SAN DIEGO, Calif. (KGTV) — If you’re looking for a festive night out with an opportunity to experience some of San Diego’s Prohibition-era history, consider stopping by Madam Bonnie’s — a bar and restaurant downtown.
Located on the corner of Market and Fourth, glittering glass chandeliers may catch your eye as a sultry jazz melody invites you inside.
Some of the details here are remnants still standing from the 1920s — including a black and white photo of Madam Bonnie herself.
Bonnie was first and foremost, a business woman who built a fortune for herself and her family, something unheard of at the time.
ABC 10News sat down with Kristin Jain, the grand-niece of Bonnie, Steve Brooks, Bonnie’s nephew, and other living family members.
“She was poor, dirt poor, and she married young,” said Jain.
Jain says Bonnie was raised on a farm in Wyoming. After a failed marriage, she left for San Diego with dreams of starting a new life.
“She found herself here in San Diego alone…with very few choices to keep herself, housed and fed and healthy,” said Jain.
Jain says Bonnie arrived in the early 1920s at the beginning of Prohibition. Through extended family connections, she found a way to source liquor for a bar in the location where Madam Bonnie’s stands today.
“Let’s talk about this space…what do we know about what this was decades and decades ago?” asked ABC 10News reporter Madison Weil.
“The upstairs from its beginning had a different purpose…but it was the Gaslamp. So it’s not surprising,” said Jain.
The profitable Prohibition-era business grew to include a salacious secret: a hotel turned brothel upstairs.
The family still has some gowns and gloves belonging to the Madam herself.
After World War II, law enforcement had their sights set on cleaning up the Gaslamp. Jain says Bonnie shifted her sights to real estate and other ventures. But her name remains here more than a century later.
“Which I’m sure she loves,” said Jain, laughing.
The present-day Madam Bonnie’s opened in May of 2022 with a legacy that lives on in new ways.
“This is the essence of Madam Bonnie’s. Everything we do is to empower women, believing in what they do and giving them an opportunity,” said Alessandro Romeu, the General Manager.
Walking inside, it's evident the bar and restaurant today is female-forward: from the feminine faces you’ll find on the walls to much of the staff they’ve hired and musicians who perform.
“When you walk in here…you can feel it. It’s different than any other place,” added Romeu.
It’s a nod to Bonnie’s spirit — and her Prohibition-era proprietress.
