At Reno’s Little Waldorf Saloon, everything has changed and nothing has changed in 100 years.
The business, founded in 1922, has been anchored in three locations and steered by several owners. From its beginning as a hole-in-the-wall speakeasy on Virginia Street, it was a place for Renoites to see and be seen; an oasis for thirsty folks across the social strata. They cheered for teams, made deals, had arguments and began life-long relationships. University of Nevada sports memorabilia became theme for its décor early on. College students were – and remain – the core of its work force and customer base.
The “Little Wal,” as locals call it, isn’t as venerable as the Genoa Bar (founded in 1853) or as rustic as the Old Globe Saloon in Carson City (built in 1875). But Reno’s oldest continuing saloon has transcended being a bar/eatery and evolved into a beloved institution. Ask any university alumni about their experiences as a student, and fond memories of the Little Waldorf remain vivid.
“There’s so much wonderful, crazy stuff to remember,” said Joan Arrizabalaga, 80, a Reno artist who was a University of Nevada student in the late 1950s. “We lived in that place when we were going to school. It was such a great place and we loved the owners, Lance and Rita (Morton)… We loved the Little Waldorf, and we never got over it.”
In a city that has always offered a cacophony of taverns, diners and restaurants – as well as free drinks and cheap buffets in casinos — the Little Wal has not only survived, but prospered. Its link to the university and its teams has been its guiding star; the connection it made with its patrons endures across generations.
Born during Prohibition
The tavern is woven into the fabric of Northern Nevada. No one could have predicted that kind of popularity or longevity in 1922, the second year of the great national mistake called Prohibition.
Charles Meyers, who with his brother, owned an upscale dinner house called The Waldorf Club, opened his own place at 343 N. Virginia St. in 1922. He dubbed the joint the Little Waldorf to distinguish it from his sibling’s operation on the east side of Virginia Street. The current management, who leased the business in 2006, came up with a fanciful origin story connecting it with the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, but that’s marketing, not history.
‘Best milkshakes in Reno’
There was nothing ritzy about the original Little Waldorf. It was tiny. “If there were 30 people in the place, it was packed,” one patron recalled. It had a 20-foot-wide frontage with two side-by-side doors facing the street. A cigar counter was on the left of the small room behind one door. A doorway at the end of the counter was marked “members only.”
The other portal on the right, with “Ladies’ Entrance” inscribed on frosted glass, opened into a narrow aisle between two rows of small tables and booths. The backroom had a 22-foot-long oak bar along its right side. Legend says the fixture had come to Nevada around Cape Horn aboard a sailing ship. The Meyers brothers shipped it from Virginia City to Reno.
Although federal agents enforced the Volstead Act in the Silver State, local authorities weren’t much interested in keeping Nevada dry. In the 1920s, a U.S. attorney complained there were many more bars in Reno after Prohibition than before the law was ratified. Reno Mayor Ed Roberts, who held office from 1923 to 1933, declared the law unenforceable and ordered police to ignore bootleggers unless they were required to assist federal officers.
People joked that the Little Waldorf had “the best milkshakes in Reno” because they were half whiskey. Newspaper files document federal raids at some Reno speakeasies and revenue agents seized stockpiles of bootleg booze, but there’s no record of the feds bursting through the “members” door at the Little Wall.
Prohibition ends
In 1927, Meyers sold the business to J.W. “Matty” Madison. When the Volstead Act was repealed in 1933, Madison was able to advertise the bar, which already had a large clientele among college students, professionals, politicians and downtown workers. In 1946, Madison sold the Little Waldorf to Lance and Rita Morton, just in time for the post-war boom in enrollment at the University of Nevada.
“The Little Wal functioned as an unofficial adjunct to the university,” said Warren Lerude, who graduated with a journalism degree in 1961, became an editor at Reno Newspapers and won a Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing in 1977. “On weekend nights it was jammed with students from the main front door on Virginia Street to the end of the bar.”
The staff of the Sagebrush, the university’s student newspaper, called it home, Lerude wrote in an email, “so did the sororities and fraternities. And athletes. And student leaders. And a drinking club of students called the Sundowners. And just about everyone else.”
‘An amazing place’
Doctors, judges, politicians and hourly workers stood elbow-to-elbow with college kids along the antique bar. Being too young to drink legally was not an impediment.
“Everybody went into that tiny place,” said Arrizabalaga, who was under 21 during her time at the university. “Mayor Sam Dibitonto came in a lot. It was an amazing place.”
“The police would call (owner Lance Morton) when they planned to come over and check for underage drinking. So we’d all get the word and go out and stand on the sidewalk. The police would come and talk to Lance, then they’d come out and say goodbye to us and we’d all go back in.” – Joan Arrizabalaga, who was a UNR student in the 1950s.
If things got rowdy and Morton couldn’t immediately restore calm, he had a simple solution: “If there were problems, Lance would just shut the place down, kick everyone out and just close it up,” Arrizabalaga said. “Some people got 86ed (thrown out) individually, but they only got 86ed for like a day.”
The Morton’s era
The bar didn’t have a kitchen, but Rita Morton would make sandwiches for the lunch crowd. Sixty years later, former students still wax lyrical about those sandwiches. Their affection for Lance and Rita also remains strong.
“We never got rich, but we had more fun than the kids.” – Rita Morton, quoted in the Reno Gazette-Journal.
In 1972, the wrecking ball came for the buildings along the 300 block of North Virginia Street to make way for the Eldorado Hotel-Casino. The Mortons were ready to retire. The business was sold to Tom Belaustegui, a Reno lawyer, and Lewi Chatelle, then 25, who had worked there since 1965, when he was a student at the university.
Chatelle, from Getchell, Nevada, is the lynchpin in the history of the Little Wal, connecting three locations. He ran the business from 1972 to 2003 and still owns the property at the saloon’s current site, across Virginia Street from the UNR campus.
Moving to Fifth Street
When the Virginia Street building was slated for demolition, the partners loaded the Little Waldorf’s equipment and memorabilia into a pickup truck. A new building went up at 555 W. Fifth St. (now occupied by JJ’s Pie Company). “We tried to keep the same old stuff, including the original bar,” Chatelle said. “That bar got so rotten, cracked and split, we had to replace it. Too much booze got spilled on it. We tried to get it (repaired) but it was too far gone.”
The “betting boards” also were relocated. Patrons could wager on anything from athletic contests to political races. Chatelle also created an annual Super Bowl pool, a grid with $100 squares and $10,000 in payouts.
The Fifth Street location retained the Wall’s eclectic clientele. Governors Mike O’Callaghan and Robert List often stopped by to hoist a glass and press the flesh. Mills Lane, a former Washoe County district attorney and later a judge, would stop by for lunch and a quick game of poker. Brothel owners and clergymen dropped in occasionally. University students continued to flock to the place.
‘It was home’
Dean Smith, 85, who was a bartender at the Virginia Street location when he was a student and is a former Reno newspaperman and publisher, said Chatelle maintained the bar’s old atmosphere.
“It was home for most of us. There wasn’t a day passed that you didn’t go in there. People made an effort to get there almost on a daily basis. It was a great hangout for college kids, professionals and a political hangout.” – Dean Smith, a bartender in the 1950s who became a news executive.
Alumni and casino workers also were frequent patrons. Softball teams used the Little Wal as their clubhouse, a place to celebrate victories or commiserate after defeats. And drink beer.
“Anybody who was anybody could be found at the Little Wal,” said Pete Saunders, whose 1980’s softball team, The Legends, was sponsored by the business. Although the building had more space than the original location, it often was packed. “The bathrooms each had a single stall and there were lines on busy nights. For Homecoming, they got permits to sell beer in the parking lot… If you were part of a group in the Little Wal, you were in with the in crowd.”
The current location
In 1981, Chatelle got wind of a sports complex to be built at the university. He bought the property at 1661 N. Virginia St. and built the third iteration of the business near the new Lawlor Events Center. It’s also within easy walking distance of many dormitories.
Since then, UNR students have been the dominant clientele. The saloon featured live music for years, and some nationally-known bands made the pilgrimage to Reno to play there. Chatelle and subsequent managers hired a lot of UNR students as cooks, bartenders and servers. He especially liked hiring students who, like himself, hailed from Nevada’s rural counties.
“I always tried to hire those cow county kids. They’ve got a work ethic. They came to Reno to work, make money and go to college.” – Lewi Chatelle, who ran the business from 1972 to 2006.
In 1994, Chatelle leased the business to two entrepreneurs who eventually made changes. They ditched the memorabilia, including artifacts and photos of Wolf Pack teams, and gave the place a sleeker look.
“It was like they tried to turn it into a Vegas bar,” Smith said. “They put in high cocktail tables and tall chairs. The flavor of the Little Waldorf just disappeared… They didn’t make it. Lewi took it over again and got it back on its feet. He salvaged some, but not all, of the old photos.”
Traditions endure
Chatelle leased the business to Golden Gaming in 2003, which remodeled the interior but kept the Nevada theme. Two years later, Carson City-based SES Nevada took over. The new owners remodeled the interior and built the log façade. A World War II howitzer – a nod to the “Frémont cannon” that is a symbol of UNR’s rivalry with the University of Nevada, Las Vegas – is perched on the patio’s log roof.
Antique and reproduction sleighs, wagons and carts hang from the ceiling among other artifacts. A steel safe from the original location squats in a corner. Deer heads stare from above the bar, where model aircraft are suspended on wires. UNR championship banners hang from rafters. Team photos, portraits of athletes, framed sports jerseys and Reno Championship Air Races pictures grace every wall.
Multiple flat-screen TVs, tuned to a variety of sports events, are scattered around the rooms. On Thursday nights the joint is jumping when DJs take the stage, rap music blares and young dancers are in constant motion. Beer and cocktails flow.
The taps offer 45 varieties of craft beers; bar shelves are lined with premium pours. Burgers, pizza, salads and sandwiches dominate the menu. The Nevada-themed décor is there to stay. College-age patrons are required to show proof of their ages.
Back to the future
Russell Wilhelm, 31, said long before he started classes at UNR in 2008, his elder brother and other alumni told him, “’you’ve got to go to the Little Wal’… I couldn’t wait to turn 21 so I could take full advantage of it.” In 2013, he and his classmates met at the bar at 6 a.m. on his graduation day for a celebratory drink. “That was the tradition. We started off at the Little Wal and finished up at the Little Wal.”
Wilhelm, now an agriculturalist for the state of Nevada, said the place hasn’t changed much over the years. “As a student, you walk into the place and you feel welcome; you feel safe,” he said. “Other bars in town feel like just a bar, but the Little Wal feels like home.”
Chatelle said he has no intention of selling the prime property. The saloon has become “like a diamond or a rare artifact,” he said. “It’s an institution.” He predicts that the business will continue to prosper.
“They are pretty busy all the time,” Chatelle said. “When (the university) gets that final (student housing) high rise built they will have 4,000 students within two blocks of the place. They will be in good shape.”
His formula for any bar/restaurant owner: “Keep your quality up and take care of people.”
NOTE: Folks who were patrons of the Little Waldorf Saloon during the last 70 years share some of their memories in a RN&R sidebar to this story, "True Tales of the Little Wall."
