Tosca Café, the classic North Beach watering hole threatened with eviction after allegedly not paying rent for the past decade or so, was officially served an eviction notice by landlord and strip club magnate Robert Forbes Wednesday. For all his girlie empire, however, Forbes does not want to replace the noted celebrity hangout with another North Beach skin club. As the Chronicle reports today, Forbes just wants a bar manager who will pay the actual rent on time.

Forbes, showing a lot of restraint for someone with a large stake in nine local strip clubs, told Chuck Nevius, "The last thing in the world that would go in that location is a strip club. There's already too many strip clubs." So fans of Tosca's cappuccino machines and deep red booths can breath easy for now.

As for Jeanette Etheredge, the bar's owner since 1980, Forbes could do without her running the place. Aside from the $100,000 in back rent she allegedly owes, Forbes would like to see someone run the bar like a real business instead of just a place to rub elbows with famous friends and politicos. Forbes' gripes with Etheredge include her reluctance to make even the most basic changes like accepting credit cards (Not that accepting credit cards is really all that common at bars in this town, but it's probably big in the titty club sector).

Still, the eviction notice doesn't mean Tosca will be gutted for some other quaint throwback artisan/prohibition bar either. Although Etheredge apparently has nothing nice to say about Forbes, her flashy lawyer John Keker hinted that a deal could be worked out. Etheredge would probably like to see her nephew and bar manager Peter Ridet take over the day-to-day operations so she could keep her perch at the end of the bar, but there's always a chance Forbes won't want to deal with another member of the Etheredge family since Jeanette has been rather cold to him in the past. But that's why both sides have lawyers to deal with this sort of thing, and for now at least it looks like a court battle could be avoided.

Previously: Legendary Tosca Cafe Faces Eviction From Strip Club Magnate
[Chron]