from the Pasadena Sun
Bob Stane is the former owner and manager of the Ice House comedy club in Pasadena and is co-owner of the Coffee Gallery and the Coffee Gallery Backstage in Altadena, a live music venue. His friends Ken Marshall and Philip Coombes honored Stane’s 75th birthday in 2009 by creating the Fork in the Road, a piece of public art at 200 Bellefontaine St. in Pasadena. Removed in 2010, the Fork is back and recently has been the locale of charitable food and toy drives. Stane answered questions emailed to him from the Pasadena Sun.
Pasadena Sun: You and your colleagues have recently made the Fork in the Road a hub for charitable activities. What inspired you to do so?
Stane: Who hasn't secretly wanted to jab an 18-foot-tall piece of dinnerware into an intersection of two major roads? It seemed a natural to fill a physical void and create a centerpiece for gathering to do decent things. The Coffee Gallery and the Coffee Gallery Backstage are the equivalent of a village meeting spot. This is what coffeehouses have done since their inception a couple of hundred years ago. This is where we come together to share what is in our baskets.
And, of course, we crave self-aggrandizement.
Bob Stane, in front of the Fork in the Road artwork at St. John and Pasadena avenues in Pasadena on Wednesday, December 14, 2011. (Tim Berger/Pasadena Sun Staff Photographer)
