Artists who have performed at Winstons over the years include Steel Pulse, Rock Hall of Famer Ike Turner, NRBQ, Los Lonely Boys, Kim Wilson of the Fabulous Thunderbirds, rapper KRS-One and such homegrown San Diego favorites Slightly Stoopid, Karl Denson, Alfred Howard and Jose Sinatra.<\/p>\n
In an effort to diversify its musical offering and attract a younger clientele, the venue will add electronica and dance-music DJ performances on Saturdays and Wednesdays, Slaga said. Ocean Beach native Brandon Colt has has been hired to assume general manager duties at the venue, which (for this week, at least) is still known as Winston\u2019s. Colt was previously the general manager of the dance club Spin in Middletown.<\/p>\n
All of these pending changes are being due to a variety of factors, said Slaga, the only one of Winstons\u2019 three original co-owners who has opted to continue. He will operate the venue with a silent partner who \u2014 together with Slaga \u2014 also co-owns the popular 710 Beach Club in Pacific Beach.<\/p>\n
They bought out Winstons\u2019 two other co-owners, Michael S. Stifano and Edward William \u201cTed\u201d Wigler. Neither Wigler nor Stefano responded to phone messages from the Union-Tribune prior to the deadline for this article,<\/p>\n
Some of the factors Slaga pointed to for the decision to rebrand Winstons include: an aging demographic in Ocean Beach that is less interested in nightlife; increased competition from two nearby neighborhood venues \u2014 the three-story, 660-capacity Holding Company and the 200-300-capacity The Harp \u2014 the increasing clout, here and across the country, of concert industry powerhouse Live Nation; and the fact that many smaller, independently owned venues have struggled to rebound since the pandemic shutdown, which saw Winstons close down for much of 2020 and 2021.<\/p>\n
\u201cOcean Beach use to have one music club, us, and now there are three,\u201d Slaga said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe attendees we were going after are getting older and Ocean Beach is changing. Nightlife here is different now and I don\u2019t think the OB Pier is going to reopen in our lifetimes. We were not really making money at Winstons; we were just making enough to pay the bills. OB is its own animal and some people are upset by the changes we are making. But we\u2019re trying to carry on a lot of what Winstons was and is, and just trying to add new elements.\u201d<\/p>\n
One constant will be the Electric Waste Band, the award-wining Grateful Dead tribute band that has performed almost every Monday night at Winstons for the past 37 years and included the late basketball legend Bill Walton as an honorary member. One new element will be the addition of a kitchen, which will enable the venue to serve classic pub food and double the venue\u2019s hours of operation.<\/p>\n
![\"Some](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/SUT-L-MUSIC-WINSTONS-009.jpg\")
Some big changes, including a new name, are in store for Winstons in Ocean Beach. (Luke Johnson \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead of opening at 6 or 7 p.m., we\u2019ll be open from noon until 2 a.m., seven days a week,\u201d Slaga said. \u201cLaura Lazano, who is our food manager at 710 Beach Club, will be coming over to our Ocean Beach location. We\u2019ll be keeping Tara Hilal, who has been our staff manager for at least 25 years, so there will be come continuity. And Owen Boles, who is our talent buyer at 710, will also be our talent buyer in OB.\u201d<\/p>\n
Slaga and Stifano bought what is now 710 in 1989. They bought Winstons in 1998 from its original owner, Bill Winston.<\/p>\n
While Winstons will have its going-away party on Saturday night, it will reopen the next day for business as usual, Slaga said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a misconception that we\u2019re closing,\u201d he stressed. \u201cWe\u2019re going to keep the good stuff from Winstons and enhance it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Winstons, the live-music club that has been a San Diego landmark for nearly 40 years, is set to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":472472,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[185838,74,76,75,185836,185837],"class_list":["post-472471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-is-being-rebranded-and-is-under-partial-new-ownership","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-the-ocean-beach-nightclub-winstons","tag-which-has-featured-many-national-and-local-bands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472471","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=472471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/472472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}