, Capistran said, removing a pack of cigarettes from the pocket of his black Harley-Davidson T- shirt. But in the six years he ran the place, he never had to call the police, he said.
“We had all types,” he said matter-of-factly. “We had rednecks who kept an eye on the barmaids. Construction workers kept an eye on the rednecks. The bikers kept an eye out for the construction workers. The Outlaws kept an eye on the bikers. And the cops kept their eye on the Outlaws.”
They never had to call the cops from Cappy’s because they usually settled their beefs privately.
And the cops were never too far away — another reason they never had to call for help. Plantation Police officers and Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies occasionally raided the bar in search of people wanted on warrants.
For four months, agents of the state Department of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco worked an undercover operation inside the bar.
The Outlaws motorcycle gang has occupied a lot of Detective Bob Faulkner’s career with the Broward Sheriff’s Office. He speaks nostalgically about the bar.
“That was some place,” Faulkner said. “It wasn’t The Ritz, but it was an OK place. Most of the people just have a genuine love of motorcycles and they go there for the company. People from all walks of life have long hair and beards and ride motorcycles.”
Capistran, a wiry former construction foreman, was a customer for about 15 years before he took over the place. He’s been a biker since 1957.
It’s rare to find a biker without a record, Capistran said. He was arrested last year for running a lottery.
Although he was never a member of the Outlaws, Capistran spent time with them on both sides of a bar. Last February, he offered to sell raffle tickets for a bike owned by “Yankee,” an Outlaws member in prison. The money was planned for a defense fund.
Capistran was convicted and given a year’s probation. He paid a fine and court costs.
