Words by Johanna Harlow
You might be familiar with Cameron’s Pub in Half Moon Bay as “that place with the double-decker bus out front.” But how exactly does a Bristol bus end up on the California coast? Built across the pond, this cheery red giant was designed to be just short enough to pass beneath the arched bridges of the English countryside. First shipped to the States to service Lake Tahoe tourists, it ferried folks from the casinos to the Tahoe Queen moored in Zephyr Cove. Cameron Palmer, whose pub celebrates all things British, repurposed it as a dining area for his smoking customers. “When it eventually rolled into Half Moon Bay, we had a whole bunch of people that were eagerly awaiting it with a pint in their hands,” he says. The bus fits right in with the pub’s other icons of English culture, from the shepherd’s pie and pasties on the menu to the life-sized figure of a King’s Guard, black London taxi and red telephone box. Over its colorful, century-long history, the pub building served as a house of ill repute as well as a mess hall and officer’s quarters during World War II. It’s seen escaped convicts from San Quentin, and Al Capone’s sister ran slot machines downstairs. The Hell’s Angels reportedly once rode their Harley Davidsons right through the front door and up to the bar. More recently, the pub has hosted some illustrious English actors. Gerard Butler stopped by regularly during the filming of Chasing Mavericks and on one memorable karaoke night, Harry Potter’s Daniel Radcliffe belted out the lyrics to Eminem’s “The Real Slim Shady” amid hoots and hollers from the regulars.