OLD TIME CAFE RUNNING OUT OF TIME

ENCINITAS — Are the Old Time Cafe’s days as San Diego’s center for live folk music numbered?

The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind.

“Everybody’s days are numbered,” said Bill Goldsmith, who with his wife, Pearl Wolfe, has operated the tiny Leucadia coffeehouse for more than seven years.

“But in our case, we just don’t know exactly what that number is.”

Since opening the Old Time Cafe in November, 1979, Goldsmith and Wolfe have attracted touring folk musicians, including Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Eric Andersen and local favorite Sam Hinton.

But now, their ramshackle building on Old Highway 101 is scheduled to be torn down to make way for a 52-unit motel. Goldsmith figures he has at least six months to find a new home, but he isn’t optimistic.

“It’s difficult to run an aesthetic business in a commercial world,” Goldsmith said. “Rents are getting higher all the time, particularly on the coast, and we don’t want to be put in the position where we have to present popular music, and sell alcohol, just to pay the rent.”

Should Goldsmith’s search for an “affordable location” prove unsuccessful, the only place left to hear live folk music in San Diego County will be Drowsy Maggie’s, a coffeehouse in North Park.

But even if the Old Time Cafe does close for good, Goldsmith said, he and Wolfe plan to continue producing folk concerts periodically wherever they can--possibly even in churches.

“There are other ways to present folk music besides at a showcase club,” Goldsmith said.

“Folk musicians desperately need a place to play in San Diego, and we’re not about to turn our backs on what we consider our responsibility to provide them with a forum.”