Saying goodbye to The Black

It’s been sort of a melancholy week in OB as the legendary Newport Avenue store, The Black, announced it would be closing its doors after 57 years of business. 

As most of you probably know, The Black is much more than a smoke shop. It’s a one-stop shop for anything music or hippie related. It opened in 1968 and since then has been a symbol for the counterculture attitude rooted in OB. 

If you could distill the people and place of Ocean Beach into a store, The Black would be it. 

The closing comes alongside owner Kurt Dornbusch’s retirement. Dornbusch took over the business in 1981 and has kept its original spirit, making it not only a symbol of OB but also that of a bygone era. 

When I first moved down to OB, The Black kind of scared me. It felt like the kind of place you might get beat up in for not knowing who Jerry Garcia is. But eventually I worked up the courage to wander inside, perusing all the weird knickknacks at the front and then finding myself in the back of the store looking through the collection of books they had. 

On that cold November day in 2022, I picked up a copy of “Slaughterhouse-Five”by Kurt Vonnegut, the ostensibly original anti-war/time travel/alien sci-fi novel. The guy at the checkout counter told me it was his favorite book. It felt like I had earned my OB wings. 

Since then I’ve picked up gifts for friends and myself. Most notably, my Bob Dylan poster that proudly hangs behind my reading chair. 

When I heard it was closing, I wandered into the store again. It was buzzing more than ever but the walls were a bit emptier and there were signs pointing to books that said “40% off.” I didn’t buy anything but I took in the cross-generational appreciation for the store, as people darted around flipping through music posters and old T-shirts.

Though The Black is closing, that doesn’t mean its spirit is too. I’ll still wear my The Black T-shirt with pride and maybe carry on its culture too.