Dick's Place / Rubaiyat Beads

Some buildings in Mendocino do not need to shout their history. This one has a neon cocktail glass, a liquor sign, a bead shop next door, and almost a century of village memory sitting right in plain sight.

Overview

The best-known part of the property at 45070 Main Street is Dick's Place, one of Mendocino's classic old drinking establishments.

Riccardo "Dick" Cecchi and his wife, Dora, opened a liquor store on Main Street on October 15, 1934, shortly after the end of Prohibition. They received an on-sale liquor license two years later and expanded the operation into a bar.

In 1937, the Cecchis purchased the bar building and the house next door. The family moved into the neighboring residence while preparing to add an Italian café to the business.

That former family home eventually became a separate commercial space. Today it is associated with Rubaiyat Beads, a small specialty shop selling beads, jewelry-making supplies, textiles, rugs, incense, and imported objects.

Together, Dick's Place and Rubaiyat preserve two connected parts of the same family property: the business where the Cecchis worked and the neighboring building where they lived.

Location

Dick's Place and Rubaiyat Beads are located at 45070 Main Street in the historic village of Mendocino.

The property stands on the ocean side of Main Street, close to the Mendocino Hotel and directly across from the open headlands.

That location gives Dick's Place one of the most recognizable views from any bar on the Mendocino Coast. Its windows look west toward Mendocino Bay, the bluffs, and the Pacific Ocean.

The parcel stretches between Main Street and Albion Street and includes the bar, the adjoining retail space, and residential accommodations. A current property listing describes the combined mixed-use property as approximately 3,235 square feet on a parcel of about 0.16 acres.

Riccardo "Dick" Cecchi

Riccardo Cecchi was born on May 17, 1894, in Fornovolasco, Italy.

He immigrated to California with his father when he was ten years old. In 1908, he moved to Elk to live with his uncle, Ottavio Viviani.

Dick spent roughly the next 20 years working in logging camps around the Mendocino Coast. At the Irmulco logging camp, he met Dora, the woman who would become his wife.

Dick and Dora married on March 28, 1921. They had three children: Lena, Pete, and Irene.

As logging work became less dependable during the Depression, Dick and Dora turned toward a Main Street business of their own.

The Liquor Store Opens

Dick and Dora opened their Mendocino liquor store on October 15, 1934.

The timing was important. National Prohibition had ended in December 1933, allowing legal liquor businesses to return after more than a decade of federal restrictions.

At first, the Cecchis operated a liquor store rather than a conventional bar. In 1936, they obtained an on-sale license, allowing alcoholic drinks to be served on the premises.

That change established the drinking place that became known throughout Mendocino simply as Dick's.

Purchasing the Property

In 1937, Dick and Dora purchased both the bar building and the neighboring house.

The family moved into the residence next door. That building would eventually become the entrance and retail space associated with Rubaiyat Beads.

The Cecchis also began preparing to add a café to their Main Street operation. The combination of bar, café, and family residence made the property both a workplace and a home.

The arrangement was common in small towns, where owners often lived beside or above the businesses that supported their families.

The Italian Café

The Cecchi family opened its Italian café in 1938, the same year the Union Lumber Company closed the Mendocino mill.

The mill closure was a major disruption for the village, but public work projects brought hundreds of Works Progress Administration laborers into the area. Many stayed at a camp near the Woodlands Fire Station on Little Lake Road.

Dick's became an affordable place for workers and local residents. A shot of whiskey reportedly cost a dime, while even the most expensive drink cost only a quarter.

The café and bar were operated as a family business. Dick and later his son Pete worked behind the bar. Dora prepared food, Lena washed dishes, and Irene waited on customers.

A Cecchi Family Business

Dick's Place remained closely tied to the Cecchi family for nearly half a century.

The bar was not simply named after Dick. His family worked inside it, lived beside it, and helped establish the atmosphere that became part of the business's identity.

Dick suffered a stroke in 1961 and was no longer able to continue working. At that point, the family stopped serving food, but the bar remained open under the management of his son Pete.

Dick died in 1967 and was buried in the Cecchi family plot at Hillcrest Cemetery in Mendocino County.

Pete Cecchi

Pete Cecchi continued running Dick's Place after his father's illness and death.

A World War II veteran, Pete became a memorable figure behind the bar. He maintained the establishment as a traditional local drinking place during a period when Mendocino was changing from a logging and fishing village into a community increasingly associated with artists, newcomers, counterculture residents, and tourism.

Pete did not always welcome every part of that change. Later accounts remember him as selective about whom he served and particularly suspicious of some of the younger counterculture crowd.

The bar nevertheless survived the cultural changes around it and remained a gathering place for longtime residents as well as newer arrivals.

Pete operated Dick's until the family sold the business in 1983. The property had remained family-owned from its opening in 1934 until that sale.

Later Owners

After Pete sold Dick's Place, the business passed through only a small number of owners.

It was associated for a period with ownership connected to the Mendocino Hotel. Pete continued working there for several years after the sale.

The business changed hands again in 2005.

Eula Lenihan had begun bartending at Dick's during the mid-1990s and later became its manager. She and Mike Lenihan met at the bar in 2003 and purchased Dick's Place in 2013.

Rather than treating it as a business that needed to be reinvented, the Lenihans described themselves as caretakers of something that had existed long before them and, they hoped, would continue long afterward.

The Neon Cocktail Sign

One of the most recognizable features of Dick's Place is its neon cocktail-glass sign.

Mendocino's historic preservation rules generally restrict modern illuminated signs, but the Dick's Place neon was already part of the village streetscape and was allowed to remain.

Later owners have replaced or repaired the sign when necessary while preserving its familiar appearance.

The glowing cocktail glass has become a landmark of its own. On foggy evenings, it stands out above Main Street as clearly as some of Mendocino's church towers and water tanks do during the day.

Inside Dick's Place

The interior of Dick's Place is compact, informal, and filled with reminders of its long history.

The bar is known for its jukebox, memorabilia, ocean view, longtime customers, and the kind of closely spaced seating that makes conversation difficult to avoid.

Mounted bull horns above the bar are said to have come from the Oppenlander Ranch in Comptche. According to the story preserved by the current owners, Dick had once been knocked down by a bull. When the animal was later killed, the rancher gave Dick its horns.

Pete Cecchi's ashes are also reportedly kept above the bar, maintaining a direct and very personal connection with the family that operated Dick's for so many years.

A Horse Walks into the Bar

Dick's Place has accumulated the kind of stories expected from a bar operating for more than 90 years.

One remembered incident occurred on Halloween, when a costumed man arrived on horseback and rode the horse through the doorway.

People inside reportedly watched nervously, concerned that the old floor might not support the animal.

The horse crossed the floor without falling through, adding another story to a collection that has grown with every generation of customers.

Bloody Marys and Local Regulars

Dick's remains a place used by both visitors and regular local customers.

One couple remembers stopping there at least once a week and particularly praises the Bloody Marys.

That kind of repeated neighborhood use helps explain the bar's survival. It benefits from its oceanfront location and the steady movement of visitors through Mendocino, but its identity has always depended on people who return regularly and know one another.

Current visitor information continues to describe Dick's as a friendly, unpretentious Main Street bar offering beer, cocktails, wine, conversation, and a jukebox filled with soul, rhythm and blues, and country-and-western music.

Rubaiyat Beads

The neighboring commercial space is occupied by Rubaiyat Beads.

Rubaiyat has been known for beads, semiprecious stones, jewelry and jewelry-making supplies, rugs, textiles, incense, and unusual imported gifts.

The shop's densely arranged selection gives the former Cecchi residence a very different atmosphere from the adjoining bar, but the two businesses remain connected through the history of the property.

The entrance to Rubaiyat occupies what Kelley House Museum material identifies as the former Cecchi family home. The same doorway that now leads shoppers toward beads and textiles once led into the residence where Dick, Dora, and their children lived beside the family business.

Earlier Commercial Use of the Bead-Shop Space

Current property information describes the commercial area beside Dick's as having once been used as a café before becoming a successful retail shop.

That description may reflect the food-service history associated with the Cecchi property, although the exact arrangement of the original café, bar, residence, and later shop space has not been completely established through available public records.

The building's uses have changed, but its close physical connection with Dick's Place has remained.

Further memories from Cecchi family members, former employees, and longtime Mendocino residents may help clarify when the residential space became commercial and which businesses occupied it before Rubaiyat.

Summer of '42

Mendocino and Fort Bragg were used extensively during production of the 1971 film *Summer of '42*.

The film was set on a fictional New England island, but Mendocino's wooden buildings, narrow streets, water towers, headlands, and lightly developed coastline allowed the village to stand in for an East Coast community during World War II.

Filming began on the Mendocino Coast in July 1970. Scenes were filmed on Ukiah Street, Woodward Street, Little Lake Street, Lansing Street, Main Street, Heeser Drive, and other local locations.

The Grocery-Bag Scene

A community memory places Dick's Place in the background of one of the film's village scenes.

In the sequence, Dorothy, played by Jennifer O'Neill, drops a grocery bag. Hermie, played by Gary Grimes, helps her gather the groceries before they begin walking together.

As the camera followed the actors past Dick's Place, a white blur reportedly appeared in the bar window.

According to the local recollection, the blur was a customer named Jim. A member of the production crew had asked him to remain away from the window while the scene was filmed. He apparently accepted that request as a challenge and moved toward the glass instead.

The story is difficult to verify through official production records, but it is exactly the kind of behind-the-scenes memory that survives when a working village becomes a movie set.

Another viewer remembered the location as an ice-cream store, showing how film scenes, changing businesses, and personal memory can blend together over the years.

Building and Property

The 45070 Main Street property is a mixed-use complex rather than a single open commercial room.

It includes the bar, the adjoining retail shop, and residential space. The parcel extends from Main Street toward Albion Street and benefits from views across the headlands and Mendocino Bay.

Public listings give the combined building area as approximately 3,235 square feet. The current configuration includes the operating bar, the retail space occupied by Rubaiyat, and a renovated one-bedroom residence.

Some public property databases give 1959 as a construction date, but that date cannot represent the beginning of Dick's Place because the business and buildings are documented at the site during the 1930s. It may refer to later alterations, a reassessment, or part of the present structure. The historic Cecchi record is more reliable for establishing the property's early business history.

The Property for Sale

Dick's Place and the larger 45070 Main Street property were offered for sale in 2025 for approximately $3.5 million.

The listing included the historic bar business, adjoining commercial space, residential portion, and the parcel extending toward Albion Street.

The owners explained that the sale was not prompted by the failure of the business. After decades of involvement with Dick's, they were ready to move into another stage of life.

A newer listing dated April 15, 2026, offered the property for approximately $2.95 million. As of August 5, 2026, public listings continued to present the property as an operating mixed-use business opportunity.

The Businesses Today

Dick's Place continues to operate as a Main Street bar serving beer, wine, cocktails, and conversation.

Rubaiyat continues the property's retail use with beads, jewelry supplies, textiles, incense, rugs, and imported goods.

The businesses are very different, but together they create one of Main Street's most recognizable combinations: a glowing neon cocktail glass beside a shop filled with beads and colorful objects, all overlooking the Mendocino headlands.

Community Memories

One community member remembers a brother appearing as a white blur in the window of Dick's Place during the filming of *Summer of '42*. After reportedly being instructed to stay away from the window, he moved closer to it instead.

Another person remembers the nearby filming location as an ice-cream store, illustrating how changing storefronts and movie scenes can become mixed together in local memory.

Regular customers remember visiting Dick's at least once a week and describe its Bloody Marys as outstanding.

These recollections capture several sides of the property: its connection with Hollywood filming, the uncertainty that comes with memories of changing businesses, and its continuing role as a place where local customers return week after week.

Timeline

**May 17, 1894** --- Riccardo "Dick" Cecchi is born in Fornovolasco, Italy.

**1904** --- Dick immigrates to California with his father.

**1908** --- Dick moves to Elk to live with his uncle, Ottavio Viviani.

**March 28, 1921** --- Dick Cecchi and Dora marry.

**October 15, 1934** --- Dick and Dora open a liquor store on Mendocino's Main Street.

**1936** --- The Cecchis receive an on-sale liquor license and begin operating the bar.

**1937** --- Dick and Dora purchase the bar building and neighboring house. The family moves into the residence and prepares to open an Italian café.

**1938** --- The café opens during the year the Mendocino mill closes and WPA workers arrive in the area.

**1961** --- Dick suffers a stroke and stops working. The family ends its food service, but Pete Cecchi continues operating the bar.

**1967** --- Dick Cecchi dies.

**July 1970** --- *Summer of '42* begins filming on the Mendocino Coast, including scenes on Mendocino's village streets.

**1971** --- *Summer of '42* is released.

**1983** --- Pete Cecchi sells Dick's Place, ending nearly 50 years of Cecchi family ownership.

**Mid-1990s** --- Eula Lenihan begins bartending at Dick's Place.

**2003** --- Mike and Eula Lenihan meet at the bar.

**2005** --- Ownership of the business changes again, and Eula becomes its manager.

**2013** --- Mike and Eula Lenihan purchase Dick's Place.

**By the early twenty-first century** --- Rubaiyat Beads operates in the neighboring former Cecchi residence.

**2025** --- Dick's Place and the combined property are offered for sale for approximately $3.5 million.

**April 2026** --- The mixed-use property is relisted for approximately $2.95 million.

**Today** --- Dick's Place continues operating beside Rubaiyat Beads at 45070 Main Street.

Why It Matters

Dick's Place is more than an old bar.

It is a surviving family business story from the Depression, a reminder of Mendocino's logging years, a gathering place that lived through the village's transformation into an artists' community and visitor destination, and a familiar landmark marked by one glowing neon cocktail glass.

Rubaiyat adds another layer to that history.

The little shop occupies the building that once served as the Cecchi family residence. What now appears to be two neighboring Main Street businesses was once a connected family property where home, work, food, and community life existed side by side.

The property has also witnessed the village becoming a movie set, generations of local customers taking their places at the bar, changing ownership, changing retail uses, and countless stories that were never written down.

Nearly a century after Dick and Dora opened their liquor store, people still walk beneath the same name.

That continuity is rare, even in Mendocino.

Sources & Original Research

This article blends verifiable historical research with community recollections supplied through the original Buildings and Businesses in Mendocino post. Historical information about Riccardo "Dick" Cecchi, his immigration, logging work, marriage to Dora, the October 15, 1934 opening of the liquor store, the 1936 on-sale license, the 1937 purchase of the bar and neighboring residence, the 1938 Italian café, the family's roles in the business, Dick's 1961 stroke, his 1967 death, and Pete Cecchi's management comes from Kelley House Museum research drawing upon the *Mendocino Beacon* and other local historical records. Later ownership information, the Lenihans' stewardship, the neon sign, interior memorabilia, the bull horns, Pete's ashes, the Halloween horse story, and the 2025 sale offering come from reporting by SFGATE and public commercial-property listings. Current property information comes from the 2025 and 2026 real-estate listings for 45070 Main Street. Information about present-day Dick's Place comes from Visit Mendocino County and other public visitor listings. Information about Rubaiyat comes from Mendocino shopping directories, public business listings, historical photographs, and the identification of its entrance as the former Cecchi residence by the Kelley House Museum. Information about local filming of *Summer of '42* comes from the Kelley House Museum, Mendocino Coast Chamber of Commerce, and Mendocino Film Festival records. Original post text provided by Gee Bee; comment thread provided by Gee Bee with contributor memories from Chuck Ross, Pat Schuette Williams, and Rick Fischer.