Alas Wally, I knew him a little, a fellow of infinite jest. I knew Steve Wallace a little as a man about town: a regular at Scott’s Malibu Market and occasionally the Malibu Newsstand. He cruised in a convertible Mercedes and had the air of a satisfied someone who had been there, done that and was content with his past, present and future. 

Steve Wallace was also a particular fan of this column - especially the restaurant reviews, for which he always had compliments. 

When I learned that the Wally’s going in at Cross Creek Ranch was named for Steve and it was a business he started, I looked forward to going there with OW - Original Wally - to get the backstory and most likely a wine education and write a review that Steve would look upon favorably - as he was in it!. 

I don’t know a lot about wine really, other than that California is producing HEAPS of it. On Juneteenth I drove from Santa Cruz to Malibu by way of Carmel - which was packed - and Big Sur was like Disneyland: It took 40 minutes just to get across Bixby Creek Bridge because of construction and tourism. 

Vey! One does not go to Big Sur to sit in traffic.

On all sides of Big Sur, California is all about grapes. There are wineries large and small, everywhere. On that route from Santa Cruz to Malibu by way of Big Sur I passed through: Santa Cruz County with 92 wineries, Monterey County with 167, San Luis Obispo County has 614, Santa Barbara County has 497, and Ventura County has 83, for a combined Central Coast total of 1,453 wineries, or 21.1% of California’s 6,874 active Type 02 Winegrower licenses.

Whole Lotta Wine, mass quantities of which are on display and available for purchase at Wally’s Malibu. 

After sitting dormant and promising for many months, Wally’s Malibu opened in May, while I was away in the Monterey Bay. I was looking forward to coming back to Malibu at some point and strolling into the joint with the namesake of the joint, and getting the backstory to Wally's. 

But then on June 13, the Alarming and Clamorous Ginny Wiley of Wiley’s Bait and Tackle called to tell me that, sadly, Steve Wallace had moved on from earth to a place somewhere we will call Wallhalla - a riff on the Viking Valhalla: “Odin's great hall in Asgard — roofed with golden shields, ringed by a golden forest, with 540 doors — where slain warriors (the einherjar) feast, fight daily in preparation for Ragnarök, and drink mead (a fermented alcoholic beverage made from honey and water) produced by the goat Heiðrún.”

WALLHALLA: VARIATIONS ON A THEME

Valhalla sounds like a lively place, but what about Wallhalla. What is the afterlife like for Steve Wallace, based on what he enjoyed and indulged in during his time on earth?

In Wallhalla, there is fishing, because Steve Wallace was a fishing fool, and that’s how Ginny Wiley knew him, as he was a frequent customer at Wiley’s Bait and Tackle going back deep into the 20th Century. 

At Scott’s Malibu Market Ginny gave me some back and present story: “I've known Steve for 40 years, at least,” Ginny said. “He fished with a group of people who were having a lot of fun. There are a lot of fun stories about Steve and his group. He brought me wine and also used the store for film shoots. Steve caught an oarfish. Do you know what that is? A very rare, very long, very odd-looking fish he caught with hook and line off the beach. That was in the 1990s I think. He was very proud of that. He caught an oarfish. It made the newspapers.”

Truth. I saw that story framed along the wall of his place on Malibu Road during a New Year’s Eve party.

In Wallhalla, there is definitely wine, because Steve Wallace was not merely a man who sold bottles. He was one of the people who helped teach Los Angeles how to buy, collect, talk about, serve and love wine. In 1968, he founded Wally’s as a modest neighborhood liquor store on Pico and Hauser, then patiently built it into Wally’s Wine & Spirits, a Westwood institution and one of the most respected wine shops in America — a place where first-time buyers, serious collectors, restaurateurs, celebrities, winemakers and connoisseurs all crossed paths. Before wine became lifestyle, before every other strip mall had a sommelier and a tasting menu, Steve Wallace understood that wine was culture, conversation, memory, friendship and occasion. He made Wally’s into more than a store. He made it a clubhouse, a classroom, a cellar, a stage and, for decades, one of the great addresses in the Los Angeles wine world.

Wallace retired in 2013, selling Wally’s to Guess co-founders Maurice and Paul Marciano. The PR gal said: “We want to clarify that while Steve was the inspiration behind the original Wally's name, the current Wally's Malibu location is part of the broader Wally's family of locations owned and operated by the Marciano family: Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Las Vegas, and now Malibu.”

There is poker in Wallhalla. Steve was a social animal, and poker is a social game. He didn’t seem to like Hollywood Casino or the Hustler or the Bicycle Club or other card clubs to the east, and preferred the Player’s Casino in Ventura.

I was also hoping to go play cards with Steve at some point - cruising up the Ventura Highway, in the sunshine, where the days are longer… in his convertible Benz - but I guess I’ll have to wait on that one also.

At Scott’s Malibu Market, Ginny Wiley gave some idea of the kind of friends Wally had: “I attended the memorial for Steve at Hillside Cemetery in Culver City on June 16,” Ginny said. “There were hundreds of people. Sam Elliott was there. Morgan Runyon from The Old Place. A Rabbi spoke for an hour or more. It was just wonderful. Steve was Jewish, you know, so it was funny there was a photo of him with a huge lobster in his hand. A lot of people spoke, it was quite a tribute, and the words you kept hearing were ‘loyalty” and ‘integrity’ And that was very true. Steve was loyal to his friends and a man of integrity.”

I still wanted to check out Wally’s, but it would have been a whole lot cooler to do that with Steve Wallace. Oh well. Talked to Ginny at Scott’s in the morning, worked at the Newsstand during the day and got out of there in time to meet people at Wallys at 7:00. I invited maybe 10 but didn’t know how many would show face.

I’ve been away from the Malibu and forgot how difficult it can be to get around the Malibu on a weekend - those traffic lights are synchronized to piss people off who aren’t flowing through on PCH.  I was running late and was ready and willing to pay $12 for valet parking, but the valet dude was an honest dude and he said it was easiest to park around the back and Wally’s is right there.

And he was right, there. Wallys is in the very back of Cross Creek Ranch - with a nice view up to Scott Gillen’s New Castle and way up at the tippy top, the airy aerie built by Eric Lloyd Wright. This was a late summer afternoon, the sky was blue, the air smelled like ocean, it was warm with a hint of cool. It was nice although the sun was kind of glarey - too piercing. Whine, whine. Wine!

Malibu has atmosphere. Part of the reason people flock here and overload Cross Creek on a weekend.

(Side note: The brutalist tower at the Obama Presidential Center is taking a lot of heat for being too brutal, windowless, Star Wars-ish. That’s true in the daytime, but at night it’s a beautiful thing. Like Las Vegas and the Tower Bridge and Scott Gillen’s New Castle - which overlooks Wally’s - the Obamalisk is better at night.)

THE DIFFERENCE IS DAY AND NIGHT

Found an easy parking space which is no small deal around Cross Creek on a summer Sunday. And there was Wally’s, looking clean and well lighted. First impression on walking in: The place is cornucopic, if that’s a word. It’s not a big space - maybe 3000 square feet - and it’s loaded with hundreds of bottles of wine, tins of caviar, wedges of cheese, various liquids, pre-made sandwiches and a busy kitchen all shiny as a new penny. 

Kinda like the home and kitchen of a very wealthy person, not that there’s anything wrong with that. Wasn’t sure how many people were going to show face so we had a table for eight.

TRIANGLE OF LOVE

Images of Tom Zahn, Darrylin Zanuck and Norma Jean/Marilyn Monroe 

First person there was Jason, a documentary maker working on a story about paddleboarding, which has a center story about the love triangle between Marilyn Monroe, Darrylin Zanuck and Tom Zahn - a surfer, paddleboarder, lifeguard and all around waterman - the mid century Laird Hamilton of another century. I wrote up that story and have found a lot of images of Norma Jean/Marilyn Monroe when she was a beach girl and a surfer girl: Pretty and healthy and happy and tandem surfing Malibu with Tom Zahn - an ocean-loving, surfer girl side of Marilyn most people don’t know about, but this doco will illuminate.

As we tried to figure out .cdr files for a bunch of surf movies that have footage he needs, we were joined by Dr, Nick Tarlov MD, a traveling stroke neurologist who tears himself away from the sunny surf to work shifts in the shady turf of Bakersfield and Fargo, North Dakota and - you guessed it - has some stories. 

He was accompanied by the charming and glamorous Katherine Colin - whose abbreviated Linked In describes her as: Strategic Communications Leader | Cultural & Philanthropic Partnerships | Global Engagement  | Institutional Narrative & Influence Strategy. She lived in Paris for 24 years working internationally in cultural institutions, most recently at Paris Photo. And now she is back in Southern California, leading communications and strategic initiatives at Lotusland botanical garden in Montecito. 

And she had stories, too.

John “Verizon John” Ortiz - who you all know - made it five. What did we order? I don’t remember but I do remember the server girl hovering patiently as we talked story and tried to make up our minds.
I do remember looking around a room loaded with sausages and cheeses and caviar and bread and all kine good stuffs, but also bristling with wine bottles high and low and thinking: “I don’t want to be in here in an earthquake.”

Which turned out to be an interesting thought after communicating a bit with Wally’s daughter, Melissa. She was missing Wally on Father’s Day, but was keen to share insights into her dad. “The Northridge earthquake in January of 1994 almost wiped my dad  (Wally’s) out. I think he lost 90%  of his inventory. It looked and felt like it: olive oils, balsamic vinegars, and wine almost knee deep, running out through the front doors of his store. He didn’t have earthquake insurance. After talking to  my aunt Judi (who worked at Wally’s) she recalled they lost around 50% of the inventory, but they stayed open to sell water to people who needed it.

Melissa said Malibu was Wally’s own paradise: “My dad loved Wylie’s Bait shop, Malibu Seafood, Lucky’s, Scott’s Malibu Market, Howdy’s, Le Plage Cafe, Ralph’s, Broad Street Oyster, Irv’s Burgers and McDonalds. He was always willing to lend his sage advice to any new food business that was opening. He wanted to see everyone succeed ”
Asked what she would expect to see in Wallhalla, Melissa said: “Family, food, kindness, equality, all of his friends, anything butterscotch, books, fishing, sharp-dressed people, art, bbq, fun times, doughnuts, Costco, sunsets, travel, mariachi and jazz music, hospitality, generosity, sunny days, cool architecture, $2 bills, adventures, car washes, See’s Candy, card games, pranks, Ring cameras, fake coyotes, and more food.”

I had the presence of mind to save an itemized receipt and this is what I found:  We had two drip coffees, three Fever Tree club sodas, one pomme frites which were very good, one spicy salami pisa, one wood oven baked brie, two Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, three choice La Charcuterie, three Choice Westwood. Nick had just surfed/done battle at First Point and was feeling peckish so he got the Smashed Burger and Katherine and John both got the Lasagna Beef Bolognese and another order of Pomme Frites.

Was it good? It all disappeared over all the chitter chat which ranged from hill folk in North Dakota poisoning themselves with what was supposed to be a healthy diet, to ophthalmologist jokes.

The bill came out to about $325 for five people - including a good tip for the patient server - which is fairly typical for Malibu but as we were walking out I realized we had overlooked something: Wine.

We didn’t order any wine, at Wallys. Shoots. Mistake! I just guess I would have to go back on Monday night and make good on that.

Now it’s around 7:00 on a Monday night. Spent most of the day hanging out at Sea N Soul then headed east but did a u turn when I saw Buzz hoofing it back to Buzz Wax from around Station 71. Gave him a ride. All is well with him and his.

That dude ROCKS a white jump suit.

Now I’m sitting outside to the east side of Wally’s in comfy chairs, in the shade, hiding from that late afternoon sun which is too piercing. I’m listening to mood music, trying to fix this story, polish it, make it respectful to both Steve Wallace and Wally’s. 

I have to face the Great Wall of Wally’s Wines with pretty much zero clue what to get, wishing I had a Ouija board so Wally could take a break from Wallhalla and give me some guidance from beyond. Not sure how I was going to finish this, guidance came from the sky in an email from Jim Palmer:

“Steve called me after he sold Wally’s and said he wanted to create a wine label and get back in the wine business. I was honored he would ask me to be his partner in a new wine brand. We created a wine label: Palmer Stone. Palmer, me, the wine maker and proprietor of Jim Palmer’s Malibu Vineyards and Stone for Stone Canyon where Steve lives.  We produced a single-vineyard Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from the best Santa Barbara vineyards 

The wine is sold at Wally’s in Beverly Hills, Santa Monica and Malibu. 

Steve created the wine he knew would be the best representation of these varieties. Steve’s legacy lives on with his wine label, Palmer Stone Wines. 

Thank you for remembering Steve.” 

Bazinga! Now I know what wine to order out of the 8,000 bottles that are somehow porcupined into a fairly small space.

I went inside to look around again and found the manager, Bojan, who was a server at the Beverly Hills Wally’s for seven and a half years. “They offered me the opportunity to manage Wally’s Malibu and I said yes.” 

I had questions:

How many square feet? “Don’t quote me on this, but between 2800 and 3000,” I quoted Bojan.

How many people does it seat, because it’s smaller than I expected: “Outside is eight tables x four. Inside is 16 so that’s 48 people and there’s a 10-person private tasting room.”

How many bottles of wine: “Eight thousand.”

So is this a wine store or a restaurant: “Think of Wally’s as Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory for adults. We are making all the wine accessible to every local, with a good amount of bites as well. For lunch you can order at the register, get a number and seat yourself. For dinner there is table service. The kitchen is limited so food is not like the Beverly Hills or Santa Monica  location. But we are bringing a taste of Wally's."

Turns out they didn’t have Palmer Stone so I asked for Bojan’s Choice. I told him I didn’t know much about wine but preferred white, so he brought out two bottles and did the sommelier thing: “Right over here, the Louis Cellars Chardonnay is from Napa Valley — that's going to be a little more buttery, but a beautiful, velvety wine. And then you also have the Chavy Chouet Chassagne-Montrachet, a white Burgundy — so 100% Chardonnay, which is light and crisp, but still has a very velvety feel to it. Two of my absolute favorites.”

So now it is 8:35 on a Monday evening. The sun is down, the cross at Serra Retreat is lit up, Sade is in the air, the lights are starting to come on at the New Castle and passenger jets are backed by a sky full of stars - Malibu on a mid-summer’s night has world class atmosphere.

I got a little buzzed from the two wines which maybe will help me get this story done.

How about this: Wally’s Malibu is Valhalla for foodies and oenophiles: Peace and quiet and atmosphere and delicacies. Something to be discovered. 

Easy parking!!!

The PR people for Wally’s wanted to emphasize: “We see an opportunity to integrate and expand on what makes Wally's Malibu unique and we want to emphasize:  Curated gourmet marketplace. Specialty cheeses and charcuterie. Caviar program. Prepared foods and grab-and-go offerings. Private tasting room Accessibility for both casual wine drinkers and serious collectors.”

The atmosphere changes either side of the sunset. Like that brutalist tower at Obama’s Presidential Center and London’s Tower Bridge and all of Las Vegas and the New Castle up on the hill overlooking it all, Wally’s might just be better at night, with the broad shoulders of Saddle Peak silhouetted against blackish purple and the stars coming out and Sade in the air with passenger jets and stars.