The Salty Seal restores electronic dance music nights under new ownership.

The Salty Seal Brewpub and Sports Bar is under new ownership as of July 23. After an eight-month-long process, co-owners Ian Karafa and Jade Vucina have officially been handed the keys to the bar and restaurant in the historic Bear Flag building on Cannery Row. 

“We’re excited about this,” Karafa says. “It’s so much fun to be here and have people say, ‘We’re excited.’”

Karafa says he and Vucina are new to this type of business ownership, but they’ve learned a lot along the way. While they want to make some changes, they stress that they want some things that work for the community to remain the same. 

“The patio is what it is,” he says, noting that it works well for live bands to play, which is known to fill up with attendees and dancers on the weekends. Karafa adds that the dive bar will also remain for the community as well, but they want to make improvements after the busy summer season.

“Come winter we’ll have an understanding of what we want it to be,” he says. “The food will be elevated for sure. The service will be better and the ambience will be more of a restaurant feel.”

One change that has already taken effect is the restoration of electronic dance music nights by manager Frank Padilla on Wednesday nights. Padilla is a DJ who performs under his stage name Edison Tesla. Padilla began hosting EDM nights on Wednesdays under previous ownership at the Salty Seal, but the event was canceled after a story was published in the Weekly.

“As we got to know [Padilla], we saw he clearly has a passion for this that seemingly wasn’t utilized," Karafa says.

Padilla DJ’d on July 23, the first night Karafa and Vucina assumed ownership, on what Karafa said was the busiest Wednesday night of the year so far for the business. The owners plan to keep Padilla on as a Wednesday night staple for EDM nights going forward, with other nights sprinkled in.

Padilla also DJ’d after the live band ended on Saturday, July 26 inside the backbar to a crowd of at least 50 people dancing, with several more in other parts of the establishment. Karafa says they allowed the EDM music on Saturday to continue the momentum of the first weekend. 

Some other changes to the patio include new hanging colored lights that can be customized to fit different vibes of the space using colors and flashing patterns. The new owners could see that Padilla had a following of people already—evidenced by several people that would regularly show up to the “Pacific Groove” EDM nights on Wednesdays at Pop & Hiss—so allowing him to DJ at the Salty Seal is what Karafa calls “business 101.”