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Johnny’s
today. It’s a history he’s worked hard to maintain. "When I bought the place in ’78, it was a .32 bar. I broke out the walls, added some space," he says. "From 1982 to 88, we built out the upstairs into a private club." One evening in February 1981, in the original downstairs portion of Johnny’s, three one-time KU track teammates, Shaun Trenholm, Kendall Smith and Jim Groninger, sat in a booth enjoying a beer when, all of a sudden, Groninger blurted out, “We can do this!” That was the beginning of the West Coast Saloon, an establishment that, at first, was somewhat of a novelty, with its sandy-beach floor with surrounding boardwalk. From opening day on June 12, 1981, students lined up around the building waiting to get into the packed .32 beer bar. The West Coast offered students an alternative southwest of campus, away from the Mass Street stalwarts and 14th Street institutions, The Wheel and The Hawk. “I never had any doubt it would work, but it was mostly ignorance,” says Trenholm, who bought out Smith and Groninger after the first year and became sole proprietor. “People would walk by when we were getting the place ready and ask us what we were doing. We told them we were opening a bar. Everyone said we’d never make it.”
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The three friends built the interior of the bar themselves on a very limited budget of about $8,000, Trenholm says. People thought the sand and wood-plank boardwalk were brilliant marketing moves,