Ivy Room Celebrates Music and Pride
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It’s early afternoon, before the Ivy Room opens. Inside, it’s quiet, the calm before a storm of activity from the bar and band later that night. I take notice of all the music memorabilia. Co-owners Summer Jager and Lani Torres point out the artwork on the walls by our booth and above the bar.

“love playing live. I don’t like to shut everything down after we get done with a record cycle. I love to go and get onstage, whether it’s at the Ivy Room or the Golden Bull or even Eli’s Mile High Club. Those are all great clubs.”

Even though the Ivy Room remains closed to patrons, the venue is once again presenting live music, partnering with the Fireside Lounge in Alameda to produce the Tiny Towns outdoor concert series. The season opens May 21 with a sold-out show by John Doe and special guest Jason White (intermittent lead guitarist for Green Day and another East Bay punk band featuring Billie Joe Armstrong, Pinhead Gunpowder).

The owners of the Ivy Room on San Pablo Avenue are in a good place for now after a trying year that saw the popular neighborhood bar and music venue on the brink of closing permanently during the prolonged COVID-19 emergency.

“You pay your payments for business interruption in case something like this does happen where you’re forced to shut down by sheltering in place,” Ivy Room owners say. “And then you get a denial for your claim”

Since taking over the Ivy Room in 2015, Lani Torres and Summer Gerbing have prided themselves on doing everything right. Transforming the venerable Albany dive bar into one of the East Bay’s liveliest music venues, they cultivated a devoted clientele with an exuberantly eclectic roster of acts. They’ve covered their bills, paid the artists who drew throngs to the intimate club and kept up insurance payments in case anything went wrong.

The Ivy Room is tiny, with a capacity just shy of 200. It was known as a great small music venue in years past, but for the last decade, despite various owners’ attempts at revamping the place, it had mostly been your standard old-man bar in a small East Bay town.