Located in the historic area of Bakersfield, the Padre Hotel has a history that has remained with the building, although it has gone through recent renovations.
Built in 1928, the Padre Hotel was long known as one of the most popular gathering places in downtown Bakersfield. In the 60s, the hotel was bought by Milton “Spartacus” Miller, who ran the hotel for almost half a century.
Brad White, 40, network engineer at LightSpeed Systems, remembers going to the Padre Hotel during his teenage years.
“I was a teenager in high school, and I used to work as a bicycle mechanic across the street, and during our breaks me and my buddies would go to the lower floor of the hotel, called the Down-Towner Cafe, and we would have breakfast and coffee,” said White. The food served at the cafe was standard, like Denny’s, with reasonable pricing and not overly competitive.
Miller wasn’t the regular business owner during his ownership. “He would go to Goodwill or Salvation Army and buy trash bags full of clothes and toys and die-hard homeless people would come in, and he would give them jackets, a new pair of jeans or whatever they needed. They all congregated downtown and were all drawn to the Padre because of that,” said White.
Bakersfield City Hall, in the 60s, let Miller know he had fire code violations, and out of protest toward them, he built a mock missile that was affixed in the direction of City Hall. “They took down the rocket it used to have on the rooftop and the Alamo Tombstone sign is now gone as well,” said White.
The new Padre team management consists of Graham Downes, principal of San Diego-based Graham Downes Architecture, who has partnered with Bret Miller, CEO of Eat Drink and Sleep, also based in San Diego, to form Padre Hotel Partners.
Although White has not been to the renovated Padre Hotel, he said, “It definitely looks much cleaner because the other owner didn’t maintain it real well. It got real dirty, broken-down looking and kind of messed up.”
The completed project of the Padre Hotel features 112 guests rooms and suites, a restaurant, a bar, nightclub lounge and a 24-hour cafe.
Having attended opening night, Ana Rodriguez, a 25-year-old Cal State Bakersfield student, likes the arrangement of the bar and lounge along with the dress code implementation to go in.
“The workers or security in the front see you from head to toe, and if your wearing a T-shirt, flip flops or sneakers, they won’t let you into the special lounge where there’s couches and another bar,” said Rodriguez.
Misty Whiten, 30, training facilitator at LightSpeed Systems, enjoyed the Prospect Bar and DJ music. “The dance floor is a good size, the DJ is awesome and they have a VIP loft upstairs you could rent,” said Whiten.
Whiten characterized the Padre hotel as a “vintage nature of the original Padre with a modern twist/cowboy glam.” In the rooms upstairs, there is a custom design on the wallpaper which “from faraway it looks like a damasked print but when you get close to it, it has cowboys and guns, with an old western feel to it,” said Whiten.
As for the hotel’s drink pricing and services, Rodriguez mentioned the prices for drinks were average but that the service was a bit slow. “The servers take your order, but take a long time to get you your drink, even if you go to the bar personally, and the same goes when you’re paying the tab,” she said.
One of the major problems she noticed for slow service was the need for more employees. “I went on opening night, and there were only around four waitresses going around and to me it seemed there were more security personnel in the front than actual people taking your orders.”
The newly renovated Padre Hotel for many in Bakersfield came at a perfect time and it’s “definitely a breath of fresh air,” said Whiten.