Back in the days before the Fox was renovated, and before Uptown was anything more than an archaic Oakland neighborhood designation that no one really used anymore, Cafe Van Kleef opened on a dark stretch of Telegraph Avenue, serving greyhounds with fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice to a young crowd with very few other drinking options nearby. That was back in 2004, and the place had been open as a small but unsuccessful sandwich shop for a couple of years before that. But owner Peter Van Kleef, after being encouraged to turn the high-ceilinged space into a bar, got a liquor license and filled the place with a flea-market's worth of oddities and ephemera, commissioning a mural for the main wall from artist Dan Fontes that includes Frieda Kahlo, James Brown, and the Dalai Lama sipping a cocktail.

Van Kleef died last week at age 65 after a two-year battle with liver and kidney disease, and he's survived by his wife, Cindy Reeves, who the Inside Scoop says will be continuing to run the bar as is.

Fans of the always affable Van Kleef and his watering hole gathered Saturday to celebrate his life with a New Orleans-style second line, as Oakland North reports. He was called the "Godfather of Uptown" because of his early role in the redevelopment of the 'hood, and his bar became a pioneer as the Fox debuted as a music venue in 2009, and as more businesses began cropping up nearby including Flora, Make Westing, and more recently Duende and Hopscotch. The place also quickly became a popular after-work spot for Oakland's City Hall, with Jerry Brown a definite fan.

"Peter had faith in Oakland," said a friend at Saturday's memorial, "and he always believed he was at the front end of a gold rush in this city that nobody else knew about." His older sister, Gerda Cardenas-Mena, added, "He was a visionary, an optimist."