{"id":409680,"date":"2026-07-23T17:50:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T17:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/409680\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T17:50:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T17:50:16","slug":"gillies-auto-lounge-where-family-and-cars-are-the-driving-force","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/409680\/","title":{"rendered":"Gillie’s Auto Lounge \u2014 where family and cars are the driving force"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The front of Gillie\u2019s Auto Lounge. (Courtesy of Michael Olguin) <\/p>\n

Michael Olguin and his siblings have been raised around cars their entire lives.<\/p>\n

Their father, Gillie Olguin, would take Michael and his brothers to a car dealership in their hometown of Barstow to let them run around and learn about the nuances of each vehicle.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was our entertainment,\u201d Michael Olguin said. \u201cThat really early exposure to cars really created this \u2026 I\u2019ll call it a passion initially. It might be an obsession now.\u201d<\/p>\n

That love for cars is now front and center at Gillie\u2019s Auto Lounge in Midway, a private automotive storage and lounge. Gillie\u2019s is also a place for Michael to honor his father and his brother.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gillie\u2019s Auto Lounge<\/a> is a private automotive membership club that offers owners of specialty and exotic cars a secure storage location for their vehicles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Car storage at Gillie\u2019s Auto Lounge. (Courtesy of Michael Olguin) <\/p>\n

Members also have access to a luxury lounge featuring a bar, TVs, a cigar deck and lockers for personal storage.<\/p>\n

Michael Olguin said he wants Gillie\u2019s to become more than just a storage center, but a place where car aficionados can come together over their collective passion for vehicles \u2014 the same way his father brought them together.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad was a horse trader of all horse traders when it came to cars,\u201d John Olguin, Michael Olguin\u2019s brother, said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Every vacation, the Olguin family traveled in a different car than before, Olguin said, as his dad would always trade his current vehicle for a new one.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Michael Olguin\u2019s sister, Natalie Muckley, said they tried to count how many cars their father had throughout their life.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The siblings counted over 60 cars that their father collected and traded throughout their childhood.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad was such a car trader, and it\u2019s like we were lucky that we weren\u2019t cars, because if we were, we\u2019d be traded,\u201d Muckley said<\/p>\n

As they grew older, cars were what fueled their family bond.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would all park our cars in front of my parents\u2019 house and wash them together,\u201d John Olguin said.<\/p>\n

John Olguin is now the executive vice president of business operations for Chip Ganassi Racing.<\/p>\n

The majority of the decoration is dedicated to his father with his hat, belt, photos and a plaque dedicated to Gillie.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Inside Gillie\u2019s Auto Lounge, the walls are covered with vintage antiques and Gillie\u2019s personal belongings, like his hat, belt, and photos of him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Additionally, his brother Gary\u2019s die-cast car collection, donated by his wife, sits on display as an ode to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything in here is curated, and it links back to my family,\u201d Michael Olguin said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His sister Natalie even contributed vintage pieces as she is a vintage collector herself. Certain decorations, plaques and statues were found and gifted by her.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wanted these vintage decanters, bourbon decanters,\u201d Muckley said. \u201cSo, I just started collecting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michael Olguin\u2019s goal was to create a speakeasy-style space that felt warm, cozy and homey that can be used for various community events.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Michael Olguin standing at the bar in Gillie\u2019s Auto Lounge. (Courtesy of Michael Olguin)<\/p>\n

The Porsche Club of America of San Diego<\/a> is set to host an open house at Gillie\u2019s on Aug. 8.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some similarities between how he was raised with his father and how I was raised with mine,\u201d Michael Zurich, president of the Porsche Club of America of San Diego, said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For the Olguin family and San Diego car lovers, Gillie\u2019s is about much more than cars; it\u2019s about family and tradition.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe automobile is one of those things that is a unifying piece of Americana that brings people together,\u201d John Olguin said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Added Michael Olguin, \u201cIf you\u2019ve ever been around people who have the same interest in the same things, you will find that their common thread will always come back to the surface,\u201d Michael Olguin said.<\/p>\n

A common thread sewn by his own father between Michael and his siblings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that my father is in heaven,\u201d Muckley said. \u201cSmiling down with a big ear-to-ear grin, bragging to everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The front of Gillie\u2019s Auto Lounge. (Courtesy of Michael Olguin) Michael Olguin and his siblings have been raised…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[6996,164188,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-409680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-cars","tag-gillies-auto-lounge","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}